Alessandra Tocco has over 30 years of experience in the alternatives investment industry. Most recently, she served as a managing director focusing on business strategy for a fixed income asset management firm, Good Hill Partners. Prior to joining Good Hill Partners, she was a managing director at J.P. Morgan, sitting on the prime brokerage management committee, where she was responsible for creating and overseeing the Global Capital Advisory Group. Before that, she was a director of US capital introduction at ABN-AMRO, focusing on macro and fixed income strategies. In 2015, she was honored as one of the “50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds” by The Hedge Fund Journal. Outside of the office, she supports several local charities and civic organizations and is the current president of the New York Alternative Investment Roundtable, an organization tasked with promoting education and best practices within the alternative investment industry. Prior to joining the LLS Board, she sat on LLS’s investment committee and the youth development committee of the NYC Chapter of the YMCA. Tocco holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Mercy College and continues to work closely with the development office at Mercy, where she helps students prepare for a career in finance.

Freda Wang is a managing director in Goldman Sachs’ Public Sector & Infrastructure Group within the investment banking division. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, she was a managing director and head of structured banking within the Municipal Securities Group at UBS. Wang has spent over two decades providing investment banking services to some of the country’s largest public sector organizations, including state and local governments, public utility systems, transportation and mass transit agencies and other public and quasi-public organizations. Over the course of her career, she has helped numerous governmental, corporate and nonprofit clients solve complex financing challenges related to public projects. Wang was named the 2018 Woman of the Year candidate for LLS’s Connecticut Westchester Hudson Valley Chapter. She currently serves as treasurer and board member of FUSE Corps, and as vice chair of the board and chair of the finance committee of New York City Health & Hospitals. Freda earned a bachelor’s degree in urban studies with a concentration in economics from Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City.

Marla S. Persky retired as senior vice president and general counsel of Boehringer Ingelheim USA Corporation in 2013. She launched WOMN LLC, a company dedicated to diversifying the legal professions by helping women succeed in the business of law by increasing their knowledge of and acuity with leadership principles, financial drivers and strategy. Through years of mentoring and executive coaching, she has shared her experience and observations with other attorneys and professionals to assist them in building valued, inclusive legal departments, career development and achieving business excellence. Persky’s leadership and efforts to improve diversity and inclusion in the legal profession have been recognized by elite organizations such as the Lawyer’s Collaborative for Diversity and the Connecticut Appleseed Foundation. She was recognized as one of the ten most innovative in-house counsel for her strategy and efforts to increase the opportunities and visibility of women in high profile litigation.  Additionally, Persky serves as an independent director on several for-profit and other non-profit boards.

Janice L. Gabrilove, MD is The James F. Holland Professor of Medicine, associate director, Education & Training for the Tisch Cancer Institute and director of the Clinical Research Education Program at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She previously served on the faculty at Memorial Sloan Kettering. Dr. Gabrilove is the recipient of a patent for the discovery of human granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), and was the first to demonstrate that it could alleviate certain harmful effects of chemotherapy on blood cell production. She has worked closely on the development of novel therapeutics for fostering leukemic cell maturation, and has been awarded patents for two additional drugs, approved by the FDA, for the treatment of myeloid leukemia. She is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, has served as a member of the Editorial Boards for the journal Blood, UpToDate, Clinical Cancer Research & Leukemia; and on the FDA Advisory Committee for approval of Biologics, among others. She has also served as an elected councilor on the executive committee for the American Society of Hematology. Dr. Gabrilove graduated from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai where she held the highest academic standing in the graduating medical school class.

Dr. Al-Lazikani is a data scientist and drug discovery expert who applies data science and machine learning to tackle key challenges in cancer drug discovery and development. She is formally trained in both Molecular Biology and Computer Science. After obtaining her PhD from the University of Cambridge, she became a Howard Hughes Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University. With experience in both academia and the biotechnology industry, Dr. Al-Lazikani has faced numerous hurdles in the drug discovery and development pipelines.

Her research focuses on harnessing the power of data and artificial intelligence to overcome these challenges, accelerate drug discovery, and mitigate risks associated with innovation. Specifically, she uses data science methods to integrate multi-disciplinary and multi-modal data to inform all aspects of cancer translational research. Additionally, she develops novel machine learning algorithms that learn from this integrated data, aiding decision-making and experimental design throughout the drug discovery process.

Dr. Al-Lazikani led the development of canSAR.ai, the world’s largest public cancer drug discovery platform, which helps inform target selection and prioritization for drug discovery. Currently, she leads the Therapeutics Data Science Initiative at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where her goal is to maximize the use of AI to enhance the entire drug discovery and development pathway. She is also a co-lead at MD Anderson’s Institute for Data Science in Oncology, where she is developing Digital Twins to optimize treatment options for patients.

Dr. Al-Lazikani is a recipient of numerous awards including being Elected Fellow of the International Society for Computational Biology and the Royal Society of Biology.

Rich Bagger served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Market Access for Celgene from January 2012 through December 2019, where he oversaw communications, patient advocacy, government relations and policy, market access, global health and corporate responsibility. Before joining Celgene, Bagger was Chief of Staff for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. His public service also includes 11 years in the New Jersey Senate and Assembly, where he was Chair of the Appropriations Committee and Majority Conference Leader, and 9 years as a Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Previously, Bagger worked at Pfizer for more than 16 years in a series of positions of increasing responsibility within the company’s U.S. Pharmaceuticals, Corporate Affairs and Worldwide Pharmaceuticals Divisions. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers University. He received a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and a law degree from Rutgers University Law School.

Leroy M. Ball is chief executive officer of Koppers and serves as chairman of the board of directors. Under Ball’s leadership, Koppers is focused on creating, protecting and preserving key elements of our global infrastructure. Additionally, he has placed special emphasis on anchoring the company culture in its values of People, Planet and Performance. Ball joined Koppers in September 2010 as vice president and chief financial officer, providing oversight for the finance, treasury, information technology and investor relations functions. From May to December 2014, he held the role of chief operating officer, with responsibility for the company’s global business operations. He was elected president and chief executive officer in January 2015. Prior to Koppers, Leroy spent 10 years with Calgon Carbon Corporation, an international chemical company. During this time, he served as controller before being named senior vice president and chief financial officer in 2002. He also served as president of the company’s majority-owned Japanese joint venture. Previously, Ball held several positions in finance with Carmeuse Lime Co./Dravo Corporation. Ball is a member of the board of directors for ATI Inc., a global specialty materials company, and Highmark Inc., a leading health insurance organization. Active in the local community, he serves on the boards of directors for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and The Advanced Leadership Initiative (TALI). In 2024, the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) Three Rivers Chapter honored Ball with the Director of the Year Award for Leadership in Company Governance. In 2020, he received the Chuck Cooper Foundation Leadership Award for his commitment to promoting diversity and making a positive community impact. In 2019, DEKRA Organizational Safety and Reliability recognized him with its Safety in Action ICON Award. In 2018, the Pittsburgh Business Times selected Ball as an Outstanding CEO. He also was honored in 2016 with the Board Diversity Ambassador Award from 2020 Women on Boards, Pittsburgh. Ball received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida International University and earned an MBA from Robert Morris University. He resides in the Pittsburgh area with his wife, Ginger, and is the proud father of two daughters, Leah and Ally.

Mark J. Barrenechea joined OpenText as president and chief executive officer in January 2012 and serves as a member of the Board of Directors. In January 2016, Barrenechea took on the role of chief technology officer and was appointed vice chair in September 2017. As CEO of Canada’s largest software company, he oversees the strategic and operational direction of the organization and upholds the company’s position at the forefront of the industry. Under his direction, OpenText has grown through innovation and strategic acquisitions into a multibillion-dollar cloud company. A prominent thought leader, Barrenechea’s extensive experience in information technology and business affords him unique insights into today’s world of rapid disruption and evolving technological change. Before joining OpenText, Barrenechea was president and chief executive officer of Silicon Graphics International (SGI) Corporation, where he also served as a member of the Board. Prior to SGI, Barrenechea served as executive vice president and CTO for CA, Inc., formerly Computer Associates International, Inc. and as a member of the executive management team. He also served on the executive management team at Oracle Corporation as senior vice president of applications development, responsible for managing a multi-thousand-member global team. He has also served in several other positions, including vice president of development at Scopus, a software applications company, and vice president of development at Tesseract. Barrenechea received his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Saint Michael’s College in Burlington, VT.

Sharon Castellino MD, MSc, is Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Castellino serves as the Director of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Program at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where she holds the Mark R. Hudgens Chair for Clinical Research. She is the founder and co-leader of the leukemia and lymphoma biorepository and vice chair for the pediatric oncology precision medicine protocol at Children's, and is a member of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University. Nationally, Dr. Castellino serves as the scientific chair for the Children's Oncology Group (COG) Hodgkin Lymphoma Committee. She has led several seminal clinical trials for children, adolescents, and young adults with Hodgkin lymphoma and has been a leader in creating models for collaborative research to benefit children and adolescents. Her expertise is in the study of outcomes and late effects in patients with hematologic malignancies and in the design of clinical trials in pediatric oncology. Her work across clinical trials, outcomes, and health services research has always included a focus in examining disparities in cancer outcomes by race, ethnicity, and age. Dr. Castellino received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at Mount Holyoke College and her MD from Duke University School of Medicine. She did her pediatric internship and second year of residency at Boston Children's Hospital and returned to Duke to complete her fellowship in pediatric Hematology and Oncology. She later obtained a master's degree in health outcomes at Wake Forest School of Medicine, where she founded and ran the pediatric cancer survivorship program.

Casey Cunningham, MD is a partner and the chief scientific officer of Santé Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on creating and investing in companies in healthcare and life sciences. Dr. Cunningham received his fellowship training in oncology and hematology at Harvard Medical School, where he subsequently served on the faculty. He was also one of the founding members of the Division of Experimental Medicine at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Cunningham received his medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School with a residency in Internal Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He returned to Texas in 1999 as the Associate Director of the Mary Crowley Cancer Research Center in Dallas, a position he held until 2007. He joined Santé Ventures shortly after its founding. He has served on the Board of Directors of multiple Santé portfolio companies.

Mike Farmer was formerly president of commercial operations at Builders FirstSource. He led the company's commercial efforts, including sales and national accounts, marketing, customer segment strategy, and innovation. In this role, Farmer was responsible for leading the implementation of commercial operations best practices to create sustainable growth and drive innovation through best-in-class manufacturing capabilities in components, millwork, and READY-FRAME®, while providing an exceptional customer experience. He previously served as executive vice president of operational excellence, people and growth at BMC. Before that, he worked as the company's senior vice president of human resources. Farmer joined Stock Building Supply in 2006, which merged with BMC in 2015, as a member of its human resources department. Prior to that, he held several leadership positions at ATX-CoreComm. Farmer earned his bachelor's degree from Hope College and master's degree from Michigan State University. He has completed executive development programs at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and at Harvard University.

Carol G. Gallagher, PharmD has over thirty-five years of experience in the Biopharmaceutical industry in both business and drug-development roles, as a CEO, and as a venture capital investor. She has been involved in the development of five approved therapies. She has also served as an advisor to large pharma and academic institutions. Currently, she serves as chairman or as a director on several biopharma boards. In addition to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, her philanthropic interests include serving on the board of trustees at the Salk Institute and as a board member of Life Science Cares San Diego. She previously served on the board of Sharp Healthcare which is an integrated healthcare provider in San Diego. Dr. Gallagher attended Vanderbilt University and received BS and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy.

Stasia Kelly is senior advisor to the chair and executive director of client relations at DLA Piper, where she also served as U.S. Managing Partner (2012–2020). With extensive experience as both outside counsel and general counsel, she advises boards, executives, and legal teams on governance, compliance, and crisis management. Kelly previously served as vice chairman of American International Group (AIG), overseeing global legal, compliance, regulatory, and corporate affairs functions. She joined AIG in 2006 as executive vice president (EVP), general counsel, and chief regulatory and compliance officer, and expanded her role in 2009. Prior to AIG, she was EVP and general counsel at MCI/WorldCom, guiding the company through its restructuring and acquisition by Verizon. Her earlier roles included SVP and general counsel at Sears, where she restructured legal and compliance teams, and at Fannie Mae, where she centralized and upgraded legal operations nationwide. Kelly began her legal career at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal.

She holds a J.D. magna cum laude from George Washington University Law School and a B.A. cum laude from Trinity University in Washington, DC. She currently serves on the board of Huntington Ingalls Industries and has served in various legal and educational organizations, including the Washington Lawyers' Committee and George Washington University's Center for Law, Economics and Finance. She recently joined the Board of Humane World for Animals. Kelly has received numerous honors, including the ABA's Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, and recognition by the National Law Journal as a "Trailblazer & Pioneer" and in the Lawdragon 500 and its Hall of Fame.

Ari Melnick, MD, is the Laurel Gebroe Family professor of hematology/oncology and a professor of medicine, immunology and pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medicine (WCM) in New York City. He earned his medical degree from the University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine. Dr. Melnick’s long-standing research interests include oncogenic epigenetic mechanisms, biology and molecular targeting of B-cell lymphomas and acute leukemias, targeting transcriptional and epigenetic repressors for cancer therapy, and identifying the epigenetic basis of hematologic malignancies. He and his research associates have developed several novel therapies to correct aberrant transcriptional regulation and signaling in these tumors. These have led to early phase as well as phase III cooperative group clinical trials and FDA approvals. He has created novel infrastructures for translational research and created dynamic bench to bedside teams of clinical investigators with laboratory scientists. He also has an interest in health disparities in hematologic malignancies and is developing precision medicine approaches to address some of these challenges. Dr. Melnick has authored more than 340 published manuscripts in journals such as Nature, Science, Cell, Cancer Discovery, Cancer Cell, Nature Medicine, Nature Immunology, and the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Melnick has been Scientific chair of the American Society of Hematology annual meeting and chair of the AACR Lymphoma Meetings in 2018 and 2020. He also has organized a number of other international scientific meetings in the areas of epigenetics and hematologic malignancies. He has participated in numerous study sections for the NIH and other organizations and is a member of the editorial board for journals such as Cancer Discovery, Blood Cancer Discovery and Science Advances.

Lynne F. O'Brien worked as a policy analyst with the White House Cancer Moonshot office under former Vice President, Joe Biden. Previously, she worked as director of the Washington government affairs office of DuPont Merck, working with members of Congress on issues involving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, tax legislation, and health care reform. She started her career in D.C. with Williams and Jensen, a law firm in Washington, DC, focusing on healthcare clients. She is on the board of the Potomac School in McLean Virginia and member of Princeton's Alumni Schools Committee. She was formerly on the board of the National Organization for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. O'Brien graduated cum laude from Princeton with a degree in political science and earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center.

Alex Okafor is a retired nine-year NFL vet who began his professional football career with the Arizona Cardinals. He went on to play with the New Orleans Saints, and the Kansas City Chiefs with whom he won the Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Prior to his NFL career, Okafor was an All-American college football player for the Texas Longhorns at The University of Texas at Austin, where he received a number of awards for his academic and athletic performance. He graduated in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in communications. With a desire to do something in honor of his beloved mother, Sonia, who passed away from acute myeloid leukemia in May 2020, Okafor helped launch LLS's Scholarship for Blood Cancer Survivors in 2021. He continues to sponsor the scholarship through his Family Foundation and volunteers his time to program events and other LLS initiatives. Okafor is active in his local community and currently serves on the Board of Trustees of Pflugerville Independent School District of which he is an alum.

Jim Reddoch, PhD has more than 25 years of experience in biopharma investing. As Royalty Pharma's CSO & EVP, Investments, he leverages his science background to identify trends and find new investment opportunities. He joined Royalty Pharma as EVP, Research, in 2008. Prior to joining Royalty Pharma, Dr. Reddoch led healthcare research at FBR Capital Markets. Previously, Dr. Reddoch was a biotechnology analyst at Bank of America and CIBC World Markets. Dr. Reddoch serves on the boards of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) and the New York Academy of Sciences. He is on the MSK Leadership Council as well as the review board for MSK's Technology Development Investment Fund. He is co-chairman of Life Science Cares New York and is on the national board of Life Science Cares. Dr. Reddoch is on the President's Advisory Committee on Biology and Medicine at Brown University, as well as the President's Advisory Committee of Tyler Jacks' Break Through Cancer initiative. Dr. Reddoch has a BA from Furman University, a PhD in biochemistry and molecular genetics from UAB, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University.

Richard M. Rendina is the chairman and chief executive officer of Rendina Healthcare Real Estate. Since 2006, he has led all strategic and operational aspects of the company, overseeing the development and acquisition of over 3.7 million square feet of healthcare real estate across 19 states, with project costs nearing $1 billion. As a non-Hodgkin's lymphoma survivor, Rendina's personal journey with cancer has deepened his commitment to supporting others facing similar challenges. He serves on The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's National Board and has co-chaired the LLS Palm Beach Area Chapter's Annual Black-Tie Gala. In recognition of his dedication, LLS named a research portfolio focused on non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in his honor.

Rendina is also vice president of the Rendina Family Foundation, which supports cancer-related causes and other charitable initiatives. Additionally, he holds board positions with the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, MyClinic, and Cardinal Newman High School, where he is active in the Advisory Board, Athletic Department Committee, and serves as co-chair of the school's Capital Campaign. He earned his Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Notre Dame in 2002. Rendina was honored with the "Ultimate CEO"Award” by the South Florida Business Journal in 2013 and the "Legacy Award" from the Palm Beach County Medical Society in 2014.

Robert Rosen is a managing member of Greyhawke Capital Advisors LLC, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based company which invests capital in, and applies management expertise to, selected investment opportunities generally involving net leased real estate properties. From 2012 through 2022, he has served as an independent director of KLS Diversified, a hedge fund specializing in trading multiple debt strategies. Prior to this role, he was chief executive officer and at Odin Management Company, LP and Newkirk Limited Partnership. He has also practiced real estate and securities law as a senior partner at Hertzog, Calamari & Gleason and Rosen, Hacker & Nierenberg. Rosen is a graduate of Columbia Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He graduated cum laude with departmental honors in political science from the University of Massachusetts. Rosen is a member of the Dean’s Council at Columbia Law School and the Advisory Board of the Richman Center at Columbia University for Business, Law and Public Policy.

Rayne H. Rouce, MD is a board-certified pediatric hematologist/oncologist at Texas Children's Cancer Center at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), where she is also a physician-scientist. Her clinical and research interests are harnessing the immune system to target leukemia and lymphoma. Dr. Rouce has served as the Pediatric Clinical Cell Therapy Lead, Co-Director of the Immunotherapy Fellowship, and principal investigator on numerous first-in-human immunotherapy trials targeting leukemia and lymphoma. Passionate about addressing health disparities and access to novel treatments and trials, she leads the Task Force for Promoting Equity in Clinical Trials within the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center at BCM. Dr. Rouce supports health equity initiatives within medicine in general and cancer specifically by serving as the Director of Community Outreach and Engagement within BCM's Office of Community Engagement and Health Equity and as the Associate Director of Community Outreach and Engagement for the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also leads DEI programs for scientific organizations such as ASH, ASGCT, and ASTCT. Dr. Rouce actively presents, advocates, and participates in collaborative groups tackling health disparities and cancer-related equity issues.

Jeff Sachs retired as the North American senior managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Hotels and Hospitality Strategic Advisory and Asset Management Group. Before joining JLL, Sachs was a founding partner of Strategic Advisory Group, which was acquired by JLL in early 2016. Prior to forming Strategic Advisory Group in 1998, he was the national director of the public assembly consulting practice and the southeast director of the hospitality practice for Ernst & Young. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in accounting from the University of Iowa. Sachs has been a volunteer with LLS since 2005, one year after surviving a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.

Lilian Stern is Principal at Stern IR, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in investor relations services for biotechnology companies. She founded Stern IR to provide differentiated investor relations and communications consulting to the healthcare industry, with a particular focus on biotechnology, including specialty pharmaceuticals, innovative diagnostics and tools, and vaccines. She has initiated and participated in some of the firm's key accomplishments including working with the team to represent over 500 companies during Stern IR's tenure and rolling out and positioning many multibillion-dollar M&A transactions. Stern holds an A.B. from Cornell University in molecular biology and biochemistry where she was a college scholar and holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Yvette Tremonti is the chief financial and administrative officer of Moffitt Cancer Center, the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center based in Florida. Tremonti is responsible for overseeing the financial and administrative operations of the center. Tremonti has worked for Moffitt Cancer Center since 1996, initially as the director of accounting. As vice president of human resources, she introduced several innovative programs including flexible work arrangements and employee benefit redesigns that helped Moffitt earn an Employer of Choice Award and be named one of Working Mother Magazine’s 100 Best Companies. Prior to Moffitt, she spent nine years with Ernst & Young in the audit practice focused on for-profit and nonprofit health care entities. She was also awarded the 2018 Chief Financial Officer of the Year by the Tampa Bay Business Journal and the 2019 The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Woman of the Year for Tampa Bay. She is a member of the American and Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Tremonti has a personal connection with cancer. Her son, Michael, was diagnosed with leukemia at eight years old. He went into remission in 2015 and in September 2022, he relapsed and is currently in his second remission. Tremonti holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of South Florida and an MBA from Auburn University.