Corporate Governance

Mr. Hardy has over 30 years of experience in serving as the Chief Executive Officer and/or President for publicly-traded and privately-held pharmaceutical companies.

Prior to co-founding Brickell, and serving as its CEO from inception through 2018, Mr. Hardy was the co-founder and President of Concordia Pharmaceuticals, Inc. an oncology drug development company acquired by Kadmon Corporation in 2011. Mr. Hardy was co-founder and President of SANO Corporation, a pharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel transdermal drug delivery systems that was acquired by Elan Corporation. Prior to SANO, Mr. Hardy served as the President of the generics group at IVAX Corporation.

Mr. Hardy has also held various corporate roles with Hoechst-Roussel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Key Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Hardy earned his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill and M.B.A. from UNC-Greensboro.

Rob Brown joins Brickell as Chief Executive Officer, after having spent over 30 years at Eli Lilly and Company, where he most recently served as chief marketing officer (CMO) and senior vice president of marketing from 2009 through 2018. As CMO, Brown was responsible for building and leading marketing capabilities across Lilly’s pharmaceutical business units, including diabetes, oncology, emerging markets and Lilly Bio-Medicines.

Prior to his role as CMO, Brown held the position of vice president and chief marketing officer for Lilly USA from 2007 - 2009, where he partnered with the business units to ensure Lilly continued to develop industry leading marketing capabilities, streamline and improve marketing processes, and transform marketing by building a consumer marketing center of excellence.

From 2003-2007, Brown was the executive director of marketing for the Intercontinental region, including responsibility for Europe. As the head marketer for Lilly’s international operations, Brown was responsible for the marketing of all Lilly products outside the United States.

Brown previously served as the global marketing director for Cialis and Lilly ICOS, a 50/50 joint venture between Lilly and ICOS Corp from 1999-2003. Brown oversaw the global marketing strategy for the first competitor to Viagra and influenced the product development to ensure maximum market value. In 2004, Cialis was awarded Best Brand Launch of the Year by the Pharmaceutical Marketing Congress.

In addition, Brown held a variety of other leadership roles of increasing responsibility within Lilly’s sales, marketing and product management departments, including serving as general manager for Lilly China, where he helped Lilly establish its presence. During his tenure as GM, he managed a joint venture in Suzhou, oversaw the construction of Lilly’s first manufacturing facility and expanded the affiliate’s reach from 12 to 45 cities. Notably, Brown also helped establish STC Corporation, a generic subsidiary for Lilly, and served as its first president.

Brown joined Lilly in 1985, after receiving a bachelor’s degree in economics from DePauw University and a master’s in business administration from Indiana University. Brown currently serves on the board of trustees of Franklin College.

Mr. Veru is a Principal of Palisade Capital and a member of the Investment Policy Committee. Mr. Veru has oversight responsibilities for all the investment strategies at Palisade Capital involving publicly traded securities.

From 1992 through 1999, Mr. Veru was the President and Director of Research at Awad Asset Management and helped oversee the firm's growth from start up to more than one billion of small cap institutional and high net worth assets.

Prior to Awad, Mr. Veru became associated with the partners of Palisade in 1984 at Drexel Burnham Lambert and later at Smith Barney Harris Upham where he held a variety of analytical roles.

In addition to his professional responsibilities, Mr. Veru is a member of the Board of Overseers of the St. Lukes and Roosevelt hospital, a member of the finance committee of the Dwight-Englewood School, and a member of the Board of the McCarton School for autistic children. A graduate of Franklin & Marshall College in 1983, Mr. Veru is a frequent guest on CNBC, Bloomberg News, Fox News and CNN. He also contributes market opinions to various financial publications.

Mr. Samant served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Vical since November 2000.Mr. Samant has 23 years of diverse U.S. and international sales, marketing, operations, and business development experience with Merck. From 1998 to mid-2000, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Merck Vaccine Division. From 1990 to 1998, he served in the Merck Manufacturing Division as Vice President of Vaccine Operations, Vice President of Business Affairs, and Executive Director of Materials Management. Mr. Samant earned a master's degree in management studies from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983. He received a master's degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University in 1977 and a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay, University Department of Chemical Technology, in 1975. Mr. Samant presently serves as a member of the board of directors of AmpliPhi Biosciences Corporation. Mr. Samant was a member of the Board of Directors for Raptor Pharmaceutical from 2011 to 2014, and was a member of the Board of Directors for BioMarin Pharmaceutical from 2002 to 2004. Mr. Samant was a Director of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation (Rockville, MD) from 2001 to 2010; a member of the Board of Trustees for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID, Bethesda, MD) from 2003 to 2012; and a member of the Board of Trustees for the International Vaccine Institute (IVI, Seoul, Korea) from 2008 to 2012.

Gary A. Lyons held various positions with Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, for 16 years through January 2008, including President and Chief Executive Officer. From 1983 to 1993, Mr. Lyons held various executive positions at Genentech, Inc., a biotechnology company, including Vice President of Business Development, Vice President of Sales, and Director of Sales and Marketing. Mr. Lyons presently serves as a member of the board of directors of Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., and Novus Therapeutics, and is chairman of the board of directors of Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Retrophin, Inc., all of which are publicly held biotechnology companies. In addition, Mr Lyons previously served on the boards of directors of PDL BioPharma, Facet Biotech Corporation, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, and NeurogesX, Inc. Mr. Lyons holds a bachelor’s degree in marine biology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.B.A. degree from Northwestern University, JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management.