Our People

Kurt Graves
Chairman, President & CEO

Kurt Graves is the Chairman, President, and CEO at i2o, bringing along 30 years of business leadership experience in leading global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has provided leadership to several innovative biotech companies over the last 10 years as Chairman, President and CEO of Intarcia Therapeutics, former Chairman of Radius Health, and as a Board member at Achillion Pharmaceuticals until it was acquired by Alexion, and at Seres Health. He was also E&Y’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year in 2015. Previously, Mr. Graves served as EVP, Head of Corporate & Business Development, Head of Strategic Drug Development and Program Management & Commercial at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Prior to that, he was at Novartis Pharmaceuticals for nearly 10 years, most recently as the Global Head of the General Medicines Business and the first Global Chief Marketing Officer for the Pharmaceuticals division. Earlier in his career, at Merck and Astra-Merck, he led the GI Business Unit responsible for Prilosec^®, Nexium^® and Prilosec OTC^®.

Kurt Graves
Chairman, President & CEO

Kelly Ibsen, PhD
VP, Research and Program Management

Dr. Kelly Ibsen is the VP of Research and Program Management at i2o. She received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara and is a licensed Professional Engineer. Dr. Ibsen has 20+ years of experience in the biotech industry with experience as a consultant, COO, Director of Tech Transfer, and R&D lead in small startups, large corporations, and the federal government. Following her interest in biochemical engineering, she spent several years at Harvard as a Visiting Fellow and Research Associate in Dr. Mitragotri’s lab. Dr. Ibsen is passionate about alleviating the life-long burden associated with patients having chronic disease.

Prakash Rao, PhD, MBA
Executive Director, Corporate and Business Development

Dr. Prakash Rao is the Executive Director of Corporate and Business Development at i2o. Prior to i2o, Prakash, was a Sr. Manager/Portfolio and Programs within the DRIVe division of Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), a federal agency tasked with developing countermeasures to biological threats. He was a member of the core founding team that built BARDA Ventures-an unprecedented initiative through which the US federal government will fund equity-based investments in companies that promote the health security of Americans. Prakash has also led scientific teams and projects at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research. Through innovative stints in the government, academia and large pharma, Prakash has gained experience in all of the important sectors that constitute the biomedical innovation pipeline.

Dr. Rao conducted his postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute (mentored by Prof. Harvey Lodish) and obtained his Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania in Cell/Molecular Biology. He received his MBA from MIT/Sloan School of Management.

Tyler Brown, PhD
Senior Director, Technology Development

Dr. Tyler Brown is the Senior Director of Technology Development at i2o. He received his PhD from Harvard University in bioengineering and has 10+ years of experience designing and leading collaborative projects in drug delivery and materials science. Dr. Brown has a passion for bridging the gaps between basic scientific research and the commercialization of technologies. He previously led business development teams specializing in early-stage technology commercialization though the Harvard Office of Technology Development. He co-led the Healthcare Innovation and Commercialization Course at Harvard Medical School in 2018 and was actively involved in the Harvard Biotech Club and Harvard Innovation Labs. He also holds a graduate certificate in management practice and an MS in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Anthony Aiudi, PharmD
Board Member

Christopher Gagliardi, PhD
Board Member

Andrew Young, MB, ChB (MD), PhD
Scientific Advisor

Dr. Andrew Young joined Intarcia in September 2015 as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer. Andrew is most recognized for his role in the discovery and development of peptide therapeutics for metabolic diseases. Prior to its acquisition by Intarcia, he co-founded and was CSO of Phoundry Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company dedicated to rendering peptides sufficiently potent for incorporation into innovative delivery systems such as Intarcia’s proprietary mini-pump technology. Andrew entered industry from academia 26 years ago as the founding physiologist at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. There he pioneered work that illuminated the role of the gut in blood glucose control. He co-led different phases of the development of Symlin® and Byetta®, first-in-class medicines for the treatment of diabetes. His roles at Amylin included VP of Research and Senior Research Fellow. In 2008 he co-founded Satiogen Inc., a San Diego startup related to bile salt stimulation of gut hormone secretion, before joining GlaxoSmithKline in RTP, NC, as Head of Enteroendocrine Biology. At GSK, Andrew fostered the development of peptide therapeutics as well as non-absorbed medicines acting at gut targets. In 2015 he co-founded Phoundry Pharmaceuticals with five former GSK colleagues.

Andrew received his medical degree as well as graduate science degrees from the University of Auckland School of Medicine, New Zealand, where he also taught physiology. He worked as a Fogarty Fellow for the NIH in Phoenix AZ, studying diabetes in Pima Indians. He worked as a Von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Bad Nauheim, FRG, studying sensory neurophysiology. He has participated in the development of five drugs that were commercialized, written over 100 original papers and 37 book chapters or books, and is an inventor on 56 issued US patents.

Ved Srivastava, PhD
Scientific Advisor

Ved Srivastava is the Vice President of Chemistry at Aktis Oncology. Ved’s career spans more than 30 years as an expert in peptide medicinal chemistry, formulation and drug delivery, and chemistry manufacturing control (CMC). Prior to his time at Aktis, Ved has served as Vice President of Chemistry at Intarcia Therapeutics, co-founder and Vice President of Peptide Chemistry at Phoundry Pharmaceuticals, and Head of Peptide Chemistry at both GlaxoSmithKline and Amylin Pharmaceuticals. He also has served as a scientific advisory board member to several peptide-based biotech companies. Ved currently serves as Vice Chair and member of the Peptides Expert Committee of the United States Pharmacopeia and in the governance of the American Chemical Society and the American Peptide Society (APS). He served as President of the APS from 2019-2021. Ved’s scientific research interests are in oncology, metabolic diseases, CNS, and inflammation therapeutic areas, and he has significantly contributed to the development of several peptide-based drugs, including ByettaTM, Symlin^TM, and Bydureon^TM. He has co-authored and published numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts, patents, and abstracts and is the editor of five books focused on peptide therapeutics. Ved holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Lucknow, India, and his hobbies include international travel and community service.

Ian Wilding, PhD
Scientific Advisor

An internationally-respected key opinion leader in drug development and a serial entrepreneur, his background includes strong scientific, business, managerial and deal-making experience.

Dr Wilding is an internationally recognized expert in the design, development and clinical evaluation of drug delivery systems with over 250 research papers, abstracts and patents. In 2005 he received the Controlled Release Society career achievement award in oral drug delivery and in 2013 became an eminent fellow of the UK Academy of Pharmaceutical Scientists. In 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from Monash University in recognition of his outstanding contribution as a scientific innovator and leader in drug development. Ian is a special Professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Nottingham and in 1997 he was appointed as an expert scientist for the FDA in the area of food effects on drug bioavailability. He has also served on several UK and European Innovation and Enterprise Advisory Boards to include the UK CBI Technology and Innovation Committee and the European Commission FP7 Advisory Committee for SMEs.

In a long career commercializing science, Dr Wilding was the cofounder of Pharmaceutical Profiles (now Quotient Sciences), R5 Pharmaceuticals, Zysis, Modern BioSciences (now Istesso) and BioCity Nottingham. Ian is currently a non-executive Director of Locate Bio and he consults for over 30 pharmaceutical and biotech companies on a wide range of strategic and technical drug development issues.