Peter is the founding CEO of BlueWhale Bio, where he has led the company from inception to its first clinical trial in under 18 months. Prior to joining BlueWhale Bio, he played a key role in securing over $200 million in private funding, negotiating transformational licensing deals with Abbott, Sanofi, and Spark Therapeutics, and guiding Selecta Biosciences to a $70 million IPO. Peter has shaped the early strategies of startups, including Inventiva Pharma, Monopteros Therapeutics, and Disarm Therapeutics (acquired by Eli Lilly). Previously, he was Vice President at Solvay Pharmaceuticals and became Vice President at Abbott Laboratories following its $6.2 billion acquisition of Solvay, where he also led the integration of the two companies. Earlier in his career, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and Simon Kucher.

Marc has more than 30 years of experience in cell therapy and biologics chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC). Most recently, Dr. Better has advised companies developing cell and gene therapy products as a consultant with Pharmefex and Cell One Partners. Previously he served as Senior Vice President, Product Sciences at Kite, a Gilead Company, where he led process and analytical development, process characterization and process validation activities leading to the successful US licensure of Yescarta, a first in class anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy. Prior to joining Kite, Marc was Executive Director, Process Science at Boehringer Ingelheim, Executive Director, Process Development at Amgen and held leadership roles at Abgenix and XOMA. He received a PhD in Biochemistry from Brandeis University and holds a BS in Microbiology from Michigan State University.

Victor is Director of Analytical Development and Quality Control at BlueWhale Bio. He has deep expertise in chemistry, manufacturing, and controls (CMC) for cell therapy products, from preclinical development to clinical trials. Prior to joining Bluewhale Bio, Dr. Carpio was the Associate Director of Analytical Development and Quality Control at Alaunos Therapeutics where he led a team supporting phase I/II clinical trials for non-viral TCR-T cell therapies. Dr. Carpio earned his PhD in Immunology from the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Gil is the Director of Process Development at BlueWhale Bio. He has over 15 years of industry experience in process development, including platform development for viral vector and cell Therapy products. Prior to joining BlueWhale Bio, Gil spent the majority of his career leading process development at WuXi Advanced Therapies, where he developed and led the tech transfer of dozens of processes.

Paula Cannon, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Southern California, with appointments in both the Keck School of Medicine and the Viterbi School of Engineering. She uses gene editing technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 to engineer immune cells, with the goal of developing treatments for HIV, cancer and other chronic diseases. Most recently, her group has shown that B cells can be engineered to express custom molecules that could result in boostable B cell factories in the body for the secretion of therapeutic molecules, including antibodies that are not easily generated by vaccination. Dr. Cannon has served on Scientific Advisory Boards of several companies developing gene and cell therapies and chairs the International Scientific Advisory Board for the Italian RNA and Gene Therapy National Center. In 2024-25, she is the current President of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

Dr. Elaine Heron joined our board in 2023. She currently also serves on the boards of Palvella Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq:PVLA), a public clinical stage therapeutics company, Vaxart, Inc. (Nasdaq:VXRT), public clinical stage company developing oral vaccines, Visgenx, Inc., a private early-stage therapeutics company, Enumera Molecular, a private diagnostics company, and Watershed Medical, Inc., a private clinical-stage therapeutics company. Dr. Heron is also an advisor to K2X, a FinTech company creating a vehicle for investing in a collection of well vetted early stage companies. She served on the board of BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (Nasdaq:BMRN) from 2002 to 2025. From February 2009 to October 2015, Dr. Heron served as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a private drug development company acquired by Pfizer, Inc. From July 2001 to October 2008, Dr. Heron was Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Labcyte Inc., a private biotechnology company. Before joining Labcyte Inc., she spent six years in positions of increasing responsibility at the Applied Biosystems Group of Applera Corporation, a biotechnology company, including the position of General Manager and Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Paul Meister is a partner in Novalis LifeSciences – a life science focused venture firm and is co-founder, and CEO of Liberty Lane Partners, LLC, a private investment company with investment holdings in healthcare, technology, and distribution-related industries. From 2014 to 2018, Mr. Meister was President of MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, a private company that owns or controls a diverse set of businesses. From 2010 to 2014, Mr. Meister served as Chairman and CEO of inVentiv Health (now Syneos Health), a leading provider of commercial, consulting, and clinical research services to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Mr. Meister was Chairman of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., a scientific instruments equipment and supplies company from 2006 to 2007. He was previously an executive officer of Fisher Scientific International, Inc., a predecessor of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., from 1991 to 2006. Mr. Meister holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University and serves on the board of Michigan’s Life Sciences Institute, and the Provost’s Advisory Council. He currently serves as a director on the boards of Aptiv PLC, Quanterix Corporation, Oaktree Acquisition Corp II, and several private company boards.

Dr. Beate Mueller-Tiemann’s career has reflected the entire pharma value chain from early target discovery, lead generation, lead optimization, cell line development, chemical manufacturing and control (CMC) production and commercial manufacturing for both Biologics and Synthetic Molecule therapeutics. She has been Cytiva’s Chief Technology Officer since 2023 after having held senior leadership positions at Sanofi and Bayer. Beate earned her PhD at the Leibniz Institute of Virology in Hamburg, Germany in the field of Molecular Oncology. She holds master’s degrees in biology and Biochemistry from the University of Bielefeld, Germany, and the University of Montpellier in France. Beate is an elected member of the Board of the Dechema, German Society for Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology.

Peter is the founding CEO of BlueWhale Bio, where he has led the company from inception to its first clinical trial in under 18 months. Prior to joining BlueWhale Bio, he played a key role in securing over $200 million in private funding, negotiating transformational licensing deals with Abbott, Sanofi, and Spark Therapeutics, and guiding Selecta Biosciences to a $70 million IPO. Peter has shaped the early strategies of startups, including Inventiva Pharma, Monopteros Therapeutics, and Disarm Therapeutics (acquired by Eli Lilly). Previously, he was Vice President at Solvay Pharmaceuticals and became Vice President at Abbott Laboratories following its $6.2 billion acquisition of Solvay, where he also led the integration of the two companies. Earlier in his career, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co. and Simon Kucher.

Director of the Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, and Director of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Pennsylvania. [https://www.med.upenn.edu/cci/junelab/]

Professor of Microbiology, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies at the Perelman School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania.

Adjunct Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Director of the Therapeutic Innovation in Natural Killer cells (THINK) Lab, and Adjunct Associate Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine [https://www.med.upenn.edu/cci/sheppardlab/]

Jay is Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Blue Whale and is responsible for driving business growth, optimizing commercial operations, and expanding market reach. He brings over 15 years of commercial leadership experience in the life sciences and bioprocessing industries. Prior to joining Blue Whale, Jay served as Commercial Leader for the Americas at Repligen Corporation. Before that, he was Chief Commercial Officer at GeminiBio, overseeing the company’s global commercial strategy and distribution partnerships. He also spent 12 years at Thermo Fisher Scientific, most recently as Bioproduction Sales Leader for North America. Jay holds a BS in Biochemistry from LaGrange College.