Leadership Team

Clifford J. Stocks
Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Stocks brings more than twenty-eight years of experience in the biotech industry to OncoResponse. Most recently, Mr. Stocks served as Chief Executive Officer at Theraclone Sciences, where he was responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s efforts to discover and develop novel therapeutic antibody immunotherapies for the treatment of infectious disease. Prior to Theraclone, Mr. Stocks served as Chief Business Officer of Calistoga Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he led the partnering activities and M&A teamwork that resulted in the acquisition of Calistoga by Gilead for $600 million in Q2 2011. Prior to Calistoga, Mr. Stocks spent over 15 years at ICOS Corporation, where he served as an Executive Officer and Vice President of Business Development. While at ICOS, he led acquisitions and joint venture activities, as well as alliance formation, strategy, licensing and deal making. He played an instrumental role on the leadership team that developed and launched Cialis®, and was a key architect of the Lilly ICOS joint venture partnership leading to the $2.3 billion acquisition of ICOS in 2007. Mr. Stocks's early career includes a turn as a management consultant in the Health Services practice of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, as well as academic research in the department of immunology at the University of Utah and the department of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago.

Mr. Stocks received a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago, Booth Graduate School of Business and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from the University of Utah.

Bob Lechleider, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Lechleider joined OncoResponse from Seattle Genetics where he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and was responsible for directing development of the early and late stage portfolios, including the successful initial licensing of Padcev for the treatment of previously treated metastatic urothelial cancer. Prior to his work at Seattle Genetics, Dr. Lechleider held key roles with increasing responsibility at several biopharmaceutical companies, including MacroGenics Human Genome Sciences, and MedImmune/Astra Zeneca. Before joining the biotechnology industry, he served as Assistant Professor of Pharmacology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, and Associate Professor of Cell Biology at Georgetown University Medical School.

Dr. Lechleider received his A.B. cum laude from Princeton University and his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. Dr. Lechleider received clinical training in internal medicine at Beth Israel-Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda. He was also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Scholar and a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell postdoctoral fellow.

Kamal D. Puri, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Puri joined OncoResponse from Celgene where he led a preclinical research group to discover new molecular entities for the immunology pipeline as well as identified and supported new indications for existing portfolio molecules. Prior to Celgene he was Associate Director of Research at Gilead, where he contributed to the approval of Zydelig™ a first-in-class PI3K delta inhibitor for the treatment of hematological malignancies. Dr. Puri also led internal teams and managed external collaborations to deliver a best-in-class PI3K delta inhibitor and advanced it into clinical development, and directed research efforts on multiple discovery projects in inflammation. Prior to Gilead, which acquired Calistoga Pharma, Dr. Puri was Head of Biology at Calistoga and was responsible for a wide range of activities including preclinical research and portfolio strategy and biomarker discovery with success in advancing three drug candidates into clinical development for multiple indications. Earlier in his career, Dr. Puri also led drug discovery efforts at ICOS Corporation and CytoTherapeutics.

Dr. Puri received his PhD from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. During his research period, he was a Research Fellow of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, India. Dr. Puri undertook his immunology training with Timothy A. Springer, PhD Latham Family Professor at the Harvard Medical School.

Chris Russell, MBA
Chief Financial Officer

Chris Russell provides financial and operational leadership at OncoResponse. He has over 30 years of experience as a growth company executive and entrepreneur, launching highly successful products and companies. He served as President of Oracle Corp.’s online division, where he launched their on-demand offerings, now a multi-billion-dollar business. Mr. Russell has also helped lead and grow numerous successful new companies. He was on the team who conceived and funded ArcSight, which completed a successful IPO and was acquired by HP for $1.5 billion. He led product and marketing at WageWorks, who completed an IPO and was later acquired by HealthEquity for $2 billion. As founding COO, he helped fund and grow TrustArc, the leader in internet data privacy. Earlier in his career, Mr. Russell was a strategy consultant at Booz Allen and a CPA at both EY and PwC.

Mr. Russell holds a degree in Accounting from the University of Washington and an MBA with honors from the University of Chicago, Booth Graduate School of Business.