Leadership Team

The CanceRx Leadership Team

Over a career of more than 35 years, Cliff has developed strategies that drive significant financial results in translational cancer clinical research. He has represented a number of leading comprehensive cancer centers in advancing their cancer R&D funding. In 2002, he founded the National Functional Genomics Center, a consortium of over a dozen leading cancer centers to discover and validate cancer molecular signatures. He was an early working group leader in the three CanceRx conferences hosted by MIT and funded by the American Cancer Society, the Food and Drug Administration, the Sloan Foundation, and other stakeholders in translational cancer research.

He serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the CanceRx Foundation, Executive Director of the Foundation, and is founding Managing Director of CanceRx, LLC.

Cliff earned his B.A. from the University of South Florida and his Juris Doctorate from Florida State University College of Law. Cliff and his wife, Terri, and their sons, Cody and Justin, travel the world in conjunction with his work on cancer research funding and his international trade practice with Gibbons & Company, of Washington, D.C. Cliff and his wife are avid skiers with a passion for the outdoors and watersports.

Co-founder of Accuitive Medical Ventures, he brings nearly 40 years of operating experience, as well as expansive research and technical experience in the medical device industry. He currently serves as a board member for CardioFocus. He is also a board observer at AcuFocus. He currently is an Chairperson of the Board at Femasys, a commercial stage company in the Feminine Healthcare space.

Charlie co-founded The Innovation Factory and served as its Vice Chairman, co-founding numerous companies including: Cerebral Vascular Applications, Neuronetics, Acufocus, LipoSonix, NeoVista, Cellutions, Osteolign, AqueSys, Halscion, and Sebacia.

Co-founder of Novoste, a cardiovascular company providing brachytherapy for the treatment of restenosis. As a public company for 8 years it was merged with Best Medical and is still the most reliable treatment for the condition. Also Co-founder of Novoste Puerto Rico, an angiographic catheter company, along with Thomas Weldon, his efforts as a director and executive were critical to its ultimate success and sale to NAMIC, a division of Angiodynamics.

Before forming Novoste, Charlie held positions with Cordis Corporation, Key Pharmaceuticals and Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert in executive, senior engineering, and project management roles. Prior to several years in pharmaceutical design and manufacturing, he held various roles in the petrochemical and nuclear power industries.

Charlie received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. He attended Kenan Flagler at the University of North Carolina for Management Technology.

He holds over 30 issued U.S. and various International patents on medical devices and processes.

Dick brings deep experience in philanthropic and corporate board governance as president of the Board of Directors of the CanceRx Foundation. He has over two decades of senior management leadership experience with executive search working in the United States and Europe, including Heidrick & Struggles and A.T. Kearney, and has served as president of the Interface Group, Ltd.

As a top executive recruiter, Dick regularly’ provides counsel to boards of non-profits on corporate governance, strategic planning, talent inventory and acquisition, and fundraising. He has successfully led and managed fundraising teams to exceed goals and collaborate with internal and external constituents to provide a multi-disciplinary approach to campaign and annual fundraising.

Dick holds a B.A. from Xavier University and an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth College. Dick is an avid reader, opera lover, travel enthusiast (all 50 states and more than 70 countries), skier, pickle ball and tennis player, and has climbed to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro with his family. Dick is a native of Detroit, and now resides in McLean, Va. He is married to Dabney Waters Schmitt and is the father of two sons.

As a Director of the CanceRx Foundation, Inc., Paul will use his wealth of senior corporate governance expertise for executive management selection to build a robust corporate structure. He also brings to the team his experience in high-level executive management positions and legal counsel with General Motors, Timex, and Playtex Products, Inc., a major diversified consumer products company. Paul provides leadership navigation at the intersection of business and public policy.

Paul provides leadership guidance in overseeing the preparation of CanceRx intellectual property agreements, overseeing the protection of new cancer therapeutics patents in court, maintaining the legal integrity and sale of the research-backed obligation projects, and compliance with the many regulatory registrations for the corporation.

Paul is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University School of Law. Paul and his wife Marie are avid skiers residing in Park City, Utah.

Mike is a member of the Board of Directors of the CanceRx Foundation, with more than 30 years of executive search experience. He will apply this knowhow as CanceRx conducts high-level executive searches for senior management positions in the company, the Board of Directors, and the Strategic Advisory Board. Mike provides oversight and guidance to a knowledgeable team of executive search professionals vital to the CanceRx enterprise.

Mike served as head of the Washington Office of the global executive search firm of Spencer Stuart and Korn Ferry International, where he focused c-level corporate and philanthropic searches. He is an active Co-founder of Lochin Partners, a boutique executive search firm for the past 15 years. As a cancer survivor, Mike knows the business of cancer and clinical trials.

Mike received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his MBA in marketing and finance from the University of Chicago. Mike and his wife, Valerie, are deeply engaged with the University of Virginia and currently reside in Charlottesville, Va.