Lisa Ricciardi
Chief Executive Officer
Ms. Ricciardi has served as our chief executive officer and president since March 2020 and as a member of our board of directors since March 2019. From July 2018 to October 2019, she served as CEO of Suono Bio, a biotech company based on Langer Labs (MIT) technology. Prior to her position at Suono Bio, Ms. Ricciardi was a retained executive for BioBusiness Links from November 2015 to June 2018 where she performed interim operating executive and advisory board roles. She served as the senior vice president of global corporate & business development of Foundation Medicine from July 2014 to November 2015, and senior vice president of U.S. and international business development of Express Scripts from October 2010 to October 2012 and in both cases, led deal teams to sell the two companies. Ms. Ricciardi was in the commercial division of Pfizer Inc., taking three drugs to launch before being appointed by the chairman to run global business development. Ms. Ricciardi previously served on the boards of Contrafect (Nasdaq: CFRX), Chimerix (Nasdaq: CMRX), United Drug Healthcare Group, PLC (LSE: UDG) and Sepracor (Nasdaq: SEPR). She was appointed as the executive in residence at Columbia Technology Ventures in January 2020.
Ms. Ricciardi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude in English and religion from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Management.
Lisa Ricciardi
Anthony O. Caggiano, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer, Head of R&D
Dr. Caggiano has broad experience in the development of new medicines for neurological conditions. During his 17 years at Acorda Therapeutics, the last four as senior vice president of research and development, Dr. Caggiano oversaw preclinical and clinical development programs in neurological conditions such as multiple sclerosis, stroke and spinal cord injury. In addition, he directed a large team responsible for all aspects of early development through a combination of internal research efforts and external research collaborations. He built relationships with thought leaders, developed clinical trial strategies and participated in licensing activities.
Immediately prior to joining Cognition, Dr. Caggiano was chief medical officer and head of R&D for Neurotrauma Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company developing therapies to treat the effects of stroke and TBI. Earlier in his career, he served as acting president and chief medical officer of Constant Pharmaceuticals and Aeromics, Inc., clinical-stage companies respectively developing candidates for central nervous system disorders and cerebral edema following ischemic stroke.
Dr. Caggiano earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia in interdisciplinary studies, focusing on biology, chemistry and psychology. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago and his medical degree from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine.
Anthony Caggiano, M.D., Ph.D.
Head of R&D
John Doyle
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Doyle joined Cognition Therapeutics as chief financial officer in 2023. He has significant experience raising capital in challenging markets and leading companies through the evolution to commercialization. Most recently he was chief financial officer of 4D Pharma plc, and previously SVP and chief financial officer of Chiasma Inc. During his tenure at Chiasma Inc, the company began reporting commercial sales and ultimately completed a merger with Amryt Pharma. Earlier, he served in finance departments at Verastem Oncology, SimpliVity Corp., PAREXEL, Inc. and Hologic Inc. Mr. Doyle earned a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Massachusetts.
John Doyle
Chief Financial Officer
Anita Cornet
Head of Quality
Anita Cornet joined Cognition Therapeutics in 2024 as the head of quality. In this role, she will oversee process development, quality control and technical operations for Cognition’s pipeline products. She will work closely with the heads of CMC, clinical development and medical affairs to ensure that zervimesine (also CT1812) and the company’s other product candidates are manufactured within the standards of the U.S. FDA and other worldwide health authorities. Ms. Cornet previously held several positions of increasing seniority at Acorda Therapeutics, most recently VP of quality. Earlier in her career, she worked at Genta, a biotechnology company developing novel oncology treatments; and GlaxoWellcome, where she was responsible for quality assurance of products on the Belgium and Luxemburg market.
Ms. Cornet is a pharmacist with over 25 years of experience in quality assurance. She graduated from Ghent University in Belgium with a degree in pharmacy.
Anita Cornet
Head of Quality
Theresa Devins, DrPH
Vice President, Clinical Operations
Dr. Devins has over 25 years of clinical research experience, having conducted many global studies ranging from Phase 2 to Phase 4 across a variety of indications including complex neurological diseases. She has extensive expertise recruiting diverse populations in clinical trials through trusted external partnerships and innovative community and site engagement. At Cognition Therapeutics, Dr. Devins is responsible for the management of all current and planned clinical trials for lead candidate, zervimesine (also CT1812). To date she has overseen the completion of enrollment in the SHINE (COG0201) study in mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease and SHIMMER (COG1201) study in mild-to-moderate dementia with Lewy bodies. Under her leadership, Cognition also initiated the Phase 2 MAGNIFY (COG2201) study in geographic atrophy secondary to dry age-related macular degeneration and Phase 2 START (COG0203) study in early Alzheimer’s Disease.
Previously, she was director of clinical operations at Eisai, Inc., where she focused on clinical trials for sleep disorders, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. She worked closely with the patient advocacy team to develop programs to drive study recruitment through cultural awareness and community engagement. Earlier in her career, she worked in clinical operations at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals.
Theresa Devins, DrPH
Vice President, Research
Dr. Hamby is vice president of research at Cognition Therapeutics. In this role, she is focused on the discovery and development of disease-modifying therapeutics to help treat patients with age-related diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Dr. Hamby leads research efforts aimed at identifying next generation clinical candidates to advance to IND-enabling studies. In this role, she oversees the discovery and development of small molecule σ-2 modulators that block the toxic effects that pathogenic proteins elicit on neurons.
Her work at Cognition builds upon her career in drug discovery, spanning target validation, proof of concept, clinical candidate selection and early clinical development. Prior to joining Cognition, Dr. Hamby was the head of neuroinflammation at the Neurodegeneration Consortium at MD Anderson where she led efforts to discover novel therapeutics, advance a portfolio of drug discovery programs and nominate clinical biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to joining the Neurodegeneration Consortium, Dr. Hamby was a research scientist at Lundbeck where she generated key in vitro and in vivo proof-of-concept data that enabled target identification and validation and helped guide development of Lundbeck’s lead CNS candidates.
She received her Ph.D. in biomedical science specializing in neuroscience from University of Connecticut and conducted her post-doctoral training at University of California Los Angeles. Her career comprises over 20 years of experience in the fields of neurodegenerative diseases and drug discovery in both academia and pharma/biotech.
Mary Hamby, Ph.D.
Bobby Horn
Corporate Controller
Bobby Horn joined Cognition Therapeutics in 2022 as associate controller and was promoted in 2023 to corporate controller. In his current role, he is responsible for maintaining the company’s compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley, overseeing financial planning and risk management across the business, and developing and maintaining accounting policies. Prior to joining Cognition, Mr. Horn held several positions of increasing responsibility in the assurance practice at EY from 2014 to 2022. In these roles, he assisted client companies including biotechnology firms Biohaven Pharmaceuticals and Cara Therapeutics, in the preparation of financial statements, evaluated the effectiveness of client internal controls, and oversaw financial audits.
Mr. Horn attended Pace University and earned a dual MBA/BBA degree in accounting from the Lubin School of Business in 2014, where he was a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, an international business honor society. He is a certified public accountant and a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Bobby Horn
Jennifer Iaci
Vice President, Development Operations
Jennifer Iaci is the vice president of development operations for Cognition Therapeutics. Ms. Iaci has more than two decades of therapeutic drug development experience with multiple therapeutic modalities across neurological and cardiological indications. Prior to joining Cognition, Ms. Iaci worked at Acorda Therapeutics and Ovid Therapeutics where she led development efforts to characterize drug candidates’ mechanisms of action, pharmacology and efficacy. At Cognition Therapeutics, Ms. Iaci works closely with the clinical operations and medical teams to execute the development strategy for advancing zervimesine (also CT1812), Cognition’s lead candidate for the treatment of degenerative disorders.
Jennifer earned her Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers University in biology and her Masters of Science in biotechnology from William Patterson University. She has authored peer-reviewed scientific papers in neuro-injury, recovery and cardiovascular disease, and is a co-inventor on multiple technologies.
Jennifer Iaci
Steven A. Weissman, Ph.D.
Vice President and Head of CMC
Dr. Weissman serves as Cognition Therapeutics’ vice president and head of chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC). In this role, he is responsible for the process development and manufacturing oversight for Cognition’s lead candidate, zervimesine (also CT1812). Before joining Cognition Therapeutics, Dr. Weissman was the director of chemical development at Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for clinical supply and eventual global commercial manufacturing of telotristat etiprate. Earlier, he was director of process chemistry at J-Star Research and Concert Pharmaceuticals. During his tenure at Merck in manufacturing and process research roles, Dr. Weissman developed scalable chemical routes for over 30 clinical candidates and contributed to the commercial manufacturing routes of approved HIV therapies, Isentress and Crixivan.
Dr. Weissman has co-authored 32 peer-reviewed research articles in scientific journals and is an inventor on 13 U.S. patents. In addition, he was a member of the editorial advisory board for the ACS journal, Organic Process Research & Development. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry from the University of Vermont and a Doctor of Philosophy in chemistry from Tufts University. He conducted his post-doctoral training under Nobel laureate, Herbert C. Brown, at Purdue University.