Steven Nichtberger

Steven Nichtberger is a serial entrepreneur with 25 years of healthcare industry experience focused on the development and commercialization of breakthrough medical advances. Most recently, he served as managing partner of GBF, LLC providing advice to investors and leading academic scientists on commercialization of breakthrough advances, and founding Chairman of ControlRad, a privately-held medical technology company. He is also an adjunct professor at the Wharton School and a Senior Fellow in the Vagelos Life Sciences & Management Program. From 2004 to 2011, Dr. Nichtberger was the founding CEO of Tengion, advancing novel regenerative medicine cell therapy products from early stage research to late stage clinical trials with a focus on urologic, oncologic, and renal diseases. During his tenure, the company raised $230 million (including an IPO) from leading public and venture investors, as well as strategic investments from J&J and Medtronic. Prior to that, Dr. Nichtberger had nine years of experience in senior strategic and operating roles at Merck that included global leadership of the human health marketing organization; P&L responsibility for a $3.5 billion portfolio of products; leadership roles relating to the formation and governance of the Merck-Schering Plough partnerships; and Merck commercial representation on Merck Research leadership and licensing teams. Dr. Nichtberger is an active and philanthropic member of the community serving as a trustee on the Board of Governors of Main Line Health, a long-standing member of the Board of Overseers of the School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (which is a non-fiduciary advisory board), and past member of the national BIO Association Board as well as former Chairman of PA Bio. He earned an M.D. from the School of Medicine and Biosciences, SUNY at Buffalo. He was also a board-certified cardiologist, completing his residency and fellowship training at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.