Executive Leadership

Arthur Kuan

Chief Executive Officer

Ambaw Bellete

President and Chief Operating Officer

Vijay Kasturi, MD

Chief Medical
Officer

Swapnil Bhargava

Chief Technical
Officer

Stephen DiPalma

Chief Financial
Officer

Board of Directors

Arthur Kuan

Chief Executive Officer

Brian Liu

Managing Director, Longitude Capital

Jim Mulé, PhD

Director of Cell-based Therapies, Moffitt Cancer Center

Leonard Post, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Vivace Therapeutics

Simone Song

Senior Partner, ORI Capital

Victor Tong, Jr.

Partner, Decheng Capital

Arthur Kuan

Chief Executive Officer

Arthur serves as Chief Executive Officer at CG Oncology. Having lost his father to cancer this is personal for him. Arthur was recognized in 2022 by Business Insider’s 30 People Under 40 Who Are Transforming Healthcare. In 2020, he was named a Forbes 30 Under 30 featured honoree in healthcare. At Moffitt Cancer Center, Arthur serves on the IP Commercialization Strategy Committee. Arthur is a Founding Member of Ally Bridge Group, a global healthcare-focused investment platform, and played an active role in managing the fund’s portfolio companies. Previously, Arthur was a member of Themes Investment Partners, a Private Equity fund where he focused on healthcare and biotech investment opportunities. He began his career at Dinova Capital, a MedTech incubator fund, focusing on cross-border technology transfer and new company formation. Arthur received his M.S. in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University and his B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ambaw Bellete

President and Chief Operating Officer

Ambaw serves as President & Chief Operating Officer at CG Oncology where he has responsibility for the overall commercial organization comprised of sales and marketing, communications and advocacy, business analytics and operations, health outcomes research, and patient access. In addition to leading our business development, corporate strategy, quality, regulatory affairs, and supply chain organization. Ambaw has over 30 years of experience in the biotech industry, and he has a proven track record of success building and leading multidisciplinary teams from pre-launch to commercialization. He is passionate about bringing new solutions to the bladder cancer community and maintaining a personal and compassionate focus on patients, their caregivers, and families. He previously served as CEO of Lion Healthcare Strategies, the Chief Operating Officer at FerGene, and was also President of Photocure, a company focused on photodynamic therapy to treat bladder cancer. He has also held several global leadership positions with biotech and medical device companies including as President of MCS. He started his biotech career at The Upjohn Company (now Pfizer) and then Sanofi, where he held diverse senior leadership roles. Ambaw currently serves as Chairman of the Board for OncoSTING and is a board member of Axiom Reach Foundation.

Vijay Kasturi, MD

Chief Medical Officer

Vijay is the Chief Medical Officer at CG Oncology and is responsible for medical affairs, clinical and translational development. He is passionate about bladder cancer; having seen a loved one suffering from the disease as well as treating patients with it professionally as a GU medical oncologist. He brings more than 25 years of experience establishing and executing global and regional strategies that have brought innovative new treatment options to patients in hematology, oncology and urology. Prior to joining CG Oncology, Vijay was the Vice President, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs at AVEO, where he was also a member of the executive leadership team. Previously he was Senior Vice President of Scientific Affairs at FerGene, and led Medical Affairs, Clinical Operations, Regulatory and Clinical Development, specializing in bladder cancer and defining the pre-launch and launch plans for ADSTILADRIN. Prior to joining FerGene, he led U.S. Medical Affairs, Oncology for EMD Serono where he had broad leadership responsibilities including developing and managing the global medical strategy and launch plan for the company’s anti-PD-L1 agent (avelumab) in bladder and kidney cancers. Earlier in his career, Vijay served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and was the program leader for genitourinary oncology at UMass Memorial Cancer Center. He trained in Hematology-Oncology at the National Cancer Institute and worked as an investigator and physician at the National Cancer Institute and at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Swapnil Bhargava, PhD

Chief Technical Officer

Swapnil is the Chief Technical Officer at CG Oncology. He is responsible for building CMC functions including process development, MSAT, manufacturing, regulatory filings, and optimal delivery of cretostimogene grenadenorepvec for clinical studies and commercial supply following approval. He has supported multiple INDs and BLAs and has contributed to bringing multiple modalities to clinic and market: before joining CG Oncology Swapnil was the Senior Vice President of CMC Development and GMP Manufacturing at AbCellera, leading the TechOps team. Prior to that, he was the VP for drug substance process development at SeaGen. There he was responsible for leading cell line development, upstream, downstream and conjugation process development and analytical sciences departments for early and late-stage drug development. Earlier, while at Amgen he had led process development efforts for different modalities, including biosimilars. Swapnil has a doctorate in Chemical Engineering from University of Maryland and a BS/MS from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi.

Stephen DiPalma

Chief Financial Officer

Stephen serves as the Chief Financial Officer. He has over 35 years of experience in financial management and capital formation in the life sciences industry. He is currently a managing director of Danforth Advisors, LLC, a consulting firm that specializes in working with life sciences companies. Prior to and during his tenure at Danforth, Steve has served as Chief Financial Officer to a number of public companies, in addition to many private companies in various stages of development. Immediately prior to joining Danforth in 2014, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Forum Pharmaceuticals from 2009 to 2014. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts and a Master in Business Administration from Babson College.

Arthur Kuan

Chief Executive Officer

Arthur currently serves as Chief Executive Officer and Director on the Board at CG Oncology, a privately-held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the research, acquisition and development of novel immunotherapies, including an oncolytic virus for the treatment of bladder cancer and a variety of other solid tumor types. Arthur is a Founding Member of Ally Bridge Group, a global healthcare-focused investment platform, and plays an active role in managing the fund’s portfolio companies. Previously, Arthur was a member of Themes Investment Partners, a Private Equity fund based in Hong Kong, where he played a central role in coordinating cross-border technology transfer and regulatory submissions for portfolio companies. He began his career in an operational role at Dinova Capital, a Shanghai-based, medical technology incubator fund, evaluating medical device investment opportunities. Arthur received his M.S. in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University and his B.A. in Biology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Victor Tong, Jr.

Partner, Decheng Capital

Victor Tong, Jr. is a Partner at Decheng Capital and has been with the firm since its inception. Victor focuses on investments in biotechnology and medical technology companies in China and the US. He currently serves on the boards of Cellares, CG Oncology, EpimAb Biotherapeutics, Harton Therapeutics, Hummingbird Bioscience, LevitasBio, Nalu Medical, Take2 and Watchmaker Genomics. Previously, Victor served as Chairman at ReadCoor before its acquisition by 10X Genomics. He also held board positions at Cirina (acquired by GRAIL / Illumina) and GeneWEAVE Biosciences (acquired by Roche). Before joining Decheng, Victor was a Principal at Bay City Capital, a life sciences investment firm, and a member of the healthcare investment banking division at Morgan Stanley. Victor holds a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology and B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

Brian Liu

Managing Director, Longitude Capital

Brian Liu, MD, is a Managing Director at Longitude Capital. Dr. Liu is a board observer at Quanta Therapeutics and Rivus Pharmaceuticals. He previously served as a board observer at Endeavor Biomedicines, Inflazome (acquired by Roche), Talaris Therapeutics (TALS), and Vera Therapeutics (VERA). Prior to joining Longitude Capital in 2018, Dr. Liu was an Engagement Manager in the pharmaceuticals practice of McKinsey & Company. Dr. Liu holds an MD from Stanford School of Medicine and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University.

Jim Mulé, PhD

Director of Cell-based Therapies, Moffitt Cancer Center

Jim is Associate Center Director, the U.S. Senator Connie Mack (ret.) & Family Endowed Chair for Melanoma Research and Treatment, and Director of Cell-based Therapies at the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida. He is recognized for his research and clinical trial contributions to cancer immunotherapy, particularly in melanoma. His translational work in this area has helped to develop new treatments for advanced cancer patients. He has published nearly 200 articles. Jim serves on Advisory Boards of numerous biotechnology and pharma companies as well as investment funds (e.g., OncoPep, Fulgent Diagnostics, UbiVac, Lion Biotech, Orpheus Therapeutics, Vault Pharma, Celgene, Select BioVenture Partners, Noble Life Science Partners, among others). Jim remains a long-standing special government employee to the FDA (CDER and CBER) and the NCI. He was Chair of the Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapy Advisory Committee of CBER, FDA. He currently serves on the advisory boards of several NCI-designated Cancer Centers and was a member of the NCI Director’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC-A). Jim also serves on the Editorial Boards of several peer-reviewed journals, including Scientific Reports (nature.com), Journal of Immunotherapy, and Cancer Immunology Research (AACR). Jim received his professional degrees from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. He then received his formal postgraduate training at the Surgery Branch, Division of Cancer Treatment, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, where he became a Senior Investigator with tenure. Jim moved to Palo Alto, CA, where he helped to launch and scientifically direct two biotechnology companies and was also an adjunct professor at Stanford University. He then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan to become the Director of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Maude T. Lane Endowed Professor of Surgery with tenure, Department of Surgery, and Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine.

Leonard Post, PhD

Chief Scientific Officer, Vivace Therapeutics

Len has over three decades of pharmaceutical R&D experience. He is currently Chief Scientific Officer at Vivace Therapeutics. Previous experience included roles as Chief Scientific Officer of BioMarin, Chief Scientific Officer of LEAD Therapeutics, SVP of R&D at Onyx Pharmaceuticals, and positions at Parke-Davis and Upjohn. His experience with oncolytic viruses began with the adenovirus program at Onyx, and later as a member of the Boards of Directors of BioVex and then Viralytics. He is currently a member of the boards of directors at Vivace, Orphagen, Fedora, and Oxyrane. Len has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and did postdoctoral work in virology, including some of the early work on genetic engineering of herpes simplex virus.

Simone Song

Senior Partner, ORI Capital

Simone is Founder and Senior Partner of ORI Capital. She was the former Head of Goldman Sachs Healthcare Investment Banking for Greater China. Simone has more than 25 years of experience in healthcare sector. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs, she was a Managing Director of Cowen Group, a member of the advisory board of AXA Investment Managers, and an executive board advisor to AXA Asia Pacific Holdings. Simone holds a B.A. in Economics from Fudan University in China and an M.A. in Economics from Claremont Graduate School in the United States.