Simon Allen

Chief Executive Officer and Director

At Ambrx, Mr. Allen established multiple partnerships with companies including Bristol Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Merck, Eli Lilly, Astellas, BeiGene and Sino Biopharma that have generated more than $270 million in revenue with a potential $1 billion in future milestones and royalties. From 2016 to 2018 he was Chief Executive Officer of CohBar, where he transitioned the company from the preclinical to the clinical stage and managed the listing of its shares on Nasdaq, with subsequent inclusion in the Russell 2000 Index. Earlier Mr. Allen held various management, commercial and business development positions at Nuvelo, Skyepharma, CovX and Kalypsys.

Mr. Allen started his career as a research biologist in the antiviral group at Gilead Sciences before working in healthcare equity research and investment banking in the U.S. and Australia. He holds a BSc in biochemistry and genetics from the University of Sydney and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

Dr. Kenneth Cundy, Ph.D.

Chief Scientific Officer

Prior to joining Anebulo, Dr. Cundy served as Chief Scientific Officer at CohBar, Inc., a publicly-traded biotechnology company developing therapeutics targeting chronic and age-related diseases, where he built a technology platform around peptides encoded in the mitochondrial genome, advancing the lead program to successful clinical proof of concept for NASH and obesity. Before CohBar, Dr. Cundy was Chief Scientific Officer at XenoPort, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on therapeutics for neurological disorders. He was coinventor of XenoPort’s approved drug Horizant®, leading efforts from discovery to development including approval for the treatment of postherpetic neuralgia and restless legs syndrome in the US and Japan. Previously, Dr. Cundy held various positions at Gilead Sciences, Inc. where he was coinventor of the blockbuster drug tenofovir DF (Viread®) and a key contributor to the larger antiviral franchise, including Hepsera®, Vistide®, and Tamifu®.

Dr. Cundy started his scientific career at Sterling Winthrop, a pharmaceutical division of Eastman Kodak Company, where he developed novel formulation technologies exploiting Kodak’s historical capabilities. He was coinventor of Nanocrystal® technology used in many approved drug products. Dr. Cundy received a B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Manchester and registered as a pharmacist in the United Kingdom before earning a Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of Kentucky and postdoctoral training in Biochemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

Rex Merchant

Chief Financial Officer

Rex Merchant joined our company as Chief Financial Officer in January 2021. He has served as the Chief Financial Officer of JFL Capital Management LLC since 2018 and of various other investment advisors and non-profit organizations since 1998. Prior to joining JFLCapital Management, Mr. Merchant served as Chief Financial Officer of Western Investment LLC, a hedge fund manager and investment advisory firm, from 2008 to 2017. Mr. Merchant also served as Chief Financial Officer of Leadership Foundations, a non-profit organization, from 2011 to 2018. He also has performed business valuation, litigation analysis and expert witness services, as well as extensive work in information technology throughout his career. Mr. Merchant received a B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, and he holds Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations.