Dr. Harler joined IGM in 2021. She is our Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors. Prior to joining IGM she was Senior Vice President, Head of Immunology and Fibrosis Development at Bristol Myers Squibb, where she oversaw late-stage development of assets for the potential treatment of psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), among others. Dr. Harler also oversaw approved medicines within the immunology and fibrosis portfolios, such as Orencia and Zeposia. In her more than 10 years at Bristol Myers Squibb she also served as Head of Innovative Medicines Development and Head of Innovative Clinical Development in the cardiovascular, fibrosis, immunoscience and genetically-defined diseases group. Prior to joining Bristol Myers Squibb, Dr. Harler worked in both medical affairs and clinical research at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (now part of Pfizer). Dr. Harler received a B.S. from Wheeling University in West Virginia and an M.D. from Marshall University. She completed training as a general surgeon at Brown University’s Rhode Island Hospital, where she was also a research fellow with a focus on the role of immune cells in wound healing.
Archives: Team Members
Team Member
Lisa L. Decker, Ph.D.
Dr. Decker has served as our Chief Business Officer since March 2021. Prior to joining us, Dr. Decker served as Chief Business Officer of Atreca, a biopharmaceutical company, from June 2019 until March 2021. Dr. Decker also previously served in various roles at Nektar Therapeutics, a development stage biopharmaceutical company, from August 2008 to June 2019, including as Vice President of Business Development from August 2017 until June 2019, Executive Director, Business Development from August 2012 until August 2017, Executive Director, Business Strategy and Operations from January 2010 until July 2012, and Senior Director, Alliance Management from August 2008 until December 2009. Prior to this, Dr. Decker served in a number of roles at the Office of Technology Management at the University of Massachusetts Medical School from 2000 until 2008. Dr. Decker holds a Ph.D. in Immunology from Tufts University School of Medicine and conducted her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School.
Misbah Tahir
Misbah Tahir joined IGM in January 2019 as Chief Financial Officer. He previously served as Vice President, Finance at Dermira. Prior to joining Dermira in 2014, he held finance leadership positions at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Human Genome Sciences and Amgen. Mr. Tahir began his career as a management consultant at the consulting firm of Oliver Wyman. He received a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. from the University of Michigan Business School.
Suzette Tauber
Ms. Tauber joined us in 2019 and serves as our Chief Human Resources Officer. Prior to joining IGM, Ms. Tauber was in charge of human resources at ARMO BioSciences, a biotechnology company, from before its initial public offering through its acquisition by Eli Lilly. Previously, she held human resources leadership positions at a variety of life science and high-technology companies, including Cellular Research (acquired by Becton Dickinson), Kapor Enterprises, Escalate, KIVA Software (acquired by Netscape/AOL) and Bay Networks (acquired by Nortel). Ms. Tauber’s career in human resources began with Bain & Company, where she led their West Coast recruiting efforts. She received a B.A. in Communications from Northern Arizona University.
Paul Graffagnino
Mr. Graffagnino joined IGM in 2021 and currently serves as our Senior Vice President of Legal Affairs. Mr. Graffagnino spent over two decades in private legal practice in Silicon Valley providing corporate and securities advice to technology companies as a partner at the law firm of GCA Law Partners LLP. He began his legal career as an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and became a partner in the San Francisco office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP. Mr. Graffagnino received a B.A. in Political Economy from Williams College and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
TS Harigopal
Mr. Harigopal joined us in 2021 and serves as our Senior Vice President of Group Operations overseeing the Information Technology, Facilities and Procurement functions. Mr. Harigopal has over 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining us, Mr. Harigopal was Director of Information Technology at Cytokinetics, a public, clinical-stage biotechnology company. Prior to Cytokinetics, he held IT roles in various capacities in Pharmacyclics (acquired by Abbvie) and Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Harigopal received his BA in Finance and Information Technology from the University of Bombay, and an MBA with specialization in Finance and Global Supply Chain from the California State University, East Bay.
Eric W. Humke, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Humke joined IGM in 2019 and currently serves as our Senior Vice President, Head of Clinical Research and Development. Prior to joining us, Dr. Humke was Senior Medical Director at Genentech where he led numerous clinical programs from research through Phase 2 trials in Research & Early Clinical Development. These programs evaluated several antibody drug conjugates for multiple myeloma, lung, pancreatic, ovarian, and endometrial cancer and various small molecule inhibitors for multiple myeloma, lung and breast cancer. Prior to joining Genentech, he was an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine where he conducted basic science research and cared for patients in the oncology clinic. Dr. Humke received a B.S. in Neuroscience from Brown University and an M.D., Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Dr. Humke completed his internal medicine residency at Washington University in St. Louis (Barnes-Jewish Hospital) and a medical oncology fellowship at Stanford University.
Marvin S. Peterson, Ph.D.
Dr. Peterson joined us in 2017 and serves as our Executive Vice President of Process Sciences and Manufacturing. Dr. Peterson also served as Senior Director, Manufacturing at MabVax Therapeutics, a biotechnology company, from 2015 to 2017 and as Senior Director, Upstream Process Development and Manufacturing at Ambrx, a biotechnology company, from 2014 to 2015. Dr. Peterson has also served in manufacturing, scientific and leadership positions at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Celgene and Shire. Dr. Peterson received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. He also completed a post doctorate at the University of Minnesota, BioProcess Technology Institute.
Elaine Sapinoso
Ms. Sapinoso has served as our Senior Vice President of Quality since 2023. Prior to joining IGM, Ms. Sapinoso was previously Senior Vice President of Global Quality at Abzena and Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Affairs at Aji BioPharma. Ms. Sapinoso has served in senior Quality leadership roles at global drug development and manufacturing organizations supporting biologics drug substance and drug product operations, and provided leadership across Quality functions including Quality Assurance, Quality Control, and Validation. Ms. Sapinoso has also developed phase appropriate quality systems within manufacturing organizations to advance them from clinical development to commercial approval. In her 26 years in Quality, she has led manufacturing facilities through successful regulatory site inspections resulting in eleven commercial facility and product approvals. Ms. Sapinoso received a B.S. in Biology from De La Salle University, and an M.B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles with a specialization in Corporate Governance.
Angus M. Sinclair, Ph.D.
Dr. Sinclair joined us in 2018 and is our Executive Vice President of Research. Prior to joining IGM, Dr. Sinclair served as Senior Director, Oncology Research at Northern Biologics, a biotechnology company, from 2015 to 2018. He also previously served in various scientific and leadership positions at Amgen, including most recently as Scientific Director, Oncology Research, from 2011 to 2015. Dr. Sinclair received a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh and a Ph.D. in Hematology/Molecular Biology from the National Institute for Medical Research/University College London.