Experienced leaders dedicated to excellence

Bobby cofounded Tarsus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. with Michael Ackermann in November 2016 and has served as its President and CEO since September 2018. He has served as the company’s Chairman since December 2022. Since its founding, Tarsus has established a leading team and culture and has completed successful fundraising efforts through multiple private and public financings and global partnerships. Tarsus recently secured FDA approval for its first product, XDEMVY^® (lotilaner ophthalmic solution) 0.25%, which is the first and only FDA-approved treatment in the United States for the eyelid disease Demodex blepharitis. Beyond XDEMVY, Tarsus continues to advance its pipeline into Phase 2 clinical studies evaluating therapies that have the potential to create new categories to treat other major diseases, including meibomian gland disease, rosacea, and Lyme disease prevention.

Bobby has cofounded and led other novel therapeutics companies, including Vibrato Medical and Metavention, and currently serves on the board of Vibrato Medical and as Chairman of the board of Osanni Bio. Bobby began his biotechnology career at Versant Ventures and Third Rock Ventures, where he was an investor and board observer for a variety of life sciences companies. He also served on the board of the nonprofit organization Octane.

Bobby trained as a physician scientist, completing his residency in internal medicine and serving as an attending hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He received an MD from Harvard Medical School (Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology), a PhD in chemistry from Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and a BA in physics from Rice University. He is also an author of numerous patents and peer-reviewed publications. Bobby enjoys sports, travel, arts and culture, and spending time in Newport Beach with his newborn son, wife, and dog.

Jeff has more than 25 years of finance and operational experience within the life science industry. During his career, he was integral in the transition of 3 companies from the clinical development stage to commercial entities and raised more than $2 billion in equity and debt financing. His areas of expertise include leading teams in finance, tax and accounting, information technology (IT), investor relations, corporate communications, facilities, and human resources.

Prior to joining Tarsus, Jeff served as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. (GBT), where he played a significant role on the leadership team that secured regulatory approval and successfully commercialized Oxbryta^® for the treatment of sickle cell disease. Prior to his time at GBT, Jeff was CFO at ZS Pharma, a company that developed a therapy for the treatment of hyperkalemia before its acquisition by AstraZeneca. Jeff also served as CFO of Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc., a pharmaceutical company that successfully commercialized Ravicti^® for the treatment of urea cycle disorders. Earlier in his career, Jeff worked in the audit practice of KPMG LLP. Jeff has also served on the Board of Directors of Clover Biopharmaceuticals, Ltd. since September 2021.

Jeff holds a BA in business administration with a concentration in corporate finance from California State University at Fullerton and is a certified public accountant (inactive).

Aziz has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical industry leadership experience in several therapeutic areas, including over 10 years in the eye care space. Prior to joining Tarsus, Aziz was Chief Commercial Officer at Opiant Pharmaceuticals, overseeing all aspects of commercial strategy for the company’s addiction medicine portfolio. Before that, he was Senior Vice President and Head of Commercial at Avanir Pharmaceuticals. He also spent over 10 years at Allergan (an AbbVie company), most recently as Vice President of Marketing for the company’s eye care franchise, where he helped grow the business to over $2 billion in revenue across a diverse portfolio including Restasis^® and Lumigan^®, as well as several other devices and OTC product lines.

Previously, Aziz held commercial leadership roles at Valeant, IMS Health (now IQVIA), and Aventis Pharmaceuticals (now Sanofi). He received a BS in biochemistry from the University of California San Diego and an MBA in marketing and finance from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. He is also heavily active in the community and serves on the boards of the Orange County nonprofit OneOC and Octane.

Sesha has over 25 years of experience in the global development of novel therapeutics. Prior to joining Tarsus, he was a Senior Vice President of Global Pharmaceutical Development at Allergan (an AbbVie company), where he built strong and nimble early development functions to rapidly enable proofs of concept as well as a robust late-stage development organization for product approval and commercialization of small molecules and biologics. He also established industry-leading expertise in drug delivery technologies in multiple ocular, oral, and dermal product development programs; regulatory filings; and approvals, including novel intraocular, sustained-release injectables (Ozurdex^®, Durysta^®), a multidose non-preserved drug product in a first-ever container-closure delivery system (Restasis MultiDose^®), topical dermal products (Rhofade^® Cream, Aczone^® Gel 7.5%), and several Rx and OTC topical ophthalmic products.

Prior to joining Allergan in 2007, Sesha was Director, Pharmaceutics R&D at Amgen Inc., where he oversaw CMC functions and assisted in building early development functions, primarily focusing on a discovery-development interface to enable pipeline advancement. Earlier in his career, he was Senior Research Investigator at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of Kansas. Sesha is active in community charity services and has served on the Board of Greater Irvine Chamber of Commerce, as well as on scientific advisory boards of non-profit organizations and start-up companies.

Bryan brings 15 years of legal experience and 20 years of medical experience, as both a legal counselor and medical practitioner. Prior to joining Tarsus, Bryan was a Partner at Knobbe Martens LLP, where he focused on intellectual property protection, infringement studies, and due diligence for financings and strategic transactions, specifically with respect to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Bryan counseled clients from the pre-Series A stage through exit, including Tarsus, which has been one of his clients since shortly after it was founded. In addition to his law practice, Bryan has practiced inpatient internal medicine since 2002, most recently as a per diem hospitalist with Kaiser Permanente, caring for patients both on hospital wards and in the ICU.

Prior to joining Knobbe Martens, Bryan entered medical school after one undergraduate year, and received his medical degree with honors from the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine in 1999. He completed an internal medicine residency in the UCLA-affiliated Cedars-Sinai Medical Center program in Los Angeles in 2002, and is board certified in Internal Medicine. Bryan earned his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2005. In law school, he received three American Jurisprudence Awards, two Prosser Awards, and the Barbee Fellowship, researching conflicts of interest of hospital institutional review boards, and was also a summer extern for the Honorable Ronald T.Y. Moon, Chief Justice of the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Dianne brings more than 20 years of experience in human resources, including over a decade of life sciences industry management and leadership. Prior to joining Tarsus, Dianne served as Vice President and Head of Human Resources for Evolus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EOLS), where she led efforts to support the commercialization of the start-up company’s first approved product. While at Evolus, she focused on recruiting top talent, building a positive culture, and fostering an effective employee experience in order to drive engagement and business results.

Prior to Evolus, Dianne held positions of increasing responsibility at Allergan (an AbbVie company), progressing to Director of Global Human Resources. Her experience there spanned a variety of human resources business partnership and leadership roles, where she supported both the Commercial and Research & Development organizations and led enterprise-wide initiatives in Global Talent Management. She has broad experience building organizations and supporting product launches in multiple therapeutic areas, including eye care, as well as expertise in developing culture and talent programs. Dianne holds a BA in psychology and social behavior from the University of California, Irvine and a Masters in social work from California State University, Long Beach.

Elizabeth is Chief Medical Advisor at Tarsus, partner at Virginia Eye Consultants, and Medical Director at Virginia Surgery Center. With more than two decades of experience in eye care, she’s authored hundreds of articles and conducted numerous lectures on subjects such as refractive cataract surgery, anterior segment reconstruction, and external disease management. Elizabeth provides guidance and governance across several national medical boards and committees, including as an examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and as the Chair of the Cataract Section of Ophthalmic News & Education (ONE) Network for the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO). Dr. Yeu is also an Executive Committee member, serving as the President of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS, 2023-2024).

Elizabeth currently serves on the boards of Tarsus, STAAR Surgical, Ocular Science, Avellino Lab USA, and the Virginia Eye Foundation. She also serves as an Executive Board Member of CVP Physicians, Mid Atlantic. She earned her MD through an accelerated and combined undergraduate/medical school program at the University of Florida College of Medicine. Elizabeth completed her ophthalmology residency at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where she served as Chief Resident (2006-2007). She then accepted a fellowship in Cornea, Anterior Segment, and Refractive Surgery at the Cullen Eye Institute, Baylor College of Medicine (2007-2008), where she also served as an Assistant Professor (2008-2013). Elizabeth continues to train residents as Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Cara brings more than 25 years of global healthcare communications expertise to her role and is responsible for leading the company’s corporate communications, investor relations, and government affairs functions.

Cara joined Tarsus from Vir Biotechnology, where she helped transition the company from an early-stage R&D organization into a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company that contributed to the fight against the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Over the course of her career, she has guided the investor relations, corporate branding, crisis communications, patient advocacy, and media relations efforts of numerous pharma/biotech companies, including Gilead Sciences, Portola Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Alexion), and Evofem Biosciences. She was also tapped to lead the rebranding efforts for The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.

Cara holds a BA in journalism from the University of Arizona.

Neera has more than 20 years of biopharmaceutical leadership experience across multiple therapeutic areas spanning access and reimbursement, business development, and sales and marketing. Her experience includes successfully launching 10+ products across multiple therapeutic areas at both large pharma and small biotech companies.

Prior to joining Tarsus, Neera was most recently the Vice President of Access and Reimbursement at Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Before that, Neera was at Relypsa Pharmaceuticals, where she established the payer strategy and built the managed markets team. She has been involved with multiple first-in-class product launches and is responsible for leading the commercial access and reimbursement functions to successfully support these launches. Neera has broad reimbursement experience in both the small molecule and medical device areas focusing on payers, distribution, patient support services, lifecycle management, and pricing and contracting.

Before working in biopharmaceutical start-ups, Neera had a 15-year career at Abbott Laboratories, where she held a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, progressing to the General Manager of Market Access for Abbott Diabetes Care. Neera received her BA in life sciences/psychology from Indiana State University and her MSW from the Indiana University School of Social Work.

Bharat has more than 25 years of experience in digital, information technology, cybersecurity, supply chain management, and business analytics in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, high tech, management consulting, and other industries. Bharat’s experience spans from start-up companies to large organizations with increasing responsibility.

Prior to Tarsus, Bharat served as an Executive Director at Kite Pharma, where he led the global team to develop and implement the digital and technology strategy and business capabilities to manufacture and commercialize one of the first approved cell therapies for cancer in the United States, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Bharat also led a large team at Gilead Sciences to transform its Enterprise systems and data analytics capabilities for manufacturing, supply chain, and G&A functions. Prior to Kite and Gilead, Bharat lead IT with various progressive capacities and responsibilities at Beachbody, Broadcom, Westinghouse, Oracle Corporation, and Motorola. Bharat has extensive experience in setting up IT organizations and systems from the ground up and expanding business capabilities with innovative and transformative solutions.

Bharat has a BS and MS in Computer Engineering, Mathematics, and Physics from National Institute of Technology, India, and has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Business specializing in Strategy, Healthcare, Finance, and Business Analytics. Bharat holds CPIM (Certified Production and Inventory Management) and CSCP (Certified Supply Chain Professional) certifications from the Association of Supply Chain Management and a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification from Project Management Institute. Bharat is also a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB).

Arthur has over 18 years of pharmaceutical and medical device experience and came to Tarsus from Novartis where he was Lead Medical Director, overseeing the anterior segment medical affairs team and their dry eye and refractive products, including Xiidra^®. Prior to this role, he was the Executive Director of Medical Science Liaison (MSL) capabilities, managing MSL training and medical/legal/regulatory review across all of Novartis’ franchises. Previously, as Head of Medical Science at Alcon, Arthur built and led the company’s first surgical MSL team, supporting Alcon’s surgical suite, intraocular lenses, and the entire cataract, refractive, glaucoma and retina portfolio. Arthur began his career at Insightec, a start-up company where he was part of a team that managed the clinical trials, physician training, and PMA process that led to the world’s first FDA-approved, image-guided focused ultrasound surgery device. He transitioned into eye care when he joined Bausch and Lomb as a Medical Liaison, launching Lotemax Gel and Prolensa.

Arthur received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Alberta, a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Washington, and an executive MBA with a specialty in pharmaceutical and healthcare marketing from St. Joseph’s University. He holds multiple patents, is a graduate of the University of Washington’s Technology Entrepreneurship Program, and was a WRF Capital Gates Foundation fellow involved with turning UW technology into start-up companies. He is currently an adjunct professor at St. Joseph’s University’s Haub School of Business and is on the advisory boards of the MSL Society and Fierce Pharma’s Medical Affairs Summit. Arthur is the 2021 recipient of the Ophthalmic World Leaders’ Catalyst Award, a peer recognition given to an individual that contributed significantly to helping others advance their careers in eye care while advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field.

Elizabeth has more than 20 years of drug development and regulatory affairs experience spanning early and late-stage development through post-marketing activities. Elizabeth has led several teams culminating in successful US and ex-US drug regulatory approvals. Prior to joining Tarsus, Elizabeth served as Senior Vice President, Head of Regulatory Affairs at Nevakar Injectables, Inc. where she led regulatory activities resulting in US FDA approval of several new products in the critical care and ambulatory care setting. Earlier in her career, Elizabeth held roles as a global regulatory leader and regulatory liaison at Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo and Acorda Therapeutics.

Elizabeth has a PhD and a Master of Science degree, both in Microbiology and Microbial Genetics from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland.

Kavita has over 15 years of clinical development experience in ophthalmology and vision care spanning across dry eye disease, refractive and cataract surgery equipment, contact lenses, intraocular lens, and glaucoma. Prior to Tarsus, Kavita was Head of Clinical Development at Sight Sciences where she oversaw clinical, medical, and innovation initiatives for the dry eye and surgical glaucoma platforms. During her successful tenure at Sight Sciences, she led a high-performing clinical team and developed the clinical strategy, a robust evidence package, and indication expansions. Prior to Sight Sciences, Kavita worked at Allergan as a clinical scientist, prior to which she worked at Abbott Medical Optics and J&J.

Kavita earned her MD in India and practiced as a comprehensive ophthalmologist before completing her PhD from UC Berkeley. Her academic research was focused on dry eye and blepharitis during residency and on discovery of novel disease markers of diabetic retinopathy during her PhD. She has participated as a principal investigator or co-investigator in many clinical trials and conducted many laboratory investigations in both academic and private practice settings. She also serves as a reviewer for numerous journals focusing on ophthalmology, current eye research, and managed care. She continues to serve as a surgeon through mission work across India in underprivileged and tribal areas.

Matt has more than 28 years of experience in GMP regulated industries, working in various roles within quality assurance, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical technology. His areas of expertise include quality systems, process controls, and process improvement. Matt was promoted to Vice President of Quality at Tarsus from Sr Director. Prior to joining Tarsus, Matt was the Director of Quality/Head of Quality at Acrotech Biopharma, where he helped launch HEMADY^®, a dexamethasone tablet, and KHAPZORY^®, levoleucovorin for injection. Prior to Acrotech, Matt was the Director of Quality at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SPPI).

Matt earned a BS in Management from the University of Phoenix; 3 Certificates from Cal State Fullerton in Pharmaceutical Engineering, The Lean Enterprise – Adding Value, The Lean Enterprise – Foundations for Cost-Effective Business; and holds 4 certifications from the American Society for Quality: Certified Quality Manager/Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Certified Quality Auditor (CQA), Certified Supplier Quality Professional (CSQP), and Certified Six Sigma Green Belt (CSSGB).

Travis has more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturing operations, including managing a commercial launch of numerous pharmaceutical and combination products. Travis came to Tarsus from Corcept Therapeutics, where he led manufacturing operations for late phase and commercial products, including Korlym^®. Prior to this, he was the Vice President of Commercial Operations at CS Bio, leading commercial peptide production and supply chain operations. He joined CS Bio from Heron Therapeutics, where he built and led the manufacturing operations team, launching the company’s first commercial drug device combination product, Sustol^®.

Travis started his pharmaceutical career at CV Therapeutics, where he launched Ranexa^® and Lexiscan^®, and continued with Gilead Sciences after it acquired CV Therapeutics, where he was responsible for, among other duties, the commercial API production of Viread^®, Truvada^®, and Atripla^®. Travis holds a BS in chemical engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Mark Luz has more than 15 years of strategy, finance, and analytics experience. Prior to joining Tarsus, Mark served as Vice President, Finance, and Strategic Analytics at Dermavant Sciences where he drove planning and strategy behind the commercialization of VTAMA. Prior to Dermavant, Mark worked at Avanir Pharmaceuticals where he was Senior Director of Analytics and Insights, driving analytics leadership and data-driven decisions across the organization. Previously, he held finance and payer leadership roles at UnitedHealthcare/OptumRx and a series of financial planning and strategy leadership roles in the financial services industry. Mark has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Arizona State University and an MBA from the University of Southern California.

Matt has over 20 years of commercial experience across a range of therapeutic categories, including CNS, sleep science, hematology, and oncology. Before joining Tarsus, Matt served as Vice President of Marketing for QED Therapeutics (a BridgeBio company), where he established the commercial infrastructure and led cross-functional launch planning efforts for Truseltiq, QED’s first approved therapeutic. Prior to QED, Matt served in roles of increasing responsibility at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, including as Marketing Director for Xyrem (sleep science), Head of Marketing for the Hematology portfolio, and as Senior Director of Business Development. Prior to Jazz, Matt worked at Pfizer across several commercial functions such as commercial operations, US and global marketing, and commercial development.

Matt holds his BA in Kinesiology and Human Physiology from the University of Colorado and obtained his MBA from New York University.

Sara has more than 15 years of business development and strategy experience across therapeutic areas, including oncology, neuroscience, autoimmune, and rare diseases. Before joining Tarsus, Sara served as Head of Business Development for Ideaya Biosciences, where she led and executed all strategic partnering activities. Sara has also served in roles of increasing responsibility at Jazz Pharmaceuticals across both business development and lifecycle management activities. Prior to Jazz, Sara worked at Questcor Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals) in portfolio strategy and business development. Sara started her career at Columbia Technology Ventures.

Sara holds a BS in Molecular Biology from UC San Diego and earned her PhD in Cellular, Molecular, and Biophysical Studies from Columbia University.

Scott has more than 15 years of finance and operations experience in the life science industry. His expertise includes building finance organizations to support successful product launches and leading global accounting operations, tax, and financial reporting teams.

Prior to joining Tarsus, Scott served in finance roles of increasing responsibility across several Biotech/Biopharma organizations. He most recently served as the Global Corporate Controller for Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc. (GBT), where he led in accounting, including working with the acquisition and integration efforts with Pfizer who acquired GBT in October 2022. Prior to his time at GBT, Scott was the Controller at MyoKardia, Inc. where he led efforts to support the commercialization of Mavacamten, the company’s first product, and built the accounting function globally. Before Myokardia, Scott was the Controller at Adamas Pharmaceuticals where he supported the finance team with the launch of its first product, Gocovori^®.

Scott began his career in finance at Ernst & Young (EY) in the external audit practice where he served life science clients in the San Francisco Bay Area in addition to a 3-year secondment in Basel, Switzerland.

Scott holds an MBA from the University of the Pacific with a concentration in Finance/Accounting, a BS in Genetics from University California, Davis, and is a certified public accountant (active) in the state of CA.

Scott has more than 20 years of pharmaceutical sales leadership, training and marketing experience with most of that time in eye care. With a strong focus on sales leadership, he has a long history of building high-performing teams. Scott also has significant experience in training and marketing, giving him a unique and broad commercial perspective.

Prior to joining Tarsus, Scott served as Regional Sales Director for Allergan’s specialty eye care team where his strategic leadership and strong customer focused culture quickly translated to high-performing results. Before that, Scott restructured the eye care training team to meet the needs of a diversifying organization and created a new level of training across a diverse product portfolio that included surgical, injectable and topical businesses. He also spent significant time helping to lead the professional marketing efforts for Restasis during an unprecedented period of product growth. Scott’s foundation in eye care and understanding of customer needs began as a frontline sales leader calling on customers in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Prior to his nearly 15 years at Allergan, Scott worked as a frontline sales leader and sales rep at Forest Laboratories. He earned his BA in Biology and received his MBA at Lehigh University.

Adrienne has more than 20 years of PR and leadership experience in the health care industry, providing strategic oversight and communications support for multiple pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device brands and companies.

She has worked across multiple therapeutic areas, including ophthalmology, oncology, rare diseases, women’s health, diabetes, and aesthetics as a senior consultant to support strategic planning, corporate and product communications, advocacy relations, and stakeholder engagement for several companies including Galderma, ZELTIQ (now Allergan), Bayer Healthcare, Onyx Pharmaceuticals (now Amgen) and Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Adrienne has held global communications and corporate affairs positions at Edwards Lifesciences and Abbott Diabetes Care, where she managed PR and communications strategy, executive visibility programming, and professional relations. Earlier, Adrienne served in senior level positions at Ketchum and W2O (now Real Chemistry), providing media strategy and communications support for the launch of several key products on behalf of Genentech, Medtronic, and Dendreon.

Adrienne holds a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

David has more than 10 years of investor relations experience and has an extensive background in developing and implementing strategic programs within the life sciences space. Before joining Tarsus, David spent 3 years at Ionis Pharmaceuticals, a leader in RNA-targeted drug discovery and development, where he led investor targeting and outreach. Prior to Ionis, David worked at Allergan (now an AbbVie company), where he worked closely with executive management to communicate key corporate messages in a consistent and strategic manner. His responsibility, interfacing between Allergan and the investment community, was instrumental in creating one of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies.

A Certified Public Accountant (license inactive in California), David holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from San Diego State University.