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Management Team

M. Scott Salka
Chief Executive Officer
Member, Ambit Board of Directors

Wendell Wierenga, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President, Research & Development

Donald R. Myll
Chief Financial Officer
Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations

Shripad Bhagwat, Ph.D.
Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery

Stephen F. Keane
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Kerry Kelly, J.D.
Vice President and General Counsel

Patrick P. Zarrinkar, Ph.D.
Senior Director, Technology Development & Alliance Management

Robert Armstrong, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Pharmacology

Mark Holladay, Ph.D.
Senior Director of Chemistry

M. Scott Salka

Chief Executive Officer
Member, Ambit Board of Directors

M. Scott Salka brings to Ambit expertise earned at the helm of several genomics companies. Prior to joining Ambit in 2001, he served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of two privately-held genomics companies, Arcaris, Inc. and 454 Corporation. He also previously co-founded one of the first commercial genomics companies, Sequana Therapeutics, Inc., a pioneer in the effort to commercialize the international Human Genome Project. As Sequana's Vice President of Operations and Chief Financial Officer, Salka played key roles in financing the company through private and public stock offerings and in establishing research alliances with GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Mannheim, Boehringer Ingelheim and Parke-Davis. Salka has also held various management positions at Burroughs Corporation, Unisys Corporation and The BFGoodrich Company. He served honorably in the United States Army's Special Forces as an advisor to several Central American governments on matters of internal defense. Salka received his M.B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and his B.S. in finance from San Diego State University.

Wendell Wierenga Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Research & Development

Wendell Wierenga brings more than 30 years of biotechnology and pharmaceutical experience to Ambit. In addition to his current board position and management role at Ambit, Wierenga holds board of director's positions at XenoPort and Onyx Pharmaceuticals as well as a scientific advisory board position at Concert Pharmaceuticals. He previously served as Executive Vice President of R&D at Neurocrine Biosciences, where he managed a portfolio of six clinical programs including five INDs and two NDAs. Prior to Neurocrine Biosciences, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Syrrx, Inc. (now Takeda San Diego) and as Senior Vice President of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Sciences, Technologies and Development at Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert (now Pfizer), where he was responsible for worldwide drug development. Prior to joining Parke-Davis, Wierenga spent 16 years at Upjohn Pharmaceuticals, where he lead cancer and infectious diseases research and later drug discovery research. He led/participated in the research and development of more than 60 INDs, 10 NDAs and 10 marketed products, including Lipitor(r) and Neurontin(r). Wierenga earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University and completed an American Cancer Society Postdoctoral Fellowship at Stanford. He earned his B.A. from Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

Donald R. Myll

Chief Financial Officer
Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations

Donald R. Myll brings more than 25 years of accounting and financial management experience to Ambit. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer of AMN Healthcare, where he led the company in its initial public offering, secondary offering, and other successful financing transactions. He has held senior positions at healthcare information technology company Daou Systems, where he worked as a member of a specialized turn-around management team, and venture capital-backed audiology services company Hearing Science, where he served as CEO and Director. Prior to joining Hearing Science, Myll served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of TheraTx, where he led the company's successful initial public offering and subsequent public debt financings, negotiated several M&A transactions, and spearheaded the negotiation and sale of the company. Myll has also served in a senior financial capacity for Advanced Marketing Services, Inc. and Mercy Services Corporation. Myll is a certified public accountant and received his B.A. in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Shripad Bhagwat, Ph.D.

Senior Vice President, Drug Discovery

Shripad Bhagwat's more than 20 years of research experience in the pharmaceutical industry are driving Ambit's internal drug discovery efforts. Prior to joining Ambit, he served as Vice President of Drug Discovery at Signal Pharmaceuticals (now Celgene), where he was responsible for managing screening, medicinal chemistry, structure based drug design, PK/ADME and in vivo pharmacology. He also supervised multiple drug discovery projects in cancer and inflammation with a focus on kinases and helped identify six drug candidates, two of which are currently in phase 2 clinical trials. Bhagwat previously served as Senior Group Leader, Neuroscience Research at Abbott Laboratories, where he managed medicinal chemistry, combinatorial chemistry and structure based drug design activities. He also contributed to the drug discovery research at Ciba-Geigy Corporation, where his work led to the identification of three candidates for clinical development. Bhagwat has published over 50 papers and is an inventor on over 40 issued patents or pending patent applications. He received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and conducted postdoctoral research at Columbia University.

Stephen F. Keane

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Stephen F. Keane brings to Ambit more than 20 years of experience in the biotechnology industry, during which he has negotiated numerous strategic corporate alliances, established joint ventures and assisted in public and private financings to support product development. Prior to joining Ambit, Keane held senior corporate development positions with Dendreon Corporation, Corvas International, Epimmune Inc., SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. and Molecular Biosystems, Inc. In these positions, he was responsible for negotiating significant alliances including licenses, distributions agreements, technology acquisitions and research agreements with large pharmaceutical companies and government agencies. He served as the principal negotiator for the acquisition of Corvas by Dendreon and SIBIA by Merck & Co. Keane received a B.A. from San Diego State University.

Kerry Kelly, J.D.

Vice President and General Counsel

Kerry Kelly brings to Ambit 20 years of experience practicing law in the state of California. Most recently Kelly served as Associate General Counsel for The Scripps Research Institute, supporting the institute's expansion in Florida as well as its ongoing efforts in La Jolla, California. Prior to joining Scripps, she served as General Counsel and head of corporate affairs for biotechnology company Sugen (later acquired by Pfizer), where she was responsible for business development and strategic alliances, oversight of IP, and general legal matters. Kelly previously held the position of partner in a California commercial law practice. She received her J.D. from Santa Clara University and her B.A and M.A. from Stanford University.

Patrick P. Zarrinkar, Ph.D.

Senior Director, Technology Development & Alliance Management

Patrick P. Zarrinkar brings a deep understanding of genomics and high throughput screening to Ambit. Prior to joining Ambit in 2000, he was a Staff Scientist at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego, where he worked in collaboration with Affymetrix, Inc. to develop high throughput methods for global gene expression profiling. Zarrinkar received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and conducted postdoctoral research in the lab of Professor Bruce Sullenger at Duke University Medical Center. He received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of South Carolina.

Robert Armstrong, Ph.D.,

Senior Director of Pharmacology

Robert Armstrong contributes 12 years of research experience in the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, including significant expertise in kinase inhibitors. Prior to joining Ambit, he served as Senior Director of Research at Chiron Biopharma where he was responsible for managing the kinase target validation efforts that drove Chiron s oncology drug discovery programs. He was previously Senior Director of Cell and Molecular Biology at Idun Pharmaceuticals and Head of the Oncology Drug Discovery program prior to its acquisition by Pfizer. Armstrong has published over 30 papers and is an inventor on several issued or pending patents. He received his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and conducted postdoctoral research at The Salk Institute.

Mark Holladay, Ph.D.,

Senior Director of Chemistry

Mark Holladay brings to Ambit more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He joins Ambit from drug discovery service provider Discovery Partners International (now Infinity Pharmaceuticals), where he served as Senior Director of Medicinal Chemistry and managed medicinal chemistry/lead optimization collaborations with partners. Holladay has discovered and characterized preclinical candidates, advanced product candidates into the clinic, and contributed to 25 patents and 67 research publications. He has held chemistry-related positions with Systems Integration Drug Discovery Company (SIDDCO), prior to its acquisition by Discovery Partners, and with the Pharmaceutical Products Division of Abbott Laboratories. Holladay received his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Northwestern University and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Wisconsin.