Management Team

FRANK J. BELLIZZI, DMD

Chief Executive Officer

Frank Bellizzi has over 25 years of experience, within and beyond Life Sciences, as an operator, consultant and advisor leading business transformation and growth. Immediately prior to Concentric, Dr. Bellizzi was CEO of HydraDx, a saliva-based platform for real time health monitoring using a connected device. Dr. Bellizzi also served as President of Zila Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ZILA) where he successfully created and implemented a strategy to build an oral cancer detection business, growing its flagship product, ViziLite® Plus, into the leading oral cancer detection test in the U.S. and internationally.

In addition, as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Streampipe, a rich media software company, Dr. Bellizzi engineered all aspects of the company’s growth and successful sale to Loudeye (NASDAQ: LOUD).

Earlier in his career, as a member of Booz, Allen & Hamilton’s Health Industries Practice, Dr. Bellizzi facilitated a number of high-profile engagements, including the merger and integration of two leading West Coast health systems, the acquisition strategy for a leading New York health system, and the operational revitalization of the Australian health care system.

Dr. Bellizzi earned his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, his DMD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, and his BS from Georgetown University.

Previously, Dr. Donovan built and ran a large anesthesiology medical practice, East Bay Anesthesiology Medical Group, which provides anesthesia and perioperative medical services to hospitals in the Sutter Health system. Dr. Donovan has conducted research and published on postsurgical pain management, including the use of continuous peripheral nerve blocks for TKA, and has also served as an advisor to a variety of emerging life science businesses. Dr. Donovan completed his residency in anesthesiology at UCSF where he was chief resident and subsequently a member of the clinical faculty.

Dr. Donovan earned BS and MD degrees from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley.

SUSAN KRAMER, DrPH

Executive Vice President, Development

Susan Kramer has more than 30 years experience in biopharmaceutical research and development, the first 18 with Genentech.  She was a co-founder of Corthera, Inc. and has held senior management roles at a number of biotech companies, including XOMA and Anesiva.  She most recently served as Vice President of Product Development at Annexon Biosciences.

Dr. Kramer received a BA from College of St. Scholastica and earned her MPH and DrPH in Biomedical Sciences from the University of California Berkeley.

CRAIG HUSFELD, PhD

Vice President, Medicinal Chemistry & Research and Founder

Craig Husfeld is a synthetic and medicinal chemist with 19 years of pharmaceutical experience. Dr. Husfeld has successfully overseen the synthetic/medicinal chemistry and early-stage CMC work for multiple development stage biotech companies in the analgesic space, including as Director of Medicinal Chemistry at Elysium Therapeutics where he has focused on creating diversion/overdose-resistant opioids.

From 2008 to 2014, Dr. Husfeld was Director of Chemistry at Signature Therapeutics (previously Pharmacofore), where he supported the development of abuse-deterrent opioid prodrugs. Prior to his role at Signature, Dr. Husfeld served as a senior researcher at Theravance Inc.

Dr. Husfeld received a BS in chemistry from University of California, Riverside and a PhD in synthetic organic chemistry from Stanford University.

SUE WOLLOWITZ, PhD

Executive Vice President, Pharmaceutical Operations

Sue Wollowitz has more than 30 years of experience in pharmaceutical development.  She led CMC and Pharmaceutical Operations at Medivation, Inc. for 8 years and previously held a similar position at Cerus Corporation.  She has also worked in discovery research at Dow Chemical Company.  She has consulted on CMC development for a wide variety of products, taught at UC Berkeley Extension, is the holder of 32 patents, and the author of over 20 publications, most recently writing on pharmaceutical development issues for small pharma.

Dr. Wollowitz has a PhD in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and further trained at CNRS in France and at the University of Chicago.

Sam Teichman MD, FACC, FACP, FESC

Vice President, Head of Clinical Development

Sam Teichman has nearly 35 years of global clinical research and drug development leadership experience across broad therapeutic areas.  He was responsible for clinical development at Chiasma, Corthera (now part of Novartis), and ARYx Therapeutics.  Dr. Teichman has consulted, including as interim Chief Medical Officer, for multiple clinical-stage biopharmaceutical companies.  He was formerly a member of the medical faculty of UCSF.  His bibliography includes over 80 original articles, reviews and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals, and he is the holder of several issued patents. 

Dr. Teichman received a BA in chemistry and an MD degree from Columbia University.  He completed a research and clinical cardiology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is Board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology.

Melissa Abel

Senior Commercial Strategy Advisor

Melissa Abel has more than 20 years of commercial experience encompassing marketing, sales, new product planning, market access and market analytics across all stages of product development and in range of disease states.  She recently led new product planning, marketing, market access and market analytics at Medivation as the VP, Commercial Strategy and VP, Strategic Marketing.  She also led teams at Alza, Chiron and started her career at SmithKline Beecham.

Melissa received a BA from the University of Chicago and earned an MBA from Emory University.