Leadership Team

Robert Silverman, JD, PhD

CEO

Dr. Silverman has been the President and co-founder of Revere Pharmaceuticals since 2016.  He served as General Counsel of Concert Pharmaceuticals from 2007 to 2017, helping the company become public in 2014.  He currently serves as a legal advisor for Concert.  Previously, Dr. Silverman was Associate General Counsel at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda) where he led the company’s chemical patent practice.  Prior to Millennium, he served in various legal roles at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and FMC Corporation. Dr. Silverman also lectures for the BIO Executive Training Programs.

Dr. Silverman started his career as a research chemist. He has over 20 US patents. Dr. Silverman received his BA degree from Lehigh University, his PhD from U of New Mexico, and did post-doctoral training in organic chemistry at Stanford University. He received his JD from Rutgers Law School.

Erik Goka, PhD

Vice President of Biology

Dr. Goka is a translational biologist with over 15 years of research experience. His research has focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms of how oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes control signaling pathways leading to initial cellular transformation, tumor formation, tumor progression, metastatic dissemination, and resistance to conventional therapy. Dr. Goka was part of the team that discovered that HACE1, the E3 ubiquitin ligase for Rac1, is an important tumor-suppressor gene commonly lost in the progression of breast cancer.

Prior to Revere, Dr. Goka was Senior Director of Preclinical Development at Geneyus, LLC, where he led a team developing small molecule Rac1 inhibitors and authored multiple publications investigating the biological mechanisms of Rac1 signaling and how Rac1 inhibition can overcome resistance to standard-of-care treatment options.

Dr. Goka holds a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of California, Irvine.

Nabil Uddin, PharmD

Head of Business Development

Nabil joined Revere in 2023 as Head of Business Development. He brings 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry across business development, strategy, and operations. Prior to joining Revere, Nabil was Head of Business & Corporate Development at Concert Pharmaceuticals and played an instrumental role in the sale of the company to Sun Pharma. He joined Concert in 2014 to lead program management & portfolio planning and served as the lead for the deutivacaftor program in cystic fibrosis which was acquired by Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Concert,

Nabil worked in program management & portfolio planning at Seaside Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Nabil worked in a consulting practice leading a number of strategic planning engagements for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Nabil holds a BSc degree in biology from McMaster University, a PharmD degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Marc Lippman, MD

Board Member

Dr. Lippman is a recognized leader in breast cancer research and currently Professor of Oncology at Georgetown University Medical Center’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. He served as director of the NCI Designated Comprehensive Cancer of Georgetown University. He was the Kathleen and Stanley Glaser Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and the Deputy Director of the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. He led the breast cancer section of the Medicine Branch at the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Lippman has authored nearly 500 peer-reviewed publications and has received numerous honors for his work including the Rosenthal Prize of AACR, the Astwood prize of the Endocrine Society and the Brinker Prize from the Komen Foundation for his research in breast cancer.

Dr. Lippman served on the Board of Directors of Seattle Genetics and was a founder of Geneyus LLC. He holds an MD from Yale School of Medicine and a BA from Cornell University.

Kollol Pal, PhD, MBA

Board Member

Dr. Pal is an established serial entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. He has spent much of his career within successful, early-stage companies where he held roles of increasing responsibility. Most recently, Dr. Pal was the Founder and CEO of Mnemosyne Pharmaceuticals (now known as Cadent Therapeutics), a neuroscience drug discovery company which partnered with Novartis in 2014. Prior to his work with Mnemosyne, he was Co-Founder and SVP of Research and Development at Corbus Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CRBP), a clinical-stage company developing novel drugs for scleroderma and cystic fibrosis.

Earlier in his career, Dr. Pal served as Vice President of Chemistry at Neogenesis, a novel screening and chemistry technologies company acquired by Schering Plough-Merck, and as Director of Chemistry at the oncology startup Mitotix which was later acquired by GPC Biotech. He has also previously served as a Principal at PureTech Ventures (now PureTech Health). Kollol began his scientific career at Boehringer Ingelheim, where he was a member of the research team that developed Viramune, the first non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor for the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Dr. Pal holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Cornell University.

Jordan Leef

Advisor

Most recently, Mr. Leef co-founded Pyramid Biosciences, a clinical-stage biotech company developing precision therapies targeting molecularly defined diseases.  Throughout his tenure at Pyramid Bio, Mr. Leef held multiple leadership positions including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Business Officer, and Chief Financial Officer.  Mr. Leef has also served in executive leadership roles at several other early- and mid-stage companies, including Metamark Genetics and Interpace Diagnostics Group.  Previously, Mr. Leef was a Principal Venture Capitalist and member of the healthcare investment team at Safeguard Scientifics, a publicly traded venture capital firm. Prior to Safeguard, Mr. Leef served as a Senior Associate with Philadelphia-based MentorTech Ventures.

Mr. Leef began his investment career as a Financial Analyst at Pharos Capital Group.  Before joining the buy-side, Mr. Leef worked in biotechnology equity research at C.E. Unterberg, Towbin, and at Pfizer in its business development and clinical operations divisions.  Mr. Leef is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, where he concentrated in healthcare management and policy.

Scientific Advisory Team

Richard Cerione, PhD

Cornell University

Goldwin Smith Professor Of Pharmacology And Chemical Biology
Leader in biophysical, chemical and genomic based approaches to understand role of Rho GTPases in human oncology

Jonathan Chernoff, MD, PhD

Fox Chase Cancer Center

Cancer Center Director
Stanley P. Reimann Chair In Oncology Research
Expert in Rac1 and KRAS signaling; regulation and role of PAK1 in cancer

arthur decellis, md

Arthur DeCillis, MD

DeCillis Consulting

Former Chief Medical Officer, Eleven Biotherapeutics
Oncology leader in medical affairs, clinical R&D at Exelixis, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb
Oversaw Ph3 trials for National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project

Channing Der, PhD

UNC, Chapel Hill

Sarah Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor
Pioneer In The Study Of Oncogenic Ras Signaling
Established importance of aberrant Rho GTPase activation in oncogenesis