Dr. Joong-Myung Cho – President and CEO

Dr. Cho previously has served as the executive senior vice president and director of R&D Biotech Research Institute at LG Life Science(formerly LG Chem.), South Korea.

During his tenure, biopharmaceutical R&D at LG became the leading life science company in Korea. He has successfully introduced 10 different genetic engineering products such as growth hormones (human, bovine, porcine), hepatitis B vaccine, interferon alpha and gamma, GM-CSF and EPO, etc.

He focused on structure-based drug discovery, and four drug candidates were licensed out to multinational pharmaceutical companies under his direction.

Paul H. Kim - Vice President & Chief Business Officer

Mr. Kim currently serves as Vice President & Chief Business Officer of CrystalGenomics/CG Pharmaceuticals.  He is responsible for leading CG’s corporate development efforts and also heads the CG Pharmaceuticals operation in US. Prior to joining CG, Mr. Kim was a co-founder & director of POSCO BioVentures - $62M Venture Fund focused on US biotech investments on behalf of POSCO, $40B steel conglomerate.   Prior to POSCO BioVentures, Mr. Kim was an Engagement Manager at Coalesce, biotech consulting firm providing strategic growth services to leading life science companies in the sector. Prior to consulting, Mr. Kim was a Sr. Research Associate at Genentech and AP Pharma.

Mr. Kim holds a bachelors degree in Molecular Cell Biology from the University of California at Berkeley, and is currently a member of Licensing Executives Society  

Wheesong Lee, Ph.D – Medicinal Chemistry

Dr. Wheeseong Lee currently serves as Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry since joining CG Pharmaceuticals in July 2007.  Prior to joining the company, he has spent 11 years at Berlex and Schering AG (Now Bayer Schering), leading drug discovery efforts in a wide variety of therapeutic areas.

Dr. Lee received his Ph.D. (organic chemistry) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and postdoctoral training at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

William K. Schmidt, Ph.D. - Consultant - Clinical

Dr. Schmidt is currently the head of NorthStar Consulting, LLC, which specializes in providing advice on preclinical and clinical studies of novel analgesic drugs, and simultaneously part-time Senior VP of Development at Limerick NeuroSciences in South San Francisco, CA.  Dr. Schmidt was previously VP, Clinical Research, for Renovis, Inc., in South San Francisco, CA, an emerging biopharmaceutical company developing drugs to treat stroke, chronic neurological diseases, and pain.  Prior to Renovis, Dr. Schmidt was VP, Scientific Affairs, at Adolor Corporation in Exton, PA, where he was a key member of the team leading to the clinical development and NDA filing of Entereg® (alvimopan).  Dr. Schmidt continues as a Scientific Advisory Consultant to both Adolor and Renovis.

Dr. Schmidt is the Immediate Past-President of the Eastern Pain Association, the largest regional affiliate of the American Pain Society.  He has over 25 years of pharmaceutical industry experience with a special emphasis on the discovery and development of novel analgesic and narcotic antagonist drugs.  He is the co-editor of “Pain: Current Understanding, Emerging, Therapies, and Novel Approaches to Drug Discovery” (Marcel Dekker, 2003; 2^nd edition in preparation).  Dr. Schmidt received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of California, San Francisco.  Following his postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Schmidt joined DuPont Pharmaceuticals (later the DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Company) where he helped to develop nalbuphine (Nubain®), naltrexone (Trexan®, ReVia®) and the oxycodone-ibuprofen formulation used in Combunox™. 

Bernard Chung - Consultant - Clinical

Bernard is an independent consultant specializing in clinical drug development operations management for early stage biopharmaceutical companies. Bernard spent his early career at Genentech, working in the oncology clinical research group.  Over the last 14 years, Bernard has worked on and managed clinical research programs for more than 20 different investigational drugs across a range of therapeutic areas including oncology, infectious disease, cardiology, pulmonology, and rheumatology.

Bernard received a B.A. in Biology from Occidental College and has also completed graduate coursework at Johns Hopkins University.