Management Team

Damon R. Race, MBA, CLP, CMT – CEO

Mr. Race is the President and CEO of GeneVentiv Therapeutics. Mr. Race is responsible for advancing GeneVentiv Therapeutics’ business and product candidates. Mr. Race has over 28 years of commercial pharmaceutical, public and private investment experience. Mr. Race earned his B.S. in Biology from George Mason University and his MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Mr. Race holds the Certified Licensing Professional® designation from the Licensing Executive Society, is a Chartered Market Technician® Charterholder and holds the FINRA Series 65. Mr. Race serves in a number of board, advisory and volunteer roles.

Paris Margaritis, DPhil – CSO

Dr. Margaritis is the Chief Scientific Officer of GeneVentiv Therapeutics. Dr. Margaritis received his doctorate degree from the University of Oxford (U.K.) and has more than 28 years of experience in AAV gene therapy for hemophilia with special focus on hemophilia with inhibitors. During his career at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, he has worked extensively with novel gene-based therapies in all the animal models of hemophilia, bridging coagulation factor biochemistry with transgene engineering and AAV delivery in vivo. He recently coordinated biotech-sponsored ocular AAV gene therapy programs and continues to be a contributing member of the major hemostasis and gene therapy Societies.

Chengwen Li, MD, PH.D. – Co-Founder, Scientific Advisor

Dr. Li is a Scientific Advisor to GeneVentiv Therapeutics. Dr. Li is a scientific co-founder of GeneVentiv and invented the company’s gene therapy for hemophilia through his work at the Department of Pediatrics at UNC-Chapel Hill. Dr. Li leads the company’s efforts in rare disease gene therapies, codon optimization and minimizing host immune response to our proprietary AAV vectors. Dr. Li received his MD/PH.D degree from Peking Union Medical School and completed his post-doc in Jude Samulski’s lab. Dr. Li has published over 70 AAV-related manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals.