Executive Management

Howard co-founded Nicoya Health in 2020 to realize the vision and research of Dr. Stanley Appel and merged the company with Coya Therapeutics in 2021 where he currently serves as Chairman and CEO.

He has over 18 years of entrepreneurial and industry experience working at the interplay of science and business. His experience offers him a unique combination of business acumen and scientific credibility with the ability to assess, quantify, and bridge both disciplines.

Howard gained corporate experience with increasing responsibilities and positions as a Medical Science Liaison at AbbVie where he spent 7.5 years launching Venetoclax in CLL and later, supporting numerous solid tumor assets. He also served in leadership roles at Novartis Pharmaceuticals and later Eli Lilly where he was the scientific point of contact between the company and key opinion leaders for development and initiation of collaborations, clinical trials and investigator initiated trials.

Howard began his career at MD Anderson Cancer Center in the technology transfer division where he was responsible for assessing the market, patent, and scientific merits of numerous oncology-based technology platforms in order to ascertain their commercial viability He received a Bachelor in Biology from the University of Michigan and a Masters and Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Medical School.

Dr. Hepner has over 30 years of global experience in clinical research and drug development, including the development and implementation of the clinical and regulatory strategy for several products from early stage through successful New Drug Application (NDA) and EU regulatory filings and approvals. Dr. Hepner’s pharmaceutical industry experience includes over 20 years of elevating leadership roles in drug development. He previously served as Chief Medical Officer and Head of R&D at Pharnext and Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Eagle Pharmaceuticals. He has also held the positions of Vice President of Clinical Research at Avanir Pharmaceuticals, where he had a critical role in the development and approval of Nuedexta, a first-in-class product for the treatment of pseudobulbar affect, Vice President of Clinical Research and Medical Affairs at BioDelivery Sciences International (BDSI), where he led the regulatory process for the first buccal film approved for the maintenance treatment of opioid dependence. In addition, he had a critical role in the commercial launch of the product. Prior to BDSI, Dr. Hepner was senior medical director at UCB BioSciences, Inc., where he was responsible for global development projects in the central nervous system therapeutic area and led global clinical research projects in Latin America for Teva Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hepner has authored multiple publications, holds several patents and spent 17 years as a practicing physician specializing in neuropsychiatry. Dr. Hepner completed visiting research physician experiences in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, the Department of Neurology at the National Institute of Mental Health, and a post-doctoral fellowship in neuropharmacology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Hepner received his M.D., and Ph.D., from Universidad de Buenos Aires.

David S. Snyder brings to Coya Therapeutics over 25 years’ experience as the CFO of public and high growth companies. Prior to joining Coya, Mr. Snyder served as the CFO of DisperSol Technologies, LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary Austhera BioSciences, Inc. DisperSol and Austhera are currently advancing two late-stage, small molecule drugs through the clinic and are using their proprietary KinetiSol platform to build a pipeline of NCEs. Prior to joining DisperSol/Austhera, from 2014-2020 Snyder was the CFO of Exicure, Inc. (Nasdaq: XCUR) a company developing nucleic acid therapeutics. From 2008 to 2014, he was the CFO of Cellular Dynamics, Inc. (Nasdaq: ICEL) a company developing ipsc-based stem cell tools and primary cell therapeutics. From 2007-2008, Mr. Snyder served as Senior Vice President of Finance, Site Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Roche NimbleGen. Prior to 2007, Snyder was CFO of companies in real estate, software, and manufacturing. Early in his career Mr. Snyder worked for financial and real estate investor Sam Zell. He received his BA summa cum laude from Ottawa University and his M.B.A. with high honors from the Harvard Business School, where he was designated a George Fisher Baker Scholar.

Arun Swaminathan, Ph.D., has over 20 years of hands-on healthcare business executive experience with an emphasis on corporate and business development, strategy, and finance. He possesses a demonstrated history of prospecting, evaluating, structuring, and closing company validating transactions that augment both organizational and shareholder value.

Prior to joining Coya, Arun served as Chief Business Officer (CBO) for Actinium Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: ATNM) where he was responsible for all business development. Within 1 year of joining Actinium, he successfully moved forward negotiations to closure and executed a $452M deal with $35M upfront. Prior to Actinium, he was the CBO at Alteogen (196170.KQ) where he spearheaded over $6B in deals, including deals with two of the top 10 global pharma companies and a $1B+ deal within the first year of assuming the role of CBO. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as CEO of Lynkogen Inc, a pre-clinical stage biotech.

Arun began his career in clinical development and commercial roles of increasing responsibility at BristolMyers Squibb and Covance. He obtained his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Pittsburgh.

Aaron joins Coya to lead its Neuroinflammation Program and is responsible for developing and testing novel therapeutics that target inflammatory mechanisms which lead to disease pathogenesis. Aaron retains his position as Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Neurology at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, Johnson Center for Cellular Therapeutics, working closely with Dr. Stanley Appel (Coya Scientific Advisory Board), who is renowned for his discovery of Tregs as a treatment for inflammation in neurodegenerative diseases. Aaron’s transformational work includes elucidating neuroinflammatory mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease (ALS, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.) and developing therapeutic approaches to modulate or halt the progression of these devastating diseases. He completed his postdoctoral training with Dr. Appel at the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute, having received his Ph.D. from the University of Alabama at Birmingham at the Center for Neurodegeneration and Experimental Therapeutics. Aaron received his B.S. in Biomedical Science from Texas A&M University.

Mr. Centanni has over 25 years of regulatory and product development experience, with a focus on biologic products. Prior to Joining Coya, he headed the Advanced Therapy Product Development team at Cardinal Health Regulatory Sciences. In this role, he served as the lead regulatory consultant for several biotech companies developing a wide range of Advance Therapy Products (autologous & allogeneic therapies, regenerative medicine products, and other immunomodulatory biologics). Mr. Centanni also served as the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at Neurona Therapeutics, where he led the regulatory efforts in the development of stem cell therapy products for neurologic disorders. Prior to joining Neurona, he headed the regulatory program for biologics in support of AxoGen’s peripheral nerve tissue regeneration platform.

Mr. Centanni served as a Faculty Associate and Director of the IND/IDE Consultation Team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he provided FDA regulatory affairs support across campus to facilitate the success of numerous investigational new drug (IND) applications and associated IND-enabling studies leading to active early phase clinical trials for new therapies. Key areas of activities include providing regulatory affairs support for the Waisman Biomanufacturing Facility and serving as a faculty member of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Master’s in Biotechnology Program.

Additionally, Mr. Centanni is an accomplished molecular and cellular biologist having led multi-million dollar federally funded clinical and translational research projects at the capacity of Principal Investigator. He has an established track record as it relates to scientific publications and generation of intellectual property as an inventor with an extensive patent portfolio.

Mr. Centanni received his M.S. in Biomedical Science from Hood College, Fredrick, Maryland and his B.S. in Biology from University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Daniel Barvin Joined Coya in 2021. Prior to joining Coya, Daniel spent his time as an advocate fighting for awareness and the rights of Presymptomatic Familial ALS patients. He started the first ever Familial ALS focused team through his work at I AM ALS. During this time, Daniel interacted with presymptomatic patients, researches, pharma executives, and advocacy organizations. In addition, Daniel has held operations and design positions at Morgan Stanley, Dril-Quip and GE. Daniel received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Case Western and his M.B.A from Rice University.