Board of Directors

Brian Sullivan

Brian has over 25 years of experience founding and building successful technology companies. He was chairman and CEO of Sterilmed, a medical device company, from 2003 until its sale to Johnson & Johnson for $330 million in 2011. Previously he was cofounder and CEO of Recovery Engineering, a filtration company that he took public and subsequently sold to Proctor and Gamble for $265 million in 1999. He has received five U.S. patents and has three patents pending. He graduated magna cum laude with distinction from Harvard College with an AB degree in economics.

Lance Laing

Lance career spans more than 15 years in drug discovery research and technology development. He received his doctorate in biophysics and biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University and completed a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral fellowship at Washington University Medical School. He has received 17 U.S. patents and has an additional 31 PCT patents pending. His drug discovery research career began at Scriptgen/Anadys Pharmaceuticals (purchased by Novartis), where he worked under Professor Peter Kim, the recently retired president of Merck Research Laboratories. Most recently, Lance served as an executive director for an international drug discovery and development company.

Lance has built a world-class science team that includes drug discovery, cell signaling, high-throughput drug screening, molecular oncology and human primary cell culture scientists.

Richard Buller

Richard most recently served as Head Oncology Clinical Development and Vice President of Translational Oncology at Pfizer, Inc, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, until he retired in 2016. He had previously served as Vice President of Translational Medicine at Exelixis, a leading biopharmaceutical company, where he led efforts to study patients selected by molecular testing for inclusion in their phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. He began his pharmaceutical company career at GlaxoSmithKline as Director of the Oncology Medicine Development Center. Prior to his leadership positions in drug development, he was Professor of Gynecologic Oncology at the University of Iowa, where he led laboratory research focused on identifying genomic variants involved in ovarian cancer. He received his MD from the Baylor College of Medicine, where he also received his PhD in cell biology.

David F. Dalvey

Dave has served as a member of Celcuity’s board of directors since February 2014. Dave has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of corporate finance and venture capital, working primarily with growth-oriented technology and life-science businesses. He has over 10 years of corporate finance advisory experience with two national investment banks, completing over 150 individual transactions. He has been the General Partner of Brightstone Venture Capital, a venture capital management company, since September 2000. Brightstone is a 25-year-old venture capital management company that has raised and managed 10 venture partnerships. Dave received a BS in Business/Management Economics from University of Minnesota and an MBA—Business & Finance, from the University of Minnesota Carlson School of Management.

Leo Furcht

Dr. Furcht is Allen-Pardee Professor of Cancer Biology and Head of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Division of Molecular Pathology and Genomics. He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for University of Minnesota Physicians, the Medical School practice plan with approximately 700 physicians, from 2004–2014. He was also the founding Director of the Biomedical Engineering Center from 1990–2001, where he led efforts to establish stem cell and molecular diagnostics expertise at the University of Minnesota. He has published more than 180 scientific papers and holds more than 30 patents in the fields of polypeptides, biomaterials and adult stem cells. His business experience includes co-founding two medical technology companies, South Bay Medical, a medical device company that was acquired by Mentor Corporation, and Diascreen, a diagnostics company, which was later acquired by Chronimed.

Polly Murphy

Polly Murphy, D.V.M., Ph.D., has over two decades of business development and commercial strategy experience at leading global pharmaceutical companies, including 12 years in leadership positions with increasing responsibility at Pfizer. She is currently Chief Business Officer of Avadel Pharmaceuticals and is a member of Atea Pharmaceuticals’ Board of Directors. Prior to Avadel she was CBO at UroGen Pharma from September 2020 to May 2024. While at Pfizer, she led business development for Worldwide R&D and the global Specialty Care Business Unit, and later Global Marketing and Commercial Development for the Pfizer Oncology Business Unit. Dr. Murphy was also Vice President and Head, Strategy and Business Development for Pfizer China. Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Murphy held senior leadership positions at several pharmaceutical and academic research entities, including The Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute, and Aurora Biosciences. Dr. Murphy received her D.V.M. and Ph.D. in Veterinary Pathology from Iowa State University and an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.

Richard J. Nigon

Dick is currently Senior Vice President of Cedar Point Capital, LLC., a private company that raises capital for early stage companies, where he has served since 2007. Dick has also been a board member for Tactile Systems Technology since September 2012 and Northern Technologies International Corp. since February 2010, including its non-executive Chairman of the board of directors since November 2012. Dick also serves as a director of several private companies. Dick previously served as a board member for Vascular Solutions, Inc. until it was acquired by Teleflex, Incorporated in 2017 and as a board member for Virtual Radiologic Corporation until it was acquired in 2010. From February 2001 until December 2006, Dick was a Director of Equity Corporate Finance for Miller Johnson Steichen Kinnard, a privately held investment firm, which was acquired in December 2006 by Stifel Nicolaus, a brokerage and investment banking firm. After that acquisition, Dick became a Managing Director of Private Placements of Stifel Nicolaus until May 2007. From February 2000 to February 2001, he served as the Chief Financial Officer of Dantis, Inc., a web hosting company. Prior to joining Dantis, Dick was employed by Ernst & Young LLP from 1970 to 2000, where he served a partner from 1981 to 2000. While at Ernst & Young, he served as the Director of Ernst & Young’s Twin Cities Entrepreneurial Services Group and was the coordinating partner on several publicly traded companies in the consumer retailing and manufacturing sectors.