James Mackay, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer is a co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics Inc. James has over 40 years of development and commercialization expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, including 6 drug product approvals across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to founding Crystalys Therapeutics, he was CEO and co-founder of Aristea Therapeutics and President and CEO of Ardea Biosciences. Prior to Ardea, James held senior executive positions over a 30 year period at AstraZeneca where he led the development and commercialization of drugs across a range of therapy areas and managed significant global functional departments.
James plays a pivotal role in the San Diego innovation ecosystem and currently sits on the Board and Executive Committee of CONNECT and sits on the Board of Advisors of BIOCOM. He is a former Board member of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation (EDC). James holds a BS in Genetics and Ph.D. in Medical Genetics from Aberdeen University, Scotland.
Justin Thacker, CPA, has served as Chief Financial Officer of Crystalys Therapeutics, Inc. since November 2025. He brings more than 25 years of progressive finance experience, including over 20 years in senior finance and accounting leadership roles at both public and private life science companies spanning preclinical through commercial stages. Prior to joining Crystalys, Justin served as Chief Financial Officer of Capstan Therapeutics, Inc. and Aristea Therapeutics, Inc., both privately held companies, and previously led finance teams through the initial public offerings of Design Therapeutics, Inc. and Synthorx, Inc. Justin also held senior leadership positions at ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Auspex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Cadence Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Nihar Bhakta, MD serves as the Chief Medical Officer and is a co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics Inc. He brings extensive experience in strategic clinical development, medical affairs, market evaluation, patient advocacy, and regulatory oversight to the leadership team at Crystays. This experience includes multiple successful IND and NDA submissions to the U.S. FDA and MAA filings to the EMA. Nihar held several key positions at Ardea Biosciences (acquired by AstraZeneca in 2012) including Global Clinical Lead of the Gout Franchise. In this position Nihar led the approval of Duzallo and led the Phase 3 program for Zurampic (lesinurad). Additionally, he previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Aristea Therapeutics as well as roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, Roche, and Gossamer Bio.
Nihar completed his training at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation for his residency and at UCLA Medical Center for his subspecialty training. Nihar received an AB in Biology from Brown University, and an MD from Penn State College of Medicine.
Ashwin Ram, MD, serves as the Chief Operating Officer and is a co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics Inc. Ashwin is a physician-scientist, biotechnology entrepreneur, and Partner at Catalys Pacific. He has served as Founder of Pexalys Therapeutics, CBO of Kirilys Therapeutics, Founder of Axelys, Co-Founder and SVP Operations at Pathalys Pharma, and Founder and CEO of Jupiter Therapeutics, Inc. Prior to this, he was a part of Genentech’s Early Clinical Development — Oncology team and practiced as a board-certified radiation oncologist.
Ashwin completed his MD at the University of Michigan Medical School with highest honors and Dean’s distinction in research. After training in radiation oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he completed an MS in bioengineering at Caltech and a postdoc at Stanford University as an NCI Cancer Translational Nanotechnology fellow.
Executive Director, Operations & Business Development
DeAnne Reid
Executive Director, Operations & Business Development
DeAnne Reid serves as the Executive Director, Operations and Business Development and is a co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics Inc. DeAnne has 12 years of experience in biotech/biopharma, most recently as Senior Director, Operations and Business Development of Aristea Therapeutics. DeAnne was a co-founder of Aristea in 2018 and played a key role in successfully fundraising $138M from global investors including Novo Holdings. Prior to Aristea, DeAnne worked at Ardea Biosciences, Genentech and Tang Capital.
Brian Taylor “BT” Slingsby is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman at Crystalys Therapeutics. Dr. Slingsby is also Founder and Managing Director with Catalys Pacific where he leads the company creation efforts for the firm as is a physician-scientist and biotechnology entrepreneur. He has served as the founding CEO and subsequent Executive Chairman of Mineralys Therapeutics, Pathalys Pharma, Kirilys Therapeutics, Aculys Pharma, Renalys Pharma, and Hepalys Pharma. Prior to Catalys Pacific, he founded and served as CEO and Executive Director of the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund – the world’s first public-private fund focused on the development of new medicines for low- and middle-income countries. Previously, he was an executive at Eisai Co. & Ltd following his time in academia.
Dr. Slingsby graduated from Brown University with honors, earned his MPH and Ph.D. from Kyoto University and the University of Tokyo, and received his MD with honors from the George Washington University. An author on over 50 peer-reviewed articles on medicine and public health, he formerly served as a Visiting Professor at Keio University, Kyoto University and Osaka University and Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo.
Kenneth Harrison joined Novo Ventures (US) Inc. in San Francisco, California in 2015. He brings experience as a Senior Market Planning Manager at Genentech, where he helped guide strategic decision making for the Ophthalmology and HER2 franchises. Prior to Genentech, Ken worked as a management consultant at L.E.K. Consulting and as the Entrepreneurship Program Manager at QB3/Mission Bay Capital, where he helped create new programs to launch and support life sciences companies in the Bay Area.
Ken studied cellular lipid storage and metabolism as an A.P. Giannini Foundation Fellow at the J. David Gladstone Institutes, earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Yale University, and has a BS in Molecular Biology from Texas Tech University, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate research fellow.
Rajeev Dadoo is COO and Managing Partner of SR One based in the San Francisco Bay Area. He joined SR One in 2004 and is an alum of the Kauffman Fellows Program. Rajeev has leveraged his broad operational and strategic experience to invest in a number of successful companies, both in the therapeutics space and in healthcare-technology companies. His prior roles have included working in the Competitive Excellence group at GSK on various global projects and at Genentech in technology and clinical development. He has also held product development and business development roles at Bio-Rad Laboratories and Genome Therapeutics, respectively, and was a co-founder of Unimicro Technologies.
Rajeev obtained a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics from Knox College, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
David Jin is Chief Financial Officer and Head of Corporate Development at Fortress Biotech. He also serves on the Board of Directors of Mustang Bio and as interim CFO and COO of Avenue Therapeutics. Prior to Fortress, he was on the investment team at Barings focused on private equity and credit investments in life sciences and earlier in his career he held roles spanning corporate development, healthcare investment banking, and management consulting. He holds a BS in Industrial Engineering & Management Sciences with a double major in Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences from Northwestern University.
Chris Garabedian founded Xontogeny in June of 2016 to support multiple promising technologies from early development through clinical proof of concept. In 2017, Chris joined Perceptive Advisors to develop their Venture Fund strategy and is Portfolio Manager of the Perceptive Xontogeny Ventures Fund, which supports early-stage companies with Series A investments across biotech, medtech and healthtech. Chris has a broad base of experience and a track record of success over his decades-long experience in the biopharma industry. Chris served as the President and CEO of Sarepta Therapeutics from 2011 to 2015, overseeing the turnaround of a company that is now a commercial stage leader in the genetic technology space after leading the development of the company’s Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy program. Prior to Sarepta, Chris led Corporate Strategy for Celgene from 2007 to 2010. Prior to Celgene, Chris served in a number of global commercial and corporate development leadership roles at Gilead from 1997 to 2005.
Chris serves on the boards of several life sciences companies and speaks at industry conferences on a wide range of important issues. He is a member of the Corporate Relations Board for the Keck Graduate Institute and has previously served on the Board of Directors of MassBio as well as a Senior Advisor for the Boston Consulting Group.
James Mackay, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer is a co-founder of Crystalys Therapeutics Inc. James has over 40 years of development and commercialization expertise in the pharmaceutical industry, including 6 drug product approvals across multiple therapeutic areas. Prior to founding Crystalys Therapeutics, he was CEO and co-founder of Aristea Therapeutics and President and CEO of Ardea Biosciences. Prior to Ardea, James held senior executive positions over a 30 year period at AstraZeneca where he led the development and commercialization of drugs across a range of therapy areas and managed significant global functional departments.
James plays a pivotal role in the San Diego innovation ecosystem and currently sits on the Board and Executive Committee of CONNECT and sits on the Board of Advisors of BIOCOM. He is a former Board member of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation (EDC). James holds a BS in Genetics and Ph.D. in Medical Genetics from Aberdeen University, Scotland.
Tim Walbert is currently chief executive officer of HRZN Partners LLC and senior advisor, Amgen. Most recently, Mr. Walbert served as the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Horizon Therapeutics from 2008 to October 2023, when it was acquired by Amgen for $28.3 billion. Before joining Horizon, he was president, chief executive officer and director of IDM Pharma Inc., a public biotechnology company, which was acquired by Takeda America Holdings Inc., or Takeda, in June 2009. Before IDM, Mr. Walbert served as executive vice president, commercial operations at NeoPharm Inc., a public biotechnology company. From 2001 to 2005, he was divisional vice president and general manager, immunology, at Abbott, now AbbVie, leading the global development and launch of the multi-indication biologic HUMIRA, and served as divisional vice president, global cardiovascular strategy. Mr. Walbert he also held commercial roles with increasing responsibility at G.D. Searle, Merck & Co. Inc. and Wyeth.
He serves on the boards of Mirum Pharmaceuticals, BioMarin Pharmaceutical, Century Therapeutics and Sagimet Biosciences, each public biotech companies and Catalent, Cour Pharmaceuticals, Odyssey Therapeutics and Latigo Therapeutics (chairman), each private biopharmaceutical companies. Mr. Walbert received a Bachelor of Arts in business from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA.
Crystalys Therapeutics’ mission is to address the significant unmet medical needs of people living with gout.
Through our passionate pursuit of excellence in medicine, we are dedicated to developing new therapeutics and helping improve the lives of patients.
