Robert Ilaria Jr., MD

Rob has held a variety of leadership roles in early and late phase oncology drug development in both large Pharma and small Biotech companies.  He has led the development of approximately 35 compounds, ranging from small molecules to biologics during his time at Eli Lilly and Company, Celgene, and BMS.  For the last five years he has focused on Chief Medical Officer roles for biotech companies developing novel immuno-oncology assets.

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Prior to his Pharma career, Rob was a bench researcher at Harvard Medical School and UT Southwestern Medical Center studying cell signaling in hematological malignancies and developing translational mouse models of pediatric malignancies.  His clinical focus was bone marrow transplantation and soft tissue sarcoma.  He received his MD degree at UT Southwestern Medical School and completed his medical house-staff training and hematology-oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Dana-Faber Cancer Institute. 

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Rob has remained clinically active throughout his pharmaceutical career as a volunteer attending staff physician at outpatient oncology clinics at the Indianapolis VA hospital/ IU School of Medicine and Bellevue hospital/NYU.

Bill Grossman, MD, PhD

Bill is the former Senior Vice President and Therapeutic Area Head of Oncology Clinical Development at Gilead Sciences Inc. overseeing the company’s Oncology portfolio and collaboration programs. Prior to that, he held Chief Medical Officer roles at Arcus Biosciences and Bellicum Pharmaceuticals. He has held additional leadership roles at Merck, Biothera, AbbVie and Genentech/Roche.

Bill has more than 25 years of experience in oncology, having begun his career as a practicing hematologist/oncologist with expertise in bone marrow transplants before moving into the biopharmaceutical industry. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, he was Founder and Medical Director of the Clinical Immunodiagnostic and Research Laboratory, Professor for Microbiology and Genetics and Director of the Bone Marrow Transplant Division for the Immunodeficiency Transplant Program. In addition, Bill currently serves on the Board of Directors for Day One Biopharmaceuticals and the Biopharma Advisory Board for Ginkgo Bioworks. 

Bill received his MD and PhD in Immunology from Washington University School of Medicine’s Medical Scientist Training Program and completed his medical and post-doctoral training in the Divisions of Pediatrics and Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine.