Chris Schade is a seasoned executive with over 30 years of experience across private and public biopharma companies, including proven leadership in several executive roles. He is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Halda Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company developing a novel class of cancer therapies. Prior to Halda, Chris was a Growth Partner at Flagship Pioneering where he worked with leaders at Flagship-founded biotech companies on organizational development, long-term strategy, financing, and business development. Previously, he was President and Chief Executive Officer and Board member of Aprea Therapeutics (Nasdaq: APRE) from 2016 to 2022, including as Chairman from 2020 to 2023. He led Aprea in developing its pipeline of anti-cancer therapies through the company’s IPO in 2019. Chris has also served in executive leadership positions at several other biotech companies with emerging clinical candidates including: Chief Executive Officer of Novira, a privately held antiviral drug discovery company until it was acquired by Johnson & Johnson; Chief Financial Officer of Omthera Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Nasdaq-listed specialty pharmaceuticals company focused on new therapies for dyslipidemia until it was acquired by AstraZeneca Plc; and, Senior Vice President of Administration and Chief Financial Officer at Medarex, Inc, a biopharmaceutical company focused on antibody-based therapeutic products for oncology, inflammation, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases until it was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb. Earlier in his career, Chris was Managing Director at Merrill Lynch in London and for nearly 20 years held various corporate finance and capital markets positions in New York and London for both Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase.
Currently, Chris serves on the boards of several companies, including as Board Chair for Omega Therapeutics (Nasdaq: OMGA), Director at Valo Health, and Director at Integra LifeSciences (Nasdaq: IART) where he chairs the Audit and Finance Committees. He received an A.B. degree from Princeton University and received an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.