Our Leadership Team

Joe Blanchard, M.B.A

President & Chief Executive Officer

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Mr. Blanchard has co-founded and been a member of the leadership teams that helped build several life science companies. Before joining the NeurAegis team, Mr. Blanchard co-founded and served as President & Chief Executive Officer at Amorsa Therapeutics. Prior to Amorsa, he co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Business Officer at Aushon BioSystems (acquired by Quanterix in 2018). Mr. Blanchard was also an early member of the leadership team for Altus Pharmaceuticals (a spin-out of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and 2006 IPO), where he held several senior management positions. Prior to Altus, he was Director of Sales Operations (The Americas) for Genencor International (2000 IPO; now owned by DuPont), where he led a 40-member commercial team generating over $130 million annually. Earlier in his career, he held business unit and sales management positions with Akzo Nobel of the Netherlands and DuPont/Conoco Chemicals. He has an M.B.A and B.S. degree from Miami University.

Michel Baudry, Ph.D.

Founder & Scientific Advisor

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Dr. Baudry is an internationally known neuroscientist with over 400 publications and is one of the 100 most cited neuroscientists in the world. He is a professor at Western University of Health Sciences and former professor of biological sciences, neurology and biomedical engineering at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Dr. Baudry graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and earned a PhD in biochemistry at University of Paris VII under the direction of professors J.C. Schwartz and J.P. Changeux, two of France’s most distinguished neurobiologists.

Michael Palfreyman, DSc., Ph.D.

SVP Drug Development

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Dr. Palfreyman is an internationally recognized leader in neurological drug development with a successful scientific and business career spanning 35 years. He brings to NeurAegis a distinguished track record of successful drug development and considerable expertise in CNS pharmacology, pharmacogenomics and rational drug design. Dr. Palfreyman’s broad perspective on drug development derives from his experience as Chief Scientific Officer for Amorsa Therapeutics and President and CSO of Psychiatric Genomics; Senior Scientific Advisor to EnVivo Pharmaceuticals and Vitruvean; co-founder of NOVACE; Senior VP for Research and Development at Anadys (formerly Scriptgen); as well as senior executive and scientific leadership roles at Marion Merrell Dow (Sanofi-Aventis) and Beecham (GlaxoSmithKline). In these roles, he successfully developed and demonstrated clinical efficacy of several candidates across multiple therapeutic areas. Dr. Palfreyman holds Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees and is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. He continues to be an active scientific contributor with more than 150 publications and 35 issued patents.