Susan Blum, Chief Financial Officer, Melinta Therapeutics

Susan is a financial and accounting leader with more than 25 years of diverse experience strengthening corporate financial strategy, efficiencies, and controls. She’s been an integral part of Melinta’s financial and accounting team since 2016 and has served as CFO since April 2021.

In April 2024, Susan was appointed to the Board of Directors for BiomX, a public, clinical-stage company pioneering natural and engineered phage cocktails and personalized treatments to combat bacteria in chronic diseases. Susan brings her financial expertise to this role, serving as a member and chair of the audit committee.

Before joining Melinta, Susan served as Corporate Controller at Textura, where she oversaw the accounting function and played a lead IPO role with responsibility for centralizing accounting functions post-acquisition. Before Textura, she held leadership roles at Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., where she directed global technical accounting processes. And before that, Susan managed the SEC reporting and revenue functions at Facet Biotech and PDL BioPharma.

Susan began her career in public accounting at Ernst & Young, where she worked with a diverse client base ranging from large, public international SEC engagements to development-stage enterprises.

She holds a B.S. in Business Commerce, concentration in Accounting, from Santa Clara University and is a certified public accountant.

Jacob Meyer, Economist & Director, Barings

Jacob Meyer does economic research in global markets for Barings. His past experience includes doing sell-side research on the U.S. economy at Nomura, covering the macroeconomic outlook for the U.S. and Canadian economies as a Senior Economist at Swiss Re, and working as a Quantitative Economist at UBS in Forecasting and Scenario Analysis. Prior to moving to the private sector, he taught courses on international macroeconomics, international finance, and quantitative analysis at the undergraduate through Ph.D. level, and published academic research.

His research specialty lies at the intersection of macroeconomics, international economics, political economy, and econometrics/machine learning, with 1st/solo authored publications in academic journals such as the Journal of Economics and Econometrics and the Review of World Economics.

Ira J. Schacter, Partner, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Ira Schacter is a senior partner and co-chair of Cadwalader's Corporate Group. He frequently serves as a holistic strategic advisor and extension of internal counsel to his clients in the financial services, technology and life sciences sectors. 

Ira also focuses on all aspects of complex structured finance transactions. Over the course of his more than 35-year career, Ira has been involved in virtually every type of securitization, including whole-company, insurance risk and CLOs, and with assets ranging from the traditional to the esoteric, including corporate loans, swap receivables, repurchase agreements and other financial assets, as well as franchise and intellectual property royalties and consumer assets. In addition, Ira has worked extensively on transactions in the life sciences and technology sectors involving strategic alliances and commercialization collaborations, and intellectual property monetizations.

Kurt Nielsen, Senior Advisor

Kurt Nielsen, former President and CEO of Pharmaceutics International Inc (Pii). Dr. Nielsen is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive with over 20 years of diverse experience, including President of Lupin Somerset, responsible for all its generic and branded products. Prior to Lupin, he held the post of Vice President, U.S. Development, Portfolio and Launch Management at Sandoz Inc., where he was accountable for the U.S. development of generic, OTC and specialty brand products. Dr. Nielsen has also held positions at Catalent, where he was Senior Vice President of R&D and Chief Technology Officer, and URL Pharma where he was the Executive Vice President, Pharmaceuticals. Dr Nielsen has been extensively involved in technology licensing and M&A transactions throughout his executive career.

Shubhra Mehrotra, Vice President & Head of NA Business Development, Dr. Reddy's

Shubhra Mehrotra currently serves as Vice President & Head of Business Development for North America at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, focusing on developing and executing strategies for growth, mergers and acquisitions, and strategic partnerships.

Her prior experience includes serving as Executive Director at Sandoz, where Shubhra drove portfolio growth in the US market, and roles at Cipla Ltd., Mylan Pharmaceuticals, TCG Lifesciences Pvt Ltd., LUPIN LABORATORIES, and Mitsui & Co., Ltd., encompassing business development, licensing, strategic planning, and operations.

Shubhra received her MBA from the Indian School of Business, a Post Graduate Programme in International Management from the International Management Institute, and a Bachelor's degree in Applied Sciences from Isabella Thoburn College-University of Lucknow. Additionally, Ms Mehrotra completed an Executive Program in Artificial Intelligence from MIT Sloan School of Management.