Charged with purpose

Rick is the Chief Executive Officer at Nocion, which he joined in August 2018. He has over three decades of experience in drug development across an array of platforms and disease states and has been with several start-ups from founding through acquisition. Prior to Nocion, Rick served as Chief Technology Officer of Acorda following the acquisition of Civitas Therapeutics, where he was the Chief Scientific Officer and a co-founder. Civitas’ lead asset, a novel dry powder inhalation therapy to treat motor issues in Parkinson’s patients has been approved by the FDA under the brand name Inbrija^TM.

Before that, Rick was the Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Pulmatrix. Previously, he was the Vice President of Research and Development at Alkermes, overseeing many facets of product development across pulmonary, injectable and oral platforms following the acquisition of Advanced Inhalation Research (AIR), where he was an original member and oversaw product development.

Rick has brought his product development expertise to several board positions at private and public companies. In addition to serving on the Nocion Therapeutics Board, Rick is currently a director for Pulmatrix, Inc.

Rick was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Alberta where he taught Fluid Mechanics and Transport Phenomena prior to joining AIR. He holds an S.M. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Calgary.

Peter is the Chief Financial Officer at Nocion, which he joined in March 2021. He has over three decades of experience in the industry, and has helped incubate and manage companies from an early stage through to various exits. Peter has been the acting or full-time CFO at several companies including Civitas Therapeutics, Acceleron Pharma, Visterra, Aveo, Kala, and others. Peter started his biotech career as Controller at Genzyme Tissue Repair, and then as Director of Finance at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Peter holds an M.B.A. from Babson College and a B.S. in Accounting from Bentley University. He is also a CPA.

Jim is the Chief Scientific Officer at Nocion, which he joined in July 2018. He has over three decades of leadership experience in drug discovery in multiple therapeutic areas, working in organizations from biotech startups to large pharma. Most recently, Jim led GSK’s Innovation Hub in Cambridge after serving as Vice President and Head of GSK’s Sirtuin Discovery Performance Unit.

Before that, he was Vice President of Research for Surface Logix. Previously, Jim was the Executive Project Director and Chief Biology Advisor for NitroMed. Earlier, he was the Group Director, Allergy and Respiratory Disease and Senior Director of Pharmacology at UCB Pharma where he was responsible for UCB’s global allergy and respiratory franchise research pipeline.

Prior to joining industry, Jim was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, where he also did his post-doctoral research. Jim holds a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from University College London and a B.Sc. in Pharmacology from the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.

Matt is the Chief Medical Officer at Nocion, which he joined in April 2025. Most recently, he was Chief Medical Officer at Chemomab, Inc., where he spearheaded the development of a novel monoclonal antibody for fibrotic and inflammatory diseases, culminating in a successful end-of-phase 2 meeting with the FDA. Before that, Matt was Vice President, Clinical Development & Medical Affairs, Specialty Pharma at Boehringer Ingelheim where he was responsible for developing new drugs for oncology, immunology, pulmonary, and CNS diseases. Previously, he was Vice President & Head, Immunology and Dermatology Medical Unit at Novartis where he oversaw medical affairs and clinical development for Cosentyx®, Ilaris®, and Zortress®.

Earlier, Matt led the medical affairs unit at Sandoz supporting the biosimilar, biopharmaceutical and generics businesses. He also previously held clinical development leadership roles across therapeutic areas at Reata, Fibrogen, Abbott Labs, and Schering Plough.

Matt holds an M.D. from the University of California School of Medicine, Los Angeles, an MBA from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and a B.A. from Vassar College. He was board certified in internal medicine.

Joan is the Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations at Nocion, which she joined in April 2024. She has over three decades of experience with large pharmaceutical companies (Astra Zeneca, DuPont Pharma, Takeda), biotech companies (Bellus Health, Agenus) and contract research organizations (Parexel, UBC, Quotient Sciences) in multiple therapeutic areas. Most recently, Joan served as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Operations at Bellus Health (now GSK) and established their global late-stage drug development strategy for refractory chronic cough, completed their successful Phase 2b study and initiated a program of Phase 3 studies.

Joan holds an M.S. in Clinical Chemistry and Administration from West Chester University, is a licensed Medical Technologist with a B.S. from University of Delaware and holds a Six Sigma Black Belt from Villanova University.