Vlad Vitoc, MD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Joseph F. McGuire
Chief Financial Officer
Sergei M. Gryaznov, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Mihail Obrocea, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Vlad Vitoc, MD, MBA
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman
Dr. Vitoc is our Chairman of Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President. Dr. Vitoc has a broad array of experience across commercial strategic analysis and planning and medical affairs, in which he has 20 years of experience. During that time, Dr. Vitoc has managed and supported over 20 early, launch, and mature stage compounds, which have included targeted therapies and immune therapies across more than 25 tumor types, including colorectal cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, lung cancer, breast cancer, prostate cancer, and renal cell carcinoma. Vlad received an M.D. from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and his M.B.A. from the University of South Carolina.
Joseph F. McGuire
Chief Financial Officer
Mr. McGuire is our Chief Financial Officer, and he brings over 30 years of experience to MAIA, having served as Chief Financial Officer for several privately held and publicly traded companies in the healthcare, financial services, investment, and manufacturing industries. In these roles, his responsibilities included SEC financial reporting, investor relations, corporate governance, legal and audit liaison, and team building. Most recently, Mr. McGuire was the Chief Financial Officer at Avadim Health, Inc. (“Avadim”) from October 2014 to May 2021. Mr. McGuire began his career with Price Waterhouse, where he was a certified public accountant, and later held management positions with Dean Witter Reynolds and Paine Webber, Inc. Joe received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Notre Dame.
Sergei M. Gryaznov, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Gryaznov is our Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Gryaznov is an internationally recognized scientist and expert in the areas of modern drug discovery and development, oncology, telomerase, immune-regulatory therapeutics, nucleosides, nucleotides, DNA and RNA analogues, lipid and other conjugates, small molecules, and nucleic acid based therapeutic agents. Dr. Gryaznov is the co-inventor of a novel telomere-by-telomerase-targeting therapeutic approach to potential cancer treatment and responsible for leading the research team that characterized THIO’s telomere targeting activity, our lead compound in development. Dr. Gryaznov obtained an M.S., with Honors, in Organic Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry of Natural Products from M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University. Dr. Gryaznov also completed a post-doctoral fellowship program in Chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
Mihail Obrocea, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Mihail is a board-certified internist and hematologist/oncologist with over 25 years’ experience in drug development in both academia and pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry. His broad clinical drug development expertise in both hematology and oncology covers equally early and late-stage development of cell therapy, cancer vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, and small molecules.
Mihail completed a residency program in internal medicine at Yale University followed by a fellowship program in hematology/oncology at Dartmouth with academic appointment as Instructor of Medicine in the division of Hematology & Oncology at Mary Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth.
He started his career in pharmaceutical industry at Pfizer Oncology leading the CD40 agonist and IGF-1R antibodies projects, which entered in early clinical trials. Subsequently he led the Medical Affairs Oncology group at MedImmune, Gaithersburg MD and later as VP, Clinical Development Oncology at MannKind Corp., Valencia, CA successfully brought into clinic two cancer vaccine programs. As a Global Project Lead for AbbVie Biotherapeutics in Redwood City, CA, he was responsible for the early clinical oncology monoclonal antibody programs and as Head, Medical Sciences at Pharmacyclics, Sunnyvale CA he took part in the commercial launch of ibrutinib (IMBRUVICA™) program in mantle cell lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As VP of Clinical and Medical Affairs at SFJ Pharmaceutical Group, a venture pharma company supported the medical and business operations of the Pfizer Oncology partnership on the Phase 3, pivotal trial which led to the FDA approval of Besponsa® (inotuzumab ozogamicin) in the R/R adult B-cell ALL.
Later as US Clinical Lead at Nanobiotix Corp, a biotechnology company based in Paris, France which develops nanotechnologies for use in radiation oncology, established the US clinical programs and was involved in the strategic business development, investor, and partner interaction. As a Program Lead at Juno Therapeutics Inc and later Celgene he had the US clinical oversight of 2 clinical trials including the registration Ph 3 trial in second line aggressive large B-cell lymphomas of BREYANZI® (lisocabtagene maralucel) an autologous CD19 targeted CAR T program approved in both US and EU in R/R large B-cell lymphoma. More recently, as Project and Clinical Lead at Atara Bio, a T-cell therapy company based in Thousand Oaks, CA he supported the pre-clinical and clinical development of the Atara’s allogeneic CAR T platform for both lymphoma and solid tumor indications.
Mihail published in oncology peer-reviewed literature and is co-author of a couple of books related to cancer vaccines and immunology as well as he holds several patents in the field of biotechnology.
