MARK E. PEARSON
Chief Executive Officer & Portfolio Manager
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Altamont Pharma Holdings as well as the Co-Founder and General Partner of Annex Ventures. Mark has been investing in startup Life Science and Technology companies for over 20 years.
Mark is the Co-Founder and Vice Chairman of the Board of Drawbridge Realty, a San Francisco based real estate development and investment company, which owns over 6 million square feet of commercial real estate leased to Technology and Life Science companies predominantly in the western United States. Drawbridge Realty's portfolio exceeds $2 billion in asset value. In December 2014, Drawbridge Realty formed a partnership with international asset management firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, LP (“KKR”) which made a significant investment in the company to substantially grow the platform.
Mark is the Founder and CEO of Perceptive Real Estate Equities, Inc., a real estate development and investment company based in Dallas, TX with offices in Silicon Valley.
Mark is the Co-Founder, lead investor and serves on the Board of Directors of Cessation Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in Dallas, Texas with research laboratories in San Diego, California.
Mark serves on the Board of Directors of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, a world-renowned biomedical research institute employing over 2,400 scientists and support staff. Scripps Research Institute has created 80+ spin-off biotech companies, 10 FDA approved drugs, and currently has 30 drugs in its pipeline.
Mark was the founding donor with a multimillion dollar gift establishing The Pearson Center for Addiction Research, which was founded in 2003 on The Scripps Research Institute campus in La Jolla, California by Mark Pearson, Dr. George Koob, Ph.D., and Dr. Barbara Mason, Ph.D.
Mark earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from the University of San Francisco and a Masters degree in Management from Stanford University Graduate School of Business where he was a Sloan Fellow.
YITAI TANG, Ph.D.
Senior Investment Officer
Yitai is an experienced biological scientist with a deep understanding in various fields within biomedical sciences, including neurodegenerative diseases, regenerative medicine and oncology. His research is published in top peer-reviewed journals.
Prior to joining Altamont Pharma, Yitai was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he combined stem cell biology and mouse genetics to study brain development and brain degeneration. He received comprehensive training in Regulatory affairs and Clinical Research at Stanford and University of California San Francisco. He was also actively involved with the Stanford Consulting Group (SCG). SCG investigates economic issues of concern to business or government entities and offers conceptual as well as analytical solutions.
At Altamont Pharma, Yitai focuses on identifying and researching potential investments in companies in the oncology space as well as diseases of central nervous system.
Yitai earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Rice University, Houston, Texas, where he proposed and experimentally verified novel models of tissue size regulation.
PAUL BREMER, Ph.D.
Senior Analyst
Paul is a skilled medicinal chemist trained in the identification and development of bioactive molecules for therapeutic purposes. Specifically, he has extensive experience in the field of vaccines and immunotherapies for substance use disorders, and his innovative research has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals.
Paul is also our lead scientist at Cessation Therapeutics, a clinical stage biotech company focused on developing therapeutics designed to treat nicotine, opioid and other substance use disorders. Cessation Therapeutics is a startup that has been incubated and financed by Altamont Pharma.
Paul earned his Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Colgate University and his Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry from Scripps Research Institute. Paul has previously held a scientist position at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
RHOZEL OCAMPO
Senior Vice President of Finance and Risk Management
Rhozel is skilled in analyzing financial statements, budgeting, and handles various banking and operational activities for Altamont. Her biotechnology and real estate experience also equips her with the tools to conduct comprehensive analyses of the competitive landscape as it relates to the biotechnology industry.
Rhozel earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in Finance, with honors from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
ERIN M. DAVIS
Analyst
Erin is a skilled laboratory biologist with a background in molecular biology and genetics as well as human anatomy and physiology. At Altamont, she analyzes potential profile companies for scientific rigor.
Erin’s academic research was focused on cell signaling and epigenetics. Her most recent work used these approaches to detail nuclear hormone receptor activation and to explore the epigenetic regulation of neuroendocrine enzyme transcription in vivo.
Erin earned her Bachelor of Science in Biological Science from the University of Cincinnati and her Master of Science in Biological Science from Portland State University.
YUAN LIN, Ph.D.
Senior Analyst
Yuan is an experienced biological scientist. Yuan has deep understanding and hands-on experience in various fields in the biopharmaceutical industry, including oncology, neurodegenerative diseases and protein engineering. His research is published in top peer-reviewed journals and is highly recognized with more than 300 citations.
Yuan served as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University School of Medicine, where he combined structural biology and protein engineering approaches to create novel antibodies against cancer-related membrane receptors as potential therapeutics.
Yuan earned his Bachelor of Science in Biological Science from Peking University (China), where he participated in research on the molecular mechanism of innate immunity. He then earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Biophysics from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he discovered the phase separation phenomenon of RNA-binding proteins and demonstrated how this may contribute to neurodegenerative diseases.
CONOR MCMAHON
Analyst
Conor is a bioengineer with a focus on biomolecular and protein engineering. He has experience in engineering proteins and analyzing their interactions with various biological compounds, as well as a widespread understanding of molecular mechanisms and emerging topics in molecular biology.
Conor’s research involved engineering a small fluorescent peptide that can tag and image small biological compounds without unwanted steric hindrance. He has extensively researched protein structures that inhibit the binding of staphylococcus bacteria to mammalian cells.
Conor earned his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Bioengineering from Santa Clara University.