Management

Mr. White is a founder of our company and has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since our inception in May 2011. From 2008 to 2011, Mr. White served as Executive Director, Global Corporate Development, for Stiefel Laboratories, Inc., a dermatology pharmaceutical company acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in 2009. From 2007 to 2008, he co-founded and served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Percept BioScience, Inc., a biotechnology company. In 2003, Mr. White co-founded, and until 2007 served as Vice President of Finance and Corporate Development of Alimera Sciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on ophthalmology. He was Head of Business Development and Licensing for CIBA Vision, a Novartis company, and Director of Licensing and Business Development for AAIPharma. Mr. White holds a Master of Business Administration from Wake Forest University and a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from Auburn University.

Mr. Deignan has served as our Chief Financial Officer since January 2012. From 2009 to December 2011, Mr. Deignan was Vice President of Finance and Administration for Salutria Pharmaceuticals. From 1999 to 2009, Mr. Deignan served in a number of roles with AtheroGenics, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company, including as Vice President of Finance and Administration. His career has included management positions at AAIPharma, Inc., and Schering-Plough. Mr. Deignan received his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Boston University.

Mr. Andino has served as our Vice President, Engineering and Manufacturing since February 2013. June He has also served as Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology since June 2013. From January 2009 to February 2013, he was Director of Research and Development for Bard Medical, a division of C.R. Bard, Inc., a publicly traded company. In 1999, Mr. Andino founded, and until 2008 served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Biofisica, Inc., a biotechnology company that developed technology to expedite wound healing and regeneration of connective tissue in humans. Prior to founding Biofisica, from 1995 to 2005 Mr. Andino was a Research and Development Director and Senior Project Manager for CIBA Vision, a Novartis company. He has also worked for the global technology companies E.I. Dupont de Nemours, General Electric, and IBM. Mr. Andino received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Business Administration from Mercer University.

Dr. Kissner was promoted to Vice President, Clinical Development in August 2016 after having served as our Senior Director of Development since August 2014. Dr. Kissner has 14 years of clinical development experience, 9 of which have been with entities addressing sight-threatening diseases in positions at ophthalmology companies such as Alcon Laboratories, Inc., a Novartis company and Acucela, Inc. Dr. Kissner received her PhD and conducted her post-doctoral research at Emory University before spending five years at Vanderbilt University addressing infectious diseases while holding several positions of increasing responsibility in the Department of Pediatrics and developing a centralized clinical research office.

Mr. McElheny has served as our Vice President, Corporate Development since November 2016. From 2011 to 2015, Mr. McElheny Founded and served as Vice President Corporate Development and Supply Chain for Vidara Therapeutics, a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and marketing orphan drugs. From 2005 to 2011, he worked in various roles at Meda Pharmaceuticals including business development, market research, and supply chain management. He has also worked in various supply chain roles at Johnson and Johnson and Schering Plough. Mr. McElheny holds a Master of Business Administration degree from New York University and Bachelor of Science degrees in Environmental Resource Management and Business Management from Penn State University.

Mr. Zacks has served as our General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer since September 2018. In a distinguished career, Mr. Zacks most recently served as Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he provided strategic counsel on legal, intellectual property and compliance issues. Prior to joining Arbor, Mr. Zacks was Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer at Shionogi Pharma, Inc. from 2004 to 2010. From 2002 to 2004, he worked at Hunton & Williams, LLP, where he was a partner in the Intellectual Property Litigation department. Mr. Zacks is a registered patent attorney who has held associate positions at Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, LLP and at Webb, Carlock, Copeland, Semler and Stair, LLP. Mr. Zacks holds a J.D. and a B.A. in English from the University of Florida. Mr. Zacks serves on the Advisory Board for CURE Childhood Cancer and is on the Board of Directors for the Atlanta Track Club.

Dr. Ciulla has served as our Chief Medical Officer since October 2018. Prior to joining Clearside, Dr. Ciulla served a VP role, as Medical Strategy Lead-Ophthalmology at Spark Therapeutics, where he defined and led medical strategy to support development and commercialization of Luxturna (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl), the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease. He previously served a VP role, in Clinical Strategy at Ophthotech Corporation.

Before launching his executive management career, Dr. Ciulla co-directed the retina service and ocular angiogenesis research lab at Indiana University School of Medicine, the largest U.S. med school. He remains a volunteer Clinical Professor at the university and serves on the Board of Directors of Midwest Eye Institute. He is an active member of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Macula and Retina Societies, American Society of Retina Specialists, and the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Dr. Ciulla has held numerous leadership roles in clinical research, including principal investigator, medical monitor, and member of scientific advisory, data safety monitoring or writing committees in over 100 national clinical trials, including CATT and registration trials for nearly all retinal therapeutics approved by the FDA. He has served on journal editorial boards, edited several textbooks, presented at over 200 conferences, and co-authored over 200 publications, including the first published U.S.-based randomized clinical trial on any intravitreal therapy in neovascular AMD. Dr. Ciulla graduated from Harvard College and UCSF Med School, followed by an internship and residency at Harvard Med School, and a fellowship at Tufts Med School. He also earned an MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, specializing in the business of medicine.