Management Team


Ward Peterson, PhD, Chairman & CEO, is a co-founder of Symberix. He brings 20 years of experience in discovery and development of new chemical and biological entities from early drug discovery to late-stage clinical trials. Dr. Peterson held scientific and executive positions at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Inspire Pharmaceutics from 1998 to 2011, and since then has provided executive consulting services to various life-science organizations including Croma Pharma as CSO, GrayBug Vision as Senior VP, Liquidia, Neurotech, Ono Pharma, and Hatteras Venture Partners. He led the scientific team at Inspire Pharmaceuticals as SVP of Research and Preclinical Development/Scientific Affairs. While serving on the Executive Team at Inspire, Dr. Peterson participated in fundraising substantial equity capital prior to the acquisition of the company by Merck & Co. in 2011. He earned his BA in Physics from Pomona College and PhD in Biophysics from University of California, Berkeley. He is a co-inventor on 15 issued patents.

Gregory J. Mossinghoff, Chief Business Officer, has over 25 years of domestic and international bio-pharmaceutical industry experience. Starting with a 10-year big-pharma foundation at Roche and Glaxo, he has subsequent experience in numerous emerging bio-pharmaceutical companies in various roles such as Board Member, President, CEO, CBO, CFO, Principal Financial Officer and Co-Founder. He has co-led multiple venture financing rounds and two successful biotech IPOs: G1 Therapeutics and Inspire Pharmaceuticals, which was subsequently acquired by Merck & Co. In total he has participated in raising more than $450m in public and private equity capital and has negotiated and closed more than twenty important licensing/partnership agreements. Mr. Mossinghoff has a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA in Financial Management and Analysis from George Mason University.

Marilyn J. Thompson, Controller, is an experienced business development executive with over 22 years of experience in the biotech, pharma, medical device/software and 3D scanning sectors. She has served as a Controller, Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer with oversight of Accounting, Finance and administrative areas of business. She has extensive experience in new business and has served as a consultant to over 35 start-up companies. She has managed millions of dollars in NIH and NSF funded grants and continues to consult with companies concerning grant funding. Ms. Thompson attended East Carolina University where she majored in Business with a degree in Accounting.