Leadership

Ketan is the founder of Tris Pharma. Under his leadership, Tris Pharma has developed many innovative technologies, launched new products and established itself as a leader among technology-driven pharmaceutical companies. Ketan’s work at Tris has led to many discoveries and inventions. Before founding Tris Pharma, Ketan worked for Capsugel (formerly a division of Pfizer) in sales, marketing and business development for eight years. Prior to Capsugel, he spent approximately six years as a pharmaceutical scientist for three different large pharmaceutical companies. Ketan is a pharmacist by education and holds an M.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Oklahoma

Cheryl joined Tris Pharma in 2011 and is responsible for both the human resources and corporate administration functions. With over 30 years of experience, she excels in developing cultures where leaders create highly engaged teams and companies develop workforces that maintain a high level of productivity during times of change and accelerated growth. Prior to joining Tris Pharma, Cheryl served as President of Capella Consultants LLC, where she led the human resources and management consulting groups and prior to Capella, Cheryl spent more than 15 years at Sovereign Bank, the last seven years as Executive Vice President, Human Resources. She is active in volunteer activities within the Central New Jersey business community and was a recipient of the HR Person of the Year Award from the Society of Human Resources Management. She earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration, summa cum laude, from the University of Richmond, Virginia.

Peter joined Tris Pharma in 2010 and leads licensing and M&A initiatives. Peter brings to Tris a diverse background and an analytical approach steeped in pharmaceutical markets. He is a pharmacist by training and holds an MBA in Finance from Rutgers University. After business school, he joined a boutique strategic management consulting firm where he spent six-plus years, serving as Vice President for the last three years. His clients included leading pharmaceutical firms such as Pfizer and Novartis, drug distribution companies and health system firms. Peter then spent six years at Kos Pharmaceuticals, serving for the last two years as Executive Director of Corporate Development and Business Planning prior to Kos’ acquisition by Abbott Labs.

Manesh joined Tris in 2023 and is responsible for leading commercial functions at the company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across a range of commercial functions and is passionate about ensuring patients and caregivers are knowledgeable about and have access to therapies for their conditions. Prior to joining Tris, he was the Chief Marketing Officer at Althera Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he led commercial operations and analytics at Mallinckrodt (formerly Ikaria Inc.) and was Chief Business Officer at Bellerophon Therapeutics. He has also held multiple roles at Novartis, Pfizer and McKinsey. Manesh has a B.E. in Chemical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Chemistry from BITS, Pilani, India, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dr. Lesnick joined Tris in 2023 to lead development of the company’s novel pipeline of investigational therapies. He has deep experience in managing global research and development programs from pre-clinical stage through Phase 3. His background spans a number of therapeutic categories, including psychiatry, infectious disease, endocrinology, oncology and allergy. Before co-founding Park Therapeutics, Marc held various executive roles at Spruce Biosciences, QED Therapeutics, Cascadian Therapeutics and Shionogi, Inc., among others, where he focused heavily on regulatory affairs and quality assurance, successfully progressing numerous clinical programs through to U.S. FDA and ex-U.S. approvals. Marc earned his B.S. degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and completed his Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Oregon.

Dr. Hackworth joined Tris in 2021 to lead the brand division of the company. He has over 15 years of multi-therapeutic area experience domestically and internationally with an extensive track record in licensing, M&A and partnership transactions, particularly those with a high degree of complexity, pharmaceutical commercialization and drug development. Most recently, he founded and was President of Park Therapeutics until it was acquired by Tris in April 2021. Prior to founding Park Therapeutics, James held the position of Chief Business Officer at DeepBiome and was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Commercialization Strategy at Shionogi. James holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University and a B.S. degree in Physics from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Cappuccino joined Tris in 2021 and is responsible for all aspects of quality and compliance. Nick has more than 40 years of experience leading Quality and R&D teams as well as working with the U.S. FDA and other global regulatory agencies. His experience includes senior leadership roles at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Eagle Pharmaceuticals, Andrx Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz Inc. and Apotex Inc. Nick holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Dr. Grieco joined Tris Pharma in 2022 as Vice President of Clinical Development. He leads clinical development and pharmacovigilance, informs asset development and oversees the operational execution of clinical trials. Joe has an extensive background in clinical development programs in multiple therapeutic areas with a focus on severe rare congenital disorders including lysosomal storage disease, genetically based cognitive disorders, seizure and neo-natal conditions as well as severe ophthalmological conditions. Prior to his current role at Tris, Joe held roles of increasing responsibility in both biotech and academia. His early work began as an academic neuroscientist studying Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s dementia with a focus on rare congenital cognitive disorders, specifically Angelman and Fragile X syndrome. Most notably during this tenure he identified the first candidate medicine for the treatment of Angelman syndrome, which led to the first-ever clinical trial in this population with a severe unmet need. Dr. Grieco holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a M.S. degree in Medical Science from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Dr. Liang joined Tris in 2021 and is responsible for leading research and development of Tris’ products and pipeline of novel investigational therapies. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry leading high-performing R&D teams in the execution of end-to-end formulation and process development in both brand and generic pharmaceutical environments, from conception to commercialization. His broad experience also encompasses drug delivery technology innovation, patent creation, building product portfolio assets and extending product life cycle. Alfred has held positions of increasing management responsibility at Alpharma (King/Pfizer), Actavis (Teva) and most recently at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a B.S. degree in Pharmacy, both from Rutgers University. He’s a registered pharmacist in New Jersey.

Dr. Potenziano joined Tris in 2023 and is responsible for leading medical affairs. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Jim brings an extensive background in life cycle management across multiple disciplines, most notably in pain, neurological disorders, oncology, cardiovascular medicine and critical care neonatology. He has led or significantly participated in the development and launch of nine new drugs and devices, with four of these becoming multibillion-dollar products, and has been instrumental in the filing of 120+ patents worldwide. Prior to joining Tris, he was Chief Operating Officer / Interim President at Proterris, Inc. where he led clinical development programs and IP strategy. Earlier in his career, Jim held various medical and scientific affairs leadership positions at Mallinckrodt / Icaria, Inc. and Reliant / GSK Pharmaceuticals. Jim earned his Ph.D. from The State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton and holds a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.

Ankit joined Tris in July 2008 and is responsible for all aspects of operations activities. He has effectively scaled up and troubleshot products and processes. Prior to joining Tris, Ankit worked in different companies as a pharmacist, a manufacturing chemist in a parenteral department, and a research chemist in a chemical lab. Ankit is a pharmacist by education and holds an M.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Janet joined Tris Pharma in 2013 and leads the Generics business unit. Bringing a diverse background to Tris, Janet spent the first 12 years of her career working across multiple functional areas within GE and PepsiCo divisions in industries spanning consumer durables, financial services and hospitality. In 1999 she joined Amerisource, eventually heading up the Generics group for Amerisource and then AmerisourceBergen. Since then, Janet has held senior management positions with smaller and midsized generic pharmaceutical companies. She holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a B.A. degree from Western University.

Ben joined Tris in 2023 to lead Tris’ Information Technology team. In this role he is responsible for all aspects of Tris’ IT infrastructure and business applications. Ben has over 40 years of experience, including 20+ years in the pharmaceutical industry with various U.S. and global business-IT leadership roles covering R&D, manufacturing, commercial, finance and other support functions. In these roles he has been responsible for the delivery of large-scale business critical applications and innovative solutions, global IT strategy and IT architecture. Most notable during his tenure at Akzo Nobel Coatings, Ben was responsible for the development and launch of a unique and innovative Color Measure and Mixing application for the global do it yourself (DIY) and Car Repair businesses. Prior to joining Tris, Ben worked as Chief Information Officer at Ferring Pharmaceuticals US, Head of Commercial IT innovation at Merck & Co, Global IT portfolio and IT CRM strategy at Schering-Plough, and various global roles at Organon and Akzo Nobel in the Netherlands. Ben holds a B.S. degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Hoge School Fontys in the Netherlands.

Franchesca joined Tris Pharma in 2024 and brings 15 years of dynamic experience, most recently serving as the Head of Legal and Compliance, as well as the Global Associate General Counsel, for Demant, a global medical device company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. At Demant, she spearheaded legal and compliance efforts for the company’s subsidiaries in the U.S. spanning retail, manufacturing and diagnostics, as well as fostered a culture of compliance and authenticity within its internal organizations. Prior to Demant, Ms. Fowler supported the GE life science business as a legal deal support leader. Ms. Fowler received her B.S. degree in Finance from Fordham University and her J.D. degree from Rutgers Law School.

Tim joined Tris Pharma in 2024 and brings two decades of portfolio management, product planning, executive leadership and operational excellence experience from his previous roles in small and medium-size biotech companies (PTC Therapeutics, Edge Therapeutics, SDIX) and large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Otsuka). Most recently, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Chief of Staff at PTC Therapeutics. Over his tenure, in addition to his Chief of Staff responsibilities and as a member of PTC’s Executive Committee, Tim led the company’s global operations team and global infrastructure group, where he was responsible for managing over 20 facilities worldwide. Tim also served as the company’s corporate secretary to the board of directors. Tim earned his B.A. degree in Government Affairs from Skidmore College, his M.S. degree in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance from Temple University, and his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.