Reverse Mergers

Meet the Speakers

Richard W. Pascoe

Histogen

Richard W. Pascoe was named Chief Executive Officer of Histogen Inc. in January of 2019. Mr. Pascoe joined the company following the merger of Apricus Biosciences Inc. and Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. Mr. Pascoe was the Chief Executive Officer of Apricus from March 2013 until joining Histogen. Prior to Apricus, Mr. Pascoe was with Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Pernix Therapeutics, Inc.) where he served as the Chief Executive Officer.

Prior to joining Somaxon in 2008, Mr. Pascoe held a series of senior management roles to include Chief Operating Officer at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Takeda Inc.) and Senior Vice President of Neuroscience Division at King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (acquired by Pfizer Inc.). Prior to King, Mr. Pascoe held commercial roles in the hospital pharmaceutical and medical device groups at Medco Research, Inc. (acquired by King), COR Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.), and B. Braun Interventional.

Mr. Pascoe is a member of the board of directors of KemPharm, Inc., where he serves as lead independent director, chair of the audit committee and member of the compensation committee. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of Seelos Therapeutics, Inc. He is the chairman of the board of directors of Biocom, California’s leading advocate for the life sciences industry, and a member of the Johnny Mac Soldiers Fund, a charity for military veterans.

Mr. Pascoe served on active duty as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Army’s 24th Infantry Division with one combat tour in Iraq where he earned several awards and decorations including the Bronze Star Medal. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point where he received a B.S. degree in Leadership. Mr. Pascoe was appointed as the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army for Southern California in 2017, where he serves as a liaison between the Secretary of the Army and the local community.

Steven J. Mento, Ph.D.

Conatus

Dr. Mento has over thirty-five years of combined experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. Most recently, Dr. Mento was President, CEO, Co-founder, and a member of the Board of Directors of Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc. He held these positions from July 2005 to May 2020. From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Mento was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In April 2005, Idun was sold to Pfizer. Previously, Dr. Mento served as President of Chiron Viagene, Inc. (subsequently Chiron Technologies, Center for Gene Therapy), and Vice President of Chiron Corporation from 1995 to 1997. Dr. Mento was Vice President of R & D at Viagene from 1992 to 1995. Prior to Viagene, Inc., Dr. Mento held various positions at American Cyanamid Company from 1982 to 1992. His last position was Director of Viral Vaccine Research and Development at Lederle-Praxis Biologicals, a business unit of American Cyanamid.

Dr. Mento academic history includes obtaining BA, MS and Ph.D. degrees in Microbiology with an emphasis in virology from Rutgers University, completing a Postdoctoral fellowship in somatic cell genetics at the University of Toronto and serving as a research Assistant Professor of Medicine and Microbiology at the Mount Sinai Medical School.

Dr. Mento currently serves on the Boards of Histogen, Inc., DevaCell, Inc., Biocom California Board of Governors, and the BIOCOM Institute. Dr. Mento and previously served on the Boards of BIO, BIO Emerging Company Section Governing Body, BIO Health Section Governing Body, Sangamo Biosciences, Inc., and various academic and charitable organizations.

Stephen Ferruolo

Perkins Coie

Stephen C. Ferruolo focuses his practice on the life sciences sector, representing private and publicly held biotech, pharmaceutical, medical device, and digital health companies, as well as technology companies, investors, and venture capitalists. Widely known and regarded for his exemplary representation of his clients, Stephen has earned an international reputation in the life sciences.

Stephen’s extensive experience includes guiding life science clients through private and public financings as well as mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance issues, licensing, collaboration and commercial agreements, and compliance matters. Stephen has worked on hundreds of private financings during his legal career, with a broad range of venture capitalists and other investors and handled IPOs ranging from $6 million to $1.1 billion.

Adrian Rich

Perkins Coie

Adrian M. Rich has more than 15 years of experience counseling high-growth, emerging companies and their investors. With an education in biomedical engineering and economics and a lifelong passion for computers and programming, Adrian brings a deep technological understanding and a unique approach to counseling clients from inception to exit, as they undertake financial and strategic investments, licensing, strategic partnerships, acquisitions and public offerings, as well as routine corporate matters. He tackles complex negotiations and issues, including deal structuring, reorganizations and down-rounds, using strong quantitative skills, coupled with creative problem solving.

The first decade of Adrian’s practice was almost exclusively focused on the medical device and biotech industry across a number of organs and disease states. Reflecting the rise in HealthTec as a separate industry, the underlying trends of convergence of technology in life science and his own background, Adrian’s practice focus has broadened to include big data, artificial intelligence/machine learning, AR/VR and blockchain, both as applied to life sciences and as applied to business processes, data science and education.

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