Maria Fardis, Ph.D.

Maria Fardis, Ph.D., is Chair of Obsidian’s Board of Directors, a Venture Partner at Frazier Life Sciences and the Chief Executive Officer of Lassen Therapeutics, a privately-held company developing first-in-class antibodies as potential treatments for fibrosis, thyroid eye disease, and oncology. She has over 20 years of scientific and management experience in numerous public and private companies. Dr. Fardis previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Iovance Biotherapeutics. As CEO at Iovance, she led the transformation from an early-stage development company to a company with multiple late-stage programs for the treatment of solid tumors. Prior to Iovance, Dr. Fardis served as the Chief Operating Officer of Acerta Pharma B.V., where she worked on the development of Calquence^® until the company’s acquisition by AstraZeneca. Prior to that, she worked at Pharmacyclics, Inc., where she was a key contributor in the creation of a broad clinical program leading to global approvals for Imbruvica^® in multiple hematologic malignancies, and where she served as Chief of Oncology Operations and Alliances. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, Dr. Fardis held increasing senior positions in medicinal chemistry and the project and portfolio management department at Gilead Sciences, Inc., where she was involved with multiple therapeutic areas including antivirals, oncology, and cardiovascular therapeutics and worked on the development and life cycle management of Letairis^®.