BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Ryan Barrett – Chairman of the Board
Ryan is the General Counsel at atai Life Sciences. Ryan has spent the majority of the past decade serving on the executive teams of public and private biotechnology companies, for which he has been responsible for building and leading the legal, corporate development, and intellectual property functions. Ryan is also experienced in public and private financings, including IPOs. Over the course of his career, Ryan has held multiple strategic and operational roles within various biotechnology, not-for-profit and financial services companies.
Ryan is an attorney admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; he holds a B.S. in biochemistry and a B.A. in Italian language from Trinity College (Hartford, CT), and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law (Cleveland, OH).
Richard G Farrell – Chief Financial Officer & Chief Operating Officer
Richard is a former Investment Banker with over 23 years of experience in finance, M&A, capital raises and corporate restructures in Australia and the United States. Richard has been founder and CFO of several companies and was formerly an Investment Banker with Beerworth & Partners in Sydney Australia, where he advised on takeovers and private placements. Prior to that, Richard was with Ernst & Young Corporate Finance and formerly Deloitte Touché Corporate Finance. Richard has a BComm. (Australian National University), LLB (Australian National University) and a Graduate Diploma in Finance & Investment (Finsia).
H. Christian Fibiger, PhD – Independent Director
Dr. Fibiger has held senior positions in biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to serving as SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Biovail, he was VP and Global Head of Neuroscience at Amgen, and VP of Neuroscience Discovery and Clinical Investigation at Eli Lilly and Company. Until 1998, he was Professor and Head of the Division of Neurological Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Dr. Fibiger received his PhD in Psychopharmacology from Princeton University.
Srinivas Rao M.D., Ph.D. – Director
Srinivas Rao is the Chief Scientific Officer at atai Life Sciences. Dr. Rao has over 19 years of professional experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Prior to atai, Dr. Rao has held the titles of Chief Scientific, Medical, or Executive Officer at companies ranging from venture-backed startups to vertically-integrated, publicly-traded pharmaceutical companies.
Dr. Rao completed an internship in Internal Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He received his Ph.D. in neurobiology from Yale Graduate School and his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine. He holds both a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Yale College and Yale Graduate School, respectively.
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Mario Saltarelli, M.D., Ph.D. – Chief Executive Officer / Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Saltarelli has over 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, primarily in senior executive roles with extensive experience in anxiety, depression and other CNS disorders, and has led companies through all aspects of clinical development, regulatory approvals, strategic planning and major capital raises and mergers & acquisitions. Dr. Saltarelli was formerly with several market-leading companies including Pfizer, Abbott (AbbVie), Annexon, and Syntimmune.
Dr. Saltarelli earned his bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a doctor of medicine degree and a doctor of philosophy degree in neuropharmacology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was an intern in internal medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center and completed neurology residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital.