Board of Directors
Paul Lammers, M.D., M.Sc.
Executive Chairman, ImmunoMet Therapeutics
Paul Lammers, M.D., M.Sc., joined ImmunMet’s Board of Directors in November 2017. Dr. Lammers currently serves as President and CEO of Triumvera Immunologics, an exciting T Cell Therapy company based on T-Cell Antigen Coupler (TAC) technology out of Professor Jonathan Bramson’s lab at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada.. In August 2017, he successfully completed a reverse merger of Mirna Therapeutics, the company he served as Director, President, and CEO since 2009, with Synlogic of Cambridge, MA. During his tenure at Mirna Therapeutics, Dr. Lammers raised approximately $160 million in funding, from Federal and State grants (including CPRIT, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute from Texas), traditional and strategic venture firms, and by bringing the company public on the Nasdaq Capital Market. In 2009, Dr. Lammers served as President of Repros Therapeutics, The Woodlands, Texas. Prior to Repros Therapeutics, he served six years as Chief Medical Officer and Head of US Product Development for EMD Serono Inc., a subsidiary of German Pharmaceutical company, Merck KgA. Over his 20 years in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, Dr. Lammers held different executive and senior management positions in clinical development, medical affairs, and regulatory affairs at both medium and large pharmaceutical companies, and small private and public biotech companies. He began his pharmaceutical career at Organon in the Netherlands, and is a former member of the Board of the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI) and former Chairman of the Board of BioSymposia, an accredited provider of continuing medical education (CME) programs for medical scientists and healthcare professionals. Dr. Lammers received his Medical Degree and Masters of Science degree from the Catholic University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Sung-wuk Kim, DDS.
Former Executive Chairman, ImmunoMet Therapeutics
Dr. Sung-wuk Kim has served as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) since the founding of ImmunoMet Therapeutics, a spinoff of HanAll Biopharma in July 2015. Dr. Kim was previously the CEO of HanAll Biopharma, and during his 12 years in various executive positions, he led a variety of new drug development programs including autoimmune diseases, fibrosis and metabolic diseases. He also pioneered an OXPHOS inhibitor research platform that is designed to target cancer metabolism, which has produced ImmunoMet’s lead drug candidate, IM156. Dr. Kim is an entrepreneur and accomplished inventor, who has made significant contributions to advance drug development, receiving more than 30 patents in a broad range of areas which include formulation, biologics and small molecule drugs. Dr. Kim has also currently served on the Board of Directors of HanAll Biopharma since 2003 and as Chair of the R&D Committee of Daewoong Pharma Group since 2015. Previously, he served on the Boards of Directors of Humasis Inc, a diagnostics kit development company from 2002 to 2015 and Hangen Biotech, a RSV vaccine development company from 2002 to 2004. Before devoting his career to drug development, Dr. Kim was the founder of an IT entrepreneurial company, Freechal Inc, first XML platform internet community service provider, in 1999 and served on its Board of Directors until 2002. Dr. Kim earned his Doctorate of Dental Surgery from Yonsei University in Korea.
Benjamin R. Cowen, PhD, MBA
Former President & CEO, ImmunoMet
Dr. Cowen has over 20 years experience working with private, early-stage biotech companies and public companies including, Merck & Co., Inc. and Shire, where he held numerous management positions across broad functional areas and received recognition for leading high-performance teams. Dr. Cowen joined ImmunoMet in 2016 as COO and was promoted to CEO in 2017. Previously he served as the Vice President of Corporate Development at Milestone Pharmaceuticals and Vice President of Business Development at PDS Biotechnology. Dr. Cowen also serves on the Board of Directors of INCON, a public Korean company that is pivoting to become a healthcare holding company. Dr. Cowen received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University, his BA in Physics from Brandeis University; he was an NIH Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Univ. of Pennsylvania.
Jiyoung Hwang
Ms. Hwang is one of our non-employee directors and has served on our board of directors since December 2022. Ms. Hwang currently serves on the board of directors of Jokwang I.L.I Co., Ltd., a Korea-based manufacturing company, since November 2019, HuM&C Co., Ltd., a Korea-based manufacturing and distribution company, since April 2021 and CBI USA, Inc., a subsidiary of Korea-based automotive engine and mission parts manufacturer CBI Co. Ltd., that focuses on investment in dynamic businesses initially in the biotechnology and healthcare sector, since June 2021, and has served on the board of directors of Kineta, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company, from June 2022 to November 2022. Previously, Ms. Hwang held the role of Managing Director in Venture Capital Investment at Intervest Co., Ltd., a venture capital firm, from March 2016 until February 2017 and Neoplux Co., Ltd., a venture capital company, from September 2011 until April 2016. Ms. Hwang holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Life Science from Pohang University of Science and Technology and a Master’s degree in Environmental Management from Seoul National University.
Jae Joon Kim
Director, Mirae Asset Venture Investments
Mr. Jae Joon Kim joined ImunoMet’s Board of Directors in March 2016. Mr. Kim is currently a Director of the Venture Investment Division of Korea-based Mirae Asset Venture Investments (Mirae Asset). Since 2009, he has been leading the Venture Investment Division of Mirae Asset and has successfully listed over 15 companies on the NASDAQ, KOSDAQ and KONEX stock market exchanges. He currently manages an equity investment portfolio comprised of more than 30 biopharmaceutical and medical diagnostics companies worldwide. Mr. Kim has held several positions since joining Mirae Asset in 2006, including the Team Head of the Venture Investment Division and the Team Head of the Corporate Strategic Division. Prior to joining Mirae Asset, from 2002 to 2006, Mr. Kim was a research associate at Macrogen, a Korea-based biotech company. Mr. Kim earned a Master’s Degree from the Graduate School of Medicine, Korea University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Korea University.