OUR leadership

Ved Srivastava, Ph.D.

 Dr. Ved Srivastava has over 25 years of scientific experience including entrepreneurial spirit in peptide therapeutics across big pharma, biotech and the biopharmaceutical industries. Ved is Vice President of Chemistry at Intarcia Therapeutics and President of the American Peptide Society. Prior to Intarcia, he was co-founder and Vice President of peptide chemistry of Phoundry Pharmaceuticals. Phoundry was acquired by Intarcia Therapeutics. Prior to that, he was the Head of Peptide Chemistry at GlaxoSmithKline (USA), and in the senior leadership role at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Ved has expertise in peptide medicinal chemistry, peptide drug delivery and chemistry manufacturing and control (CMC) with major emphasis in drug discovery and development in metabolic diseases, CNS, and inflammation therapeutic area. He has significantly contributed to the development of three peptide-based drugs ByettaTM, SymlinTM, and BydeureonTM  for the treatment of diabetes and to advancing several clinical  candidates in metabolic diseases.

Ved has co-authored and published more than sixty peer-reviewed manuscripts, patents, and abstracts, and has published four books focused on peptide discovery and development. Ved is vice-chair and member of the Peptides Expert Committee (BIO1) of the United States Pharmacopeia and serves in the governance of the FASEB, American Chemical Society (ACS), and Royal Chemical Society (editor-in-chief, pharmaceutical books). Ved earned a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Lucknow, India.

Oscar R. Rebolledo, Ph.D.

Dr. Oscar Rebolledo has over 10 years of experience in sales, marketing and business development strategy and alignment currently serving as the Director of Business Development at STA Pharmaceuticals, a WuXi AppTec Company (WuXi STA). Prior to this, Oscar was a Director of Business Development at Minakem, a French-Belgian CDMO focused on sales of high potent API and ADC payload-linker drug substance manufacturing. Prior to that, Oscar held various leadership positions at DAISO Fine Chem USA, a Japanese chemical manufacturer in strategy, sales, and new product development for preparative chromatography.

Oscar has supported virtual startups, biotech, and Fortune 500 pharmaceutical companies in taking their drugs from discovery to commercial across all CMC functions of small molecules, peptides, and drug conjugates as well as managing outsourced R&D and manufacturing in Asia and Europe, program planning and budgeting, and contract and pricing negotiations.

Oscar earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA and business, finance, and marketing certificates from Harvard Business School. 

Anastasia Velentza, Ph.D.

Dr. Anastasia Velentza is an R&D Leader with a multidisciplinary science background and more than 20 years of experience in Drug Discovery Research. She is a strong leader of cross-functional teams in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry as well as in academia.  Dr. Velentza currently serves as an Associate Director for Ferring Pharmaceuticals. She brings a wealth of experience in several therapeutic areas including Neuroscience, Oncology, Autoimmune and Inflammatory disease, Metabolic disease, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Endocrinology spanning a wide variety of molecular targets, such as kinases, phosphatases, GPCRs, transporters, protein-protein interactions (PPIs), transcription factors and cytokines. Prior to Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Velentza was a Senior Scientist at Dart Neuroscience where she joined drug development teams as a pharmacology expert, established new drug discovery technologies and led high throughput screening campaigns. Prior to that, she served Novartis as a Principal/Research investigator.  At Novartis, she led the biology and pharmacology efforts of several scientific projects covering a wide range of molecular targets mainly in Oncology and Cardiovascular and Metabolic disease therapeutic areas.

Dr. Velentza received a 3-year T32 National Research Service Award scholarship for an NIH-funded postdoctoral drug discovery training program at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, IL. She completed her Ph.D. in Bioorganic Chemistry, which focused on the synthesis and SAR of insect neuropeptides, at the University of Patras in Greece. Dr. Velentza has received awards at national and international conferences for her research which has been documented in more than 20 peer reviewed publications, 2 issued patents and more than 30 presentations at national and international meetings.

Wendy Hartsock, Ph.D.

Dr. Wendy Hartsock is a Medical Affairs Professional currently serving as a Senior Medical Science Liaison (MSL) for Amgen, USA. She previously served as an MSL for Allergan Aesthetics and as a Drug Discovery Peptide Scientist at Ferring Research Institute. Prior to that, she was the Peptide Applications Specialist for Biotage covering the Americas and helping customers to troubleshoot their chemistry as well as educating internal and external stakeholders. Dr. Hartsock brings a diverse background with over 10 years of experience in pharma and science education.

Dr. Hartsock is the co-chair of the 2022 Chemistry and Biology of Peptides Gordon Research Conference and is an exceptionally active member of the American Peptide Society. She is engaged in coordinating global networking events, seminars, and educational panels. Dr. Hartsock is also a passionate volunteer for public engagement in the sciences, science education and improving representation of minorities and women in science.