Management Team

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

Chief Executive Officer

James M. O’Brien
Chief Financial Officer

Mr. O’Brien has served as our Chief Financial Officer since October 2019. From February 2014 to October 2019, Mr. O’Brien served as Executive Vice President of finance for Enzo Biochem, Inc. (NYSE: ENZ), a biotechnology company providing reference laboratory services to the medical community. From November 2010 to June 2013, Mr. O’Brien served as Vice President and Corporate Controller for Allergan, Inc., (formerly known as Actavis plc.) which has now been acquired by Abbvie (NYSE: ABBV), a pharmaceutical company. He also previously served as a Vice President at Takeda Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: TAK) (formerly known as Nycomed) from January 2010 to August 2010, Chief Accounting Officer at USI Holdings from January 2008 to August 2009, and Vice President and Corporate Controller at Aptuit, an Evotec company (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT) and pharmaceutical services provider, from July 2005 to December 2007. Mr. O’Brien also held leadership roles at Purdue Pharma, Bristol-Myers Squibb and PricewaterhouseCoopers in the earlier stages of his career.

Mr. O’Brien is a certified public accountant (CPA) with a Bachelor of Accountancy from George Washington University and an MBA from Fordham University.

James M. O’Brien

Chief Financial Officer

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 O. Caggiano, M.D., Ph.D.

Chief Medical Officer, Head of R&D

Mary Hamby, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research

Dr. Hamby joined Cognition in 2019 as director of biology to identify pharmacodynamic biomarkers that may be leveraged to guide the company’s clinical trial design and inform in vivo studies in planned neurodegenerative and neuro-ophthalmology studies. Prior to joining Cognition Therapeutics, 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 nominated clinical biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to joining the Neurodegeneration Consortium, as a scientist at Lundbeck, Dr. Hamby generated key in vitro and in vivo proof-of-concept data, enabled target identification and validation and helped guide nomination of the lead candidates for various CNS disorders. She earned a B.S. from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. From the University of Connecticut in biomedical science with a specialization in neuroscience.

Her postdoctoral work at UCLA in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Sofroniew examined the impact of pro-inflammatory factors on the expression of genes and cellular pathways in CNS disease. She has authored 16 papers on the role of inflammation and pro-inflammatory factors in neurodegenerative disease.

Mary Hamby, Ph.D.

Vice President, Research

Susan Catalano, Ph.D.
Founder and Chief Science Officer

Dr. Catalano is a pharmaceutical industry executive with 22 years of experience in strategic and operational scientific leadership of neurobiology and oncology drug discovery and development programs. She co-founded Cognition in 2007 and serves as our chief science officer. Dr. Catalano guided the discovery and development of CT1812 and established the “International Symposium on sigma-2 Receptors: Role in Health and Disease.” She has authored numerous publications and patents, continues to serve as principal investigator of several National Institute of Health (NIH) awards, and has served on various NIH review panels in the areas of drug discovery and clinical development for neurodegenerative diseases. Dr. Catalano has served on the editorial board of Assay and Drug Discovery Technologies for over 10 years and is frequently invited to lend her expertise on Alzheimer’s Association and National Institute on Aging panels. Previously, she held scientific leadership positions at Acumen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2004 to 2007, Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 2001 to 2003, and Roche Biosciences from 1999 to 2001.

Dr. Catalano received her Bachelor of Arts from Barnard College and Ph.D. in Neurobiology from U.C. Irvine with postdoctoral training at U.C. Berkeley and Caltech.

Susan Catalano, Ph.D.

Founder & Chief Science Officer

Michael Grundman, M.D., MPH
Clinical Advisor

Dr. Grundman has over 25 years’ experience in clinical research in CNS disorders. He is president and CEO of Global R&D Partners, LLC, a consulting firm that advises pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on development of novel agents for the diagnosis and treatment of serious and life-threatening diseases. Dr. Grundman also currently serves as professor of neurosciences at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and previously held positions at both Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC and Elan Pharmaceuticals as vice president of clinical development, where he led the clinical immunotherapy trials for Alzheimer’s disease.

Prior to joining the industry, Dr. Grundman was associate director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study (ADCS) at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is an inventor on a number of patents related to Alzheimer’s disease therapy and has served on the FDA Peripheral and Central Nervous System Advisory Committee.

He received his B.A. in biochemistry from New York University, his M.D. and neurology training at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a Master of Public Health degree from Columbia University.

Michael Grundman, M.D., MPH

Clinical Advisor