Leadership
Lewis S. Gruber is CEO, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of SIWA Therapeutics. He is also the named inventor on all of SIWA Therapeutics’ portfolio of more than 60 global patents. Prior to founding SIWA, Gruber served as interim CEO of ZelleRX, an early stage biotechnology company with a natural killer cell therapy that destroys cancer cells. From 2000 to 2006, Gruber was CEO and Co-Founder of Arryx, Inc., a Chicago biotechnology company that brought to market a breakthrough research tool that uses lasers to allow researchers to simultaneously manipulate hundreds of microscopic objects in three dimensions. Under Gruber’s leadership, Arryx was recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer as well as a Red Herring Top 100 Innovator. Before co-founding Arryx, Gruber was CEO of Hyseq, Inc., a biotechnology company with a proprietary genomic platform that facilitated gene discovery and led to the development of numerous therapeutic drugs. While CEO of Hyseq, Gruber completed the largest initial public offering of a biotechnology company in 1997. He also led the negotiation of commercial partnerships that generated more than $100 million. Previously, Gruber was a member of the Illinois Biotechnology Industry Organization (iBio) Board of Directors and served on the Advisory Board of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Center for Biotechnology. Currently, Gruber serves on the Board of Trustees for the Field Museum of Natural History and is a member of the Advisory Council of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, as well as being a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Before becoming a biotech entrepreneur, Gruber was a patent attorney in Chicago and specialized in the biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, genomics and medical device industries. Gruber earned his J.D. from Arizona State University in 1981, an M.S. in Biology from the University of Arizona in 1978 and a Bachelors degree in Sociology from the University of Arizona in 1973.
Misty Gruber is the Chief Administrative Officer, a Director and a Co-Founder of SIWA Therapeutics. She leads strategic planning and SIWA’s interaction with government regulatory authorities and is responsible for SIWA’s scientific and financial communications to investors and regulators. Prior to co-founding SIWA, Ms. Gruber served as Co-Chair of the biotechnology section of law the Dykema Gossett PLLC law firm, with a focus in corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions and securities law matters, including private and public securities offerings. During her almost thirty years as an attorney, she represented issuers, investors, underwriters and venture capital companies. Ms. Gruber was named a Super Lawyer and was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America during her law practice. In addition, she has been a frequent speaker on topics related to domestic and foreign capital markets and authored numerous articles. She has extensive experience counseling biotechnology and life science companies and helping them raise funds and bring breakthrough technologies to market. She was a Co-founder of Arryx, Inc., which brought to market a breakthrough research tool that uses lasers to allow researchers to manipulate objects in three dimensions. Ms. Gruber was also a Co-Founder and Director of Hyseq, Inc., which developed a proprietary genomic platform. In addition, she was licensed as a CPA in Arizona for several years. Previously, Ms. Gruber served on the Advisory Board of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Center for Biotechnology. Currently, she is a member of the Advisory Council of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, a member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and is a former trustee of, and serves as an adviser to, The Leakey Foundation. She earned a B.S in Biology, an M.S. in Physiology and a J.D. from the University of Arizona.
Dr. Gabriella Rossi, Ph.D. is Chief Research Officer of SIWA. She received her undergraduate and Doctoral training in Cordoba, Argentina. She received her Doctoral degree in Infectious Disease and Immunology in 1997. She continued her education as Post-Doctoral Fellow in several prestigious organizations including the American Red Cross, NIH, the National Cancer Institute, and the Iowa Cancer Research Foundation. During her training, she gained valuable experience in immunology and animal models. Dr. Rossi has published her work in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has presented her work in numerous national and international conferences. Her work has included clinical trials development and immunological monitoring of Patients in clinical trials as well as process development for the manufacture of cGMP biological materials for early/late clinical trials development.
James Alvarez is a member of the Board of SIWA. Prior to joining SIWA, Mr. Alvarez founded Gesture in May of 2011. Over the next 7 years, Gesture would go on to support over 5,500 charity events and helped charity partners raise over $1 billion dollars. Gesture was successfully acquired in November 2017. Prior to Gesture, Mr. Alvarez was the founder of 5 other companies. He has a B.S. from Indiana University.
Deborah Wince-Smith is a member of the Board of SIWA, and is the President and CEO of the Council on Competitiveness, a coalition of CEOs, university presidents, labor leaders and national laboratory directors, committed to driving U.S. competitiveness. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior U.S. government official, as the first Senate-confirmed Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy in the U.S. Department of Commerce in the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, and as the Assistant Director for International Affairs in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Reagan Administration. She served as a Senate confirmed member of the Oversight Board of the Internal Revenue Service in the Administrations of President George W. Bush and President Barack H. Obama. She is the President and Founder of the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils (GFCC), engaging leaders from competitiveness organizations from around the globe. Ms. Wince-Smith previously served on the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, the Board of Governors of Argonne National Laboratory and as Chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Competitiveness
