Investors
Michael Aronstein is President, Portfolio Manager, and Chief Investment Officer of Marketfield Asset Management LLC. He is one of the founding partners of Marketfield, which was created in 2007. He began his investment career in 1979 at Merrill Lynch, eventually becoming Manager of Global Investment Strategy before departing in 1987 to join Comstock Partners. Mr. Aronstein was the President of Comstock Partners for six years. In 1993, Mr. Aronstein founded West Course Capital, a discretionary commodity management firm. From 2001 to 2004, Mr. Aronstein was Chief Investment Strategist for Preservation Group, a provider of independent macroeconomic and strategic research to professional investors. In 2004, he joined Oscar Gruss & Son Incorporated (“Oscar Gruss”) and served as Chief Investment Strategist. Mr. Aronstein graduated from Yale College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974.
Dr. Benezra is a member at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in the Department of Cancer Biology and Genetics and a Professor of Biology at Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City. Before he joined Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Benezra received his Ph.D. at Columbia University. and then did his postdoctoral work at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle. It is there where Dr. Benezra identified the Id proteins as dominant negative regulators of the helix-loop-helix protein family and has since gone on to identify these proteins as key regulators of tumor growth, angiogenesis and metastasis. In addition, while at Sloan-Kettering, Dr. Benezra and his colleagues identified the first human mitotic checkpoint gene, hsMad2, and demonstrated that its deregulation leads to chromosome instability, tumor progression and drug resistance. His program continues to focus on the molecular basis of tumor angiogenesis, tumor instability and metastasis and is currently developing molecular and cellular tools to inhibit these processes in patients. In 1999, after genetic validation of the importance of Id proteins in cancer and vascular disease, Dr. Benezra co-founded Angiogenex, a company dedicated to targeting Id proteins therapeutically. Since then he has directed the effort that produced a series of active small molecules that target the Id proteins and have demonstrated profound potential in disease intervention.
Mr. Strage was a co-founder of Axonyx Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company engaged in the development of drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease. As a founding Officer and Director, he was responsible for all business and administrative aspects of Axonyx from its inception in 1996 to its listing on the NASDAQ-NMS in January 2001. As Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of Axonyx, Mr. Strage was responsible for negotiating all of the company's major corporate transactions including the agreements under which Axonyx first acquired its intellectual property portfolio that includes the commercial rights to the pre-clinical research and development programs at New York University School of Medicine and the National Institute on Aging, and subsequently out-licensed some of those rights through pharmaceutical joint development agreements, including a major world-wide licensing agreement with Serono International S.A. In addition, Mr. Strage directed all aspects of the administrative operations of Axonyx including finance, where he participated actively in each of the multiple phases of the company's capital formation, budgeting, human resources, infrastructure, corporate communications and investor relations. Prior to joining Axonyx in 1996, Mr. Strage was an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Hancock, Rothert & Bunschoft and prior thereto an assistant district attorney at the Manhattan District Attorney's office.
Since 2000, Mr. Murray has been the founder and managing partner of Murray and Josephson, CPAs, LLC. He previously held the position of managing partner at the accounting firm of Leeds & Murray, and audit manager with EisnerAmper, LLP. His experience includes providing accounting, auditing, tax, and consulting services for publicly-traded and privately-owned companies, including professional organizations, biotechnology companies, creative artists, and manufacturing firms. Mr. Murray has appeared on television news as a guest expert and has led a series of Continuing Professional Education seminars. He is a member of the tax section of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants where he served on the health care committee. He earned his MBA in taxation from Baruch College where he also earned his BBA in Accountancy.
Mr. Dickey is an accomplished C-level executive with more than 20 years of experience leading life science and medical device companies, both private and public, ranging from early-stage development to commercial operations. He has served as CFO to multiple companies, including Motif Bio (NASDAQ/AIM: MTFB), Tyme Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: TYME), BeyondSpring Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: BYSI) and NeoStem, Inc. – now Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLBS). He previously spent nearly 20 years in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and Legg Mason. Mr. Dickey is experienced in all stages of the corporate life cycle, including start-up operations, high growth, turnarounds and exit strategies. His expertise includes building organizations, public and private financings, mergers and acquisitions, partnering/licensing transactions, project management and Chapter 11 reorganizations, as well as interactions with boards, venture capitalists, shareholders and Wall Street. He holds an AB from Princeton University and a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
