About Us

We are a precision biotherapeutics company with proprietary technologies and platforms, developing a broad pipeline of novel, precision therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.

We are focused on developing therapies that can provide deep and durable responses in patients.

At Hummingbird Bioscience, the commitment to rigorous science, teamwork, and intellectual integrity underpins our passion to accelerate the journey of new drugs from concept to clinic.

View Team Members

Management

Board of Directors

Management
Board of Directors

Management

Piers Ingram, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, Executive Director

Piers Ingram, PhD, MBA

Piers Ingram is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience. Excited by the increasing pace of progress in systems biology and immunology, Piers co-founded the company in 2015 to better apply these advances to drug discovery and development.

Prior to co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience, Piers spent 15 years in the biopharmaceutical industry in R&D consulting, commercial strategy and academia. Between 2013 and 2015, Piers was employed by Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) as Head of Strategic Planning, South East Asia, and between 2011 and 2013 at Monitor Group (and then Monitor Deloitte) as a Manager in the Strategy Consulting practice. Between 2008 and 2010, Piers was first a Research Fellow and then acting Research Group Head at the Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, Imperial College London. Piers holds an MSci in Mathematics, an MSc in Bioinformatics and a PhD in Systems Biology from Imperial College London, and an MBA from INSEAD.

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer, Co-Founder

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup, PhD

Jerome Boyd-Kirkup is Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder of Hummingbird Bioscience, a precision biotherapeutics company discovering and developing transformative biologic medicines for hard-to-treat diseases. With a passion for integrating scientific disciplines, Jerome co-founded Hummingbird Bioscience to translate systems biology into transformative solutions in precision medicine. Jerome is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies and intellectual property, designing experimental strategies for drug discovery, leading the development and testing of novel therapeutics, and overseeing the drug pipeline.

Jerome is a molecular systems biologist by background with extensive experience at the interface of computational and wet lab biology, and a career research focus of applying systems biology approaches to tackle human disease.

He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Imperial College London and a PhD in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University.

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD
Chief Technology Officer

Konrad Paszkiewicz, PhD

Konrad Paszkiewicz has served as the Chief Technology Officer of Hummingbird Bioscience since October 2017. Konrad leads Hummingbird Bioscience’s internal platform technologies, including mAbPredict, biomarker discovery and omics-technologies such as single-cell analysis and spatial transcriptomics, machine learning and high performance computing and IT infrastructure. Between 2016 and 2017, Konrad was Director of the Wellcome Trust Biomedical Informatics Hub and the Head of the Genomics Sequencing Facility at the University of Exeter, UK. Konrad holds an MSci in Physics and a PhD in Bioinformatics from Imperial College, London.

Kwek Kon Yew, BMBCh, DPhil
Chief Medical Officer

Kwek Kon Yew, BMBCh, DPhil

Kon Yew is Chief Medical Officer at Hummingbird Bioscience. Prior to joining the company, Kon Yew was Vice President of Clinical Development at Akeso Biopharma (HKEX: 9926), where he was responsible for Phase I to III immune-oncology clinical trials outside China; and represented clinical development to regulatory authorities, investigators, investors and key opinion leaders. His broad industry experience also includes serving as an investigator at Eli Lilly’s clinical research unit and the Head of Phase I and Drug Development Safety at IQVIA, advising on both oncology and non-oncology early clinical development studies.

Kon Yew completed his undergraduate medical training at Oxford Medical School; and read for a doctorate in Molecular Biology on an EP Abraham Research Studentship at Oxford University. He also holds graduate diplomas in Family Medicine and Palliative Medicine from the National University of Singapore; and a Certificate in Human Pharmacology from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, Royal Colleges of Physicians.

Dipti Thakkar, PhD
Chief Operating Officer

Dipti Thakkar, PhD

Dipti Thakkar is the Chief Operating Officer at Hummingbird Bioscience. She leads scientific strategies and operations to drive the company’s therapeutic innovations. Dipti is one of the founding scientific leaders of Hummingbird Bioscience and built the company’s R&D capabilities from the ground up. Dipti has led her multidisciplinary teams to advance multiple pre-clinical programs to clinical development.

Trained as a molecular biologist, she has nearly two decades of experience in preclinical therapeutic development across various modalities. In 2023, Dipti received the Singapore 100 Women in Tech (SG100WIT) award in recognition of her achievements in biotechnology.

In her previous academic roles at the University of Oxford and National Neuroscience Institute, she worked extensively towards understanding patient heterogeneity and identifying gene signatures for patient stratification.

Jessie Chen, PhD
Senior Vice President – Business Development

Jessie Chen, PhD

Jessie Chen is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Hummingbird Bioscience, bringing over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries across business development and financial investment.

Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Jessie was among the first ten employees at Pediatrix Therapeutics, where she established and led the business development function. She has also held leadership roles at EverInsight, Fosun Private Equity, SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Hospira, and Eli Lilly, contributing to strategic growth and partnerships across diverse portfolios.

Earlier in her career, Jessie spent five years as a bioinformatics research scientist at Roche and GSK, applying data-driven insights to advance drug discovery.

She holds an MBA from INSEAD and a PhD in Bioinformatics from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Brendon Hanson, PhD
Vice President – Discovery and Research Platforms

Brendon Hanson, PhD

Brendon Hanson is the Vice President of Discovery and Research Platforms at Hummingbird Bioscience. He leads the planning and implementation of the company’s early-stage discovery and development activities.

Brendon has been developing antibodies for nearly 30 years, initially to provide research reagents during his academic career. Moving to DSO National Laboratories in 2004, he was the Principal Scientist in the Biodefense Program, developing platforms for rapid therapeutic antibody discovery against infectious disease pathogens over the last 17 years. He then co-established and was later appointed Head of the Antibody Core Facility at the National University of Singapore’s Life Sciences Institute. Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Brendon led efforts toward rapid discovery of potently neutralizing antibodies during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brendon holds a PhD in Biochemistry from La Trobe University (Australia). He has also authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications.

Iris Tan
Vice President – Finance

Iris Tan

Iris is the Vice President of Finance and oversees finance operations and financial reporting. She has over 25 years of accounting and finance experience including SEC reporting and technical accounting, taxation, capital markets transactions and compliance. Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Iris served as the Director of Accounting & Corporate Reporting at Maxeon Solar, and the VP Finance at Razer. Earlier in her career, she worked at KPMG and Ernst & Young (San Jose, US & Hong Kong) in external audit to support clients in SEC and US GAAP reporting. Iris is a US Certified Public Accountant as well as a Chartered Accountant in Singapore.

Gary Khoo, PhD
Vice President – CMC

Gary Khoo, PhD

Gary is VP of CMC at Hummingbird Bioscience.

With over 16 years of experience in biopharmaceuticals, Gary is a CMC strategy and operations leader with experience at leading cross functional CMC programs, external/internal manufacturing product technology transfer and process development programs. Gary previously held leadership and research roles at various large pharmaceutical and biotech companies, such as Tessa Therapeutics, Takeda, Baxter Bioscience, A-Biopharma (currently Luye Pharma), UCB Celltech, and A*STAR Bioprocessing Technology Institute. From his long-spanning career in biomedical manufacturing, he has amassed expertise across modalities including antibodies/recombinant proteins, recombinant virus products and cell/gene therapies.

Gary holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering (Biochemical Engineering) from the University of Birmingham.

Ben Ayers, DPhil
Vice President – Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Ben Ayers, DPhil

Ben is the Vice President of Antibody-Drug Conjugates at Hummingbird Bioscience. With more than 16 years’ experience in the biopharma sector, Ben leads the strategy and development of the Antibody-Drug Conjugates platform and programs at Hummingbird Bioscience. Ben also held strategy and preclinical roles since joining Hummingbird Bioscience in 2020.

Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Ben advised companies on commercial strategy in APAC at ZS Associates, a healthcare-focused management consulting firm. Ben has accumulated a decade of experience in medicinal chemistry research in a wide range of therapeutic areas including oncology, tropical disease, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, and lysosomal storage diseases at Novartis, the Institute of Cancer Research, and the University of Oxford.

Ben holds a M.Chem. in Chemistry and a D.Phil in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Tarana Arbabzade
Vice President – Clinical Operations and Program Management

Tarana Arbabzade

Tarana is Vice President of Clinical Operations and Program Management at Hummingbird Bioscience. Tarana brings close to two decades of clinical research experience in global Phase I to IV clinical trials to the company. Prior to joining Hummingbird Bioscience, Tarana was at Akeso heading the Australia operations, and at IQVIA and PARAXEL leading clinical operations strategies and managing trials across a multitude of phases and departments. Tarana’s therapeutic area experience includes oncology, hematology, cardiovascular, migraine, rheumatology, diabetes, respiratory and ophthalmology.

Tarana earned a Bachelors in Medical Science followed by a Bachelors in Law from Macquarie University.

Board of Directors

Dan Estes, PhD
Non-Executive Director

Dan Estes, PhD

Dan Estes has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2021. Dr. Estes is a General Partner on the Frazier Life Sciences team and has been involved with investing in and building many of Frazier’s biopharmaceutical portfolio companies over the past 11 years. Dr. Estes joined Frazier Healthcare Partners in 2011 and focuses on investments in both development-stage and commercial-stage pharmaceutical companies. He has led Frazier’s investments in, and serves on the boards of, Arcutis (NASDAQ: ARQT, co-founder), Hawkeye Therapeutics, Lengo Therapeutics, Inipharm, Sudo Biosciences and Cirius Therapeutics. He previously served on the boards of Semnur Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Scilex) and Sierra Oncology (NASDAQ: SRRA) and led Frazier’s investment in Tarsus Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TARS). Dr. Estes has also been involved in Frazier’s investments in Acerta Pharma BV (acquired by AstraZeneca), Tobira Therapeutics (acquired by Allergan), Ignyta (acquired by Roche), Iovance (NASDAQ: IOVA), Vaxcyte (NADAQ: PCVX), and PreCision Dermatology (acquired by Valeant). Prior to joining Frazier, Dr. Estes was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company’s healthcare practice, where he led teams that advised leading global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on R&D strategy and business development strategy. He received his PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Michigan and holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, where he is a member of Tau Beta Pi. In 2018, Dr. Estes was named a “40-and-under Silicon Valley biotech investing star” by Business Insider.

Kenneth Harrison, PhD
Non-Executive Director

Kenneth Harrison, PhD

Kenneth Harrison has served as a member of our board of directors since June 2021. Dr. Harrison is a Partner at Novo Ventures (U.S.) Inc., which provides consulting services to Novo Holdings A/S, an investment firm focused on life sciences and finance, and has been employed by Novo Ventures (U.S.) Inc. since November 2015. Prior to joining Novo, Dr. Harrison served as Senior Market Planning Manager at Genentech, USA Inc., a private biotechnology company, from 2013 to 2015, where he helped guide strategic decision making for the Ophthalmology and HER2 franchises. Dr. Harrison previously worked as a management consultant at L.E.K. Consulting LLC, a consulting firm, and as the Entrepreneurship Program Manager at QB3, a nonprofit research and technology commercialization institute, and Mission Bay Capital LLC, an early stage life science venture capital firm, where he helped create new programs to launch and support life sciences companies in the Bay Area. Dr. Harrison studied cellular lipid storage and metabolism as an A.P. Giannini Foundation Fellow at the J. David Gladstone Institutes, received a PhD in pharmacology from Yale University, and received a BS in molecular biology from Texas Tech University, where he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate research fellow.

Thomas Lynch, MD
Non-Executive Director

Thomas Lynch, MD

Thomas Lynch has served as a member of our board of directors since July 2021. Dr. Lynch is currently President and Director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, an Attending Physician at UW Medicine Harborview Hospital, and a Professor at University of Washington School of Medicine. Prior to that, Dr. Lynch was Chief Scientific Officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb and he also previously held leadership roles including CEO of Massachusetts General Physicians Organization, Director of Yale Cancer Center, Physician-in-Chief at Yale’s Smilow Cancer Hospital, Chief of Hematology-Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lynch is a member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer. He received his BS in Biology from Yale College and his MD from Yale University.

Victor E. Tong
Non-Executive Director

Victor E. Tong

Victor E. Tong has served as a member of our board of directors since April 26, 2019. Currently, Mr. Tong is also a Partner at Decheng Capital and has been with the firm since its inception. At Decheng, Mr. Tong focuses on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies in China and the U.S. He currently serves on the boards of AccuraGen, Cellares, Cue Health, EpimAb Biotherapeutics, GenapSys, LevitasBio, Mammoth Biosciences and Take2. Mr. Tong also served as Chairman at ReadCoor, which was acquired by 10X Genomics, and he previously served on the boards of Cirina (acquired by GRAIL), GeneWEAVE Biosciences (acquired by Roche), Sema4 (NASDAQ: SMFR) and SentreHEART (acquired by Atricure). Prior to joining Decheng, Mr. Tong was a Principal at Bay City Capital, where he was instrumental in the incubation of Nevro (NYSE: NVRO) from medical device start-up to leader in pain management. Previously, he was an investment banker with Morgan Stanley, where he advised healthcare companies on initial public offerings and specialized in strategic advisory work. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Mr. Tong was an entrepreneur at Hana Biosciences (acquired by Spectrum Pharmaceuticals), where he was responsible for pipeline development, licensing and product launch for cancer products. Mr. Tong began his career participating in The Human Genome Project and its race to sequence the human genome as a research assistant at Incyte in 1999. Mr. Tong is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his BA degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and his BS degree in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business.

Seungmin Lee, MBA, MPH
Non-Executive Director

Seungmin Lee, MBA, MPH

Seungmin Lee has served as a member of our board of directors since January 2024. Ms. Lee is a Director of Bio Investment Group at SK Inc. and has driven deal processes from target identification, due diligence, and valuation to post-merger integration at an investment-focused holding company of SK Group for its Bio business over the past 7 years. Ms. Lee joined SK Inc. in 2017 and established mid/long-term growth strategies for SK’s Bio business and led investment in the new growth driver by spearheading investment processes and managing additional financial planning. After a series of strategical investment and acquisitions, she established SK Pharmteco in the US to integrate acquired assets and seven global facilities for SK CDMO business by developing a governance structure to manage AMPAC/CBM (USA), Ireland facility/Yposkesi (EU), to SK Biotek (Korea) and also serves on the boards of Visible Patient, Standigm, LVIS, GenEdit. Ms. Lee also advised a market access strategy for the third generation epilepsy drug (Xcopri) launched in the US for SK Group’s biopharmaceutical business by leveraging her previous career experiences. Prior to joining SK Inc., Ms. Lee was a dedicated consultant for an Integrated Payer and Provider Model (IPPM) Project at Genentech
(a member of the Roche Group), where she contributed to assessing product portfolio risks based on analysis of providers’ utilization pattern, total cost of care, etc., and to recommending risk management plan and market access strategy. Ms. Lee cultivated commercial expertise in the pharmaceutical sector while she worked at AstraZeneca (LON:AZN) in sales and marketing between 2008 and 2013. Ms. Lee received her MBA and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a LLB from Sungshin Women’s University.

Piers Jamie Ingram, PhD, MBA
Executive Director

Piers Jamie Ingram, PhD, MBA

Piers Jamie Ingram has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our board of directors since co-founding Hummingbird Bioscience in 2015. Between 2013 and 2015 Dr. Ingram was employed by Sanofi (NASDAQ: SNY) as Head of Strategic Planning, South East Asia, and between 2011 and 2013 at Monitor Group (and then Monitor Deloitte) as a Manager in the Strategy Consulting practice. Between 2008 and 2010, Dr. Ingram was first a Research Fellow and then acting Research Group Head at the Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, Imperial College London. Dr. Ingram holds an MSci in Mathematics, an MSc in Bioinformatics and a PhD in Systems Biology from Imperial College London, and an MBA from INSEAD.