Senior Management Team
Jamie Freedman, M.D., Ph.D.
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Jamie Freedman was appointed President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Locus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in June 2008. Dr. Freedman joined Locus as Chief Medical Officer in January 2008. Prior to joining Locus, Dr. Freedman was at Merck Research Labs from 2003 to 2007 where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Clinical Research. During this period, he led and supervised drug development programs for many compounds, including siRNA, and also supervised a group developing new clinical models for proof-of-concept. Dr. Freedman received M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Tufts University, and trained in Medicine and Hematology-Oncology at UCSF and Harvard, respectively. His research focused on the structure and function of proteins involved in blood coagulation and cancer. He also held a staff position in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania until the end of 2006.
Jeffrey S. Wiseman, Ph.D.
Vice President , Discovery and Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Wiseman has 29 years of experience in Discovery Research in the pharmaceutical industry. Since 2003 he has led efforts at Locus Pharmaceuticals to develop computational drug design software for the accurate and rapid prediction of ligand binding affinities. Dr. Wiseman began his career as an enzymologist for Marion Merrell Dow and was subsequently appointed as Director of Molecular Sciences for Glaxo Research Institute. In 1994-1995 he defined the discipline of Cheminformatics and was appointed to the Glaxo Wellcome Research Executive Committee. In 1997 he was asked to build a capability in Cheminformatics for SmithKline Beecham, where he rose to the position of Global Vice President of Cheminformatics, ultimately for GlaxoSmithKline. Dr. Wiseman holds a degree in Chemistry from Harvard University and trained as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Enzymology at Stanford and Brandeis Universities.
David Whitwell, MBA, CPA
Acting Chief Financial Officer
David has twenty years of broad financial, accounting and management experience helping companies grow and improve profitability. David has been the CFO for small public entrepreneurial companies as well as a divisional CFO and controller for large multi-billion entities. He has also had operational and administrative responsibilities. He was a manager of finance with Schering-Plough and started his career with Ernst & Young in public accounting. David has a diversified and wide range industry experience which includes pharmaceutical, alternative energy, technology, media/publishing, consumer products, distribution and manufacturing. David is a B2B CFO® partner and is employed part-time at Locus.
Eric Springman, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Preclinical Development
Dr. Springman joined Locus in 2001 as founder of the Biology Department. He has since played a leading role in the company's first IND, obtained nearly $3M in grant funding for discovery projects, and integrated Structural Biology into the company's technology platform. In 2007, Dr. Springman was appointed by Governor Edward Rendell to the Pennsylvania Drug, Device & Cosmetics Board. Prior to joining Locus, Dr. Springman held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche Pharmaceuticals in Palo Alto, CA, where he was ultimately Acting Head of the Arthritis Therapy Area, and at Arris/Axys Pharmaceuticals in South San Francisco, CA, where he was co-leader of the partnered project resulting in Merck's Phase III drug candidate, odanacatib. Dr. Springman received a B.A. in Chemistry/Biology from Florida Atlantic University, a Ph.D. in Biophysics from Florida State University, and was an NRSA and American Lung Association Post-Doctoral Fellow in Pharmacology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.