Management Team

Stephen Squinto, Ph.D. is a Venture Partner at OrbiMed Advisors who brings over 25 years of biotechnology industry experience to Passage Bio. Dr. Squinto was a co-founder of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and recently served as its Executive Vice President and Chief Global Operations Officer. While at Alexion, Dr. Squinto was involved in the discovery, development and commercialization of Soliris, one of the world’s most successful orphan drug products for patients across several rare, life-threatening diseases.

Gary Romano, M.D., Ph.D, joins Passage Bio from Janssen R&D, where he was the head of clinical development for neurodegenerative disease and the deputy leader of the neurodegenerative disease therapeutic area. Before joining Janssen, he held positions at Merck Research Laboratories in the departments of clinical neuroscience and experimental medicine. Dr. Romano is the author of numerous textbook chapters and refereed articles in leading neuroscience and neurology journals and holds an adjunct clinical faculty position in the department of neurology at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. He received his Ph.D from The Rockefeller University where his thesis focused on regulation of CNS gene expression, his M.D. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed his post-graduate training in neurology and neuromuscular disease at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jill M. Quigley, J.D. most recently served as Chief Executive Officer of Nutrinia Ltd., a company developing pharmaceuticals to treat rare conditions of the gastrointestinal tract. Prior to Nutrinia, she held senior positions as legal counsel for several biotechnology companies, including at NPS Pharmaceuticals until its $5.2B acquisition by Shire plc, where she subsequently served as senior legal counsel and at Pharmasset leading in the negotiations of its $11B acquisition by Gilead Sciences Inc. Ms. Quigley began her career as an associate with the law firm of Dechert LLP, where she advised life science companies on a broad range of business and legal matters. She received an B.A. from American University and a J.D. with high honors from Rutgers School of Law.

Richard Morris joins Passage Bio from Context Therapeutics, where he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Prior to his position at Context, Richard was chief financial officer of Vitae Pharmaceuticals, where he was instrumental in transforming the company from a private, preclinical company to a public, clinical-stage and subsequently commercial company. Previously, he was vice president, global financial planning and strategy at ViroPharma Inc., where he supported the team leading its acquistion by Shire and helped build a scalable finance organization to support rapid growth of the rare disease company and establish the European and global pharmaceutical operations. Richard received his B.S. in Accounting from St. Joseph’s University and is a CPA.

Alex Fotopoulos joins Passage Bio from Ultragenyx Gene Therapy, which was formerly Dimension Therapeutics, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President, Head of Technical Operations. Alex brings over 26 years of biopharmaceutical industry, including the preclinical and clinical development of multiple AAV candidates targeting rare genetic liver-associated diseases. Prior to Ultragenyx, Mr. Fotopoulos served as Vice President of Technical Operations, responsible for the external development and manufacturing of a portfolio of novel biologics and biosimilars at Momenta Pharmaceuticals. Earlier, Mr. Fotopoulos held an 18-year tenure at Biogen, attaining the position of Senior Director of Global Manufacturing Engineering and Facilities. Mr. Fotopoulos received his Diploma in chemical engineering at the National Tech University of Athens, his M.Sc. degree in chemical engineering from Tufts University, and his M.B.A. from the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Edgar (Chip) Cale, J.D., joins Passage Bio with nearly 30 years of biotech and pharmaceutical legal experience. Chip joins from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), where he most recently served as senior vice president of legal corporate functions, heading up the multinational legal team that supported GSK's global business development activities and general corporate matters. During his 21 years at GSK, he led the legal support for GSK's most strategic transactions for the last 10 years, served as the general counsel of GSK’s vaccines unit and held a variety of roles supporting pharmaceutical R&D. Prior to GSK, Chip was a corporate and securities lawyer supporting emerging growth companies in the life science and technology industries at Venture Law Group and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. Chip received his J.D. from University of California, Berkeley and his B.A. in Biology from University of Pennsylvania.

James M. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the Gene Therapy Program; Rose H. Weiss Professor and Director of the Orphan Disease Center and Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wilson will serve as Chief Scientific Advisor at Passage Bio. Dr. Wilson’s laboratory has made seminal contributions to the technology of gene transfer and has paved the way for translation of these technologies into the clinic. He has published over 550 papers and is named on over 110 patents. After launching his faculty career in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Michigan, he moved to the University of Pennsylvania in 1993. Dr. Wilson completed his training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Whitehead Institute, where he began his work in gene therapy.