Corporate Governance

Dr. Litvack joined the Capricor, Inc. Board in 2012 and since November 2013 has been serving as the Company’s Executive Chairman and is currently a member of the Company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Dr. Litvack is a native of Canada. He completed medical school and residency at McGill University in Montreal and a Cardiovascular Fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, where he subsequently became co-director of the Cardiovascular Intervention Center and Professor of Medicine at UCLA. There he led a prominent clinical and research program known for its excellence in innovation, care, and leadership in Translational Medicine. Dr. Litvack was board-certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Interventional Cardiology. He has published more than one hundred research articles and chapters and is the recipient of several awards, including an American Heart Association Young Investigator Award, the Leon Goldman Medical Excellence Award for contributions to the field of biomedical optics, and the United States Space Technology and Space Foundation Hall of Fame for pioneering work with the excimer laser. Dr. Litvack left full-time practice and academics in 2000 to concentrate on entrepreneurial activities. Dr. Litvack has founded and operated several healthcare ventures, both as chairman and/or chief executive officer, including Progressive Angioplasty Systems Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by United States Surgical Corp. in 1998; Savacor, Inc., a medical device company that was acquired by St. Jude Medical in 2005; Conor Medsystems, Inc., a publicly-traded medical device company that was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2007 and V-Wave Ltd. (sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2024). He presently sits on the boards of Credence MedSystems, a drug delivery company and Levation Pharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company in the area of facial aesthetics which he co-founded. Dr. Litvack was formerly a Member of the Management Company of Pura Vida Investments, LLC, a healthcare hedge fund that he exited in 2023. Since 2023, he is the Managing Member of Wilhareka Partners LLC. He is serving as a director on the board of Cardiovascular Research Foundation, a non-profit research and education entity.

Dr. Marbán is our Chief Executive Officer, and has served in that capacity and on the Board since November 2013. Dr. Marbán is a co-founder of Capricor, Inc. (wholly-owned subsidiary of Capricor Therapeutics, Inc.) and has been with the Company since 2005 and became its Chief Executive Officer in 2010. Dr. Marbán has been in the biotechnology field for more than 20 years and brings extensive experience across research, product development and business development to the Company. From 2003-2009, Dr. Marbán held various senior roles at Excigen, Inc., a gene therapy biotechnology company, where she was responsible for operations and business development and where she oversaw the development of a biologic pacemaker for the heart. Prior to Excigen, Dr. Marbán worked in academic science, first at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation working on the development of contractile dysfunction in heart failure due to myocarditis, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. While at Johns Hopkins, she advanced to the rank of Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, specializing in the mechanism of the biophysical properties of cardiac muscle. Her tenure at Johns Hopkins ran from 2000 to 2003. Dr. Marbán earned a Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in cardiac physiology and her Bachelor of Science from the University of Maryland.

Dr. Paul Auwaerter joined the Company’s Board in July 2023 and is currently a member of the Company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. He is the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he also serves as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Director of the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases. Dr. Auwaerter is the Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer of the Johns Hopkins Point-of-Care Information Technology (POC-IT) Center, a globally recognized clinical decision support initiative that develops widely used digital tools, including the Johns Hopkins ABX Guide, HIV Guide, and other specialty resources. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the ABX Guide since 2017. An internationally recognized clinician-scientist with training in virology and immunology, Dr. Auwaerter has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed publications focused on improving the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases, with particular expertise in Lyme disease, fever of unknown origin, and complex multisystem infections. He chaired therapeutic guidance for the Johns Hopkins Health System response to COVID-19. His work bridges clinical medicine, digital health innovation, and translational research relevant to therapeutic development and real-world evidence generation. Dr. Auwaerter is a past President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (2017–2018) and former Chair of the IDSA Foundation. He has participated in FDA anti-infective advisory and review activities and has contributed to clinical guideline development and therapeutic evaluation efforts relevant to regulatory and clinical trial frameworks. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Lyme Disease Foundation. He received his A.B. and M.D. from Columbia University and completed his residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins, where he has been on faculty for over three decades. He also holds an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins University.

Mr. Dunbar has been a member of the Capricor, Inc. Board since 2012 and a member of the Company’s Board since November 2013. He is currently a member of the Company’s Audit and Compensation Committees. He has been a Managing Partner of The Dunbar Group, LLC since 2011, and provides advisory services to healthcare and life science investors and companies who recognize they need short-term or interim industry expertise as they grow and remain capital efficient. Mr. Dunbar has extensive healthcare and life sciences operating experience and has served as a director or chief executive officer with private and public life science companies specializing in diagnostics, specialty pharma, cell therapy and biologics, two as chief executive officer, where he led initial public offerings. He served as chief executive officer of ISTO Technologies and ISTO Biologics, two private orthobiologics companies acquired by Thompson Street Capital Partners. Prior to ISTO, Mr. Dunbar served as a Venture Partner with Arboretum Ventures, a leading healthcare venture capital firm. Mr. Dunbar attended Auburn University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, and later received his M.B.A. He served on the Harbert College of Business M.B.A. Advisory Board and is currently an advisor with Life Science Tennessee, and to Vanderbilt University’s Center for Technology Transfer and Commercialization.

Dr. Philip Gotwals joined the Company’s Board in July 2023 and is currently a member of the Company’s Compensation Committee. Dr. Gotwals has experience in drug development, research, corporate strategy and business development with a career spanning nearly 30 years in the biotechnology industry. Dr. Gotwals has been a Partner at RedSky Partners, LLC, which provides advisory services to the biotechnology industry in the areas of corporate strategy and business development since 2023. Previously, Dr. Gotwals served as the Global Head, Vice President of Business Development and Licensing at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR) from 2019 to 2023, where he oversaw business development efforts for all disease areas and technology platforms. Prior to that, Dr. Gotwals was Global Head of Search and Evaluation of NIBR from 2017 to 2019.  Dr. Gotwals also served as Executive Director, Immuno-Oncology, at NIBR from 2009 to 2017. Under Dr. Gotwals’ leadership, NIBR business development and licensing executed over 50 major strategic transactions which included licensing deals, collaborations, acquisitions and new company creations. These transactions led to significant corporate evolution and growth. During his 13 years at NIBR, Dr. Gotwals was instrumental in building the company’s immuno-oncology strategic research area and spearheading the collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania to develop chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. Prior to NIBR, he was Vice President of Program Management at Altus Pharmaceuticals from 2006 to 2009, where he was responsible for all product development project management activities. Prior to Altus, he was Senior Director of Program and Alliance Management at Biogen, from 1994 to 2006, where he oversaw leadership of internal and allied early product development teams in the autoimmune, neurology and oncology therapeutic areas. Dr. Gotwals has a B.A. in Biology from Amherst College, holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California at Berkeley, completed postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, business training at Harvard Business School and has published extensively in the area of integrin biology.

Michael Kelliher joined the Company’s Board in September 2023 and is currently a member of the Company’s Audit Committee. Mr. Kelliher is an experienced business development and finance professional with expertise in corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships and licensing, with a career spanning more than 20 years with leading biotechnology and global pharmaceutical companies. He joined Ardelyx (Nasdaq: ARDX) in 2024, a company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing first-in-class targeted therapies that advance patient care, as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy and currently services as Chief Business Officer. There, he has responsibility for strategy, business development, and M&A. Prior to Ardelyx, Mr. Kelliher served as Group Vice President, M&A and Business Development, at Horizon Therapeutics (now Amgen), a global biotechnology company focused on researching, developing and commercializing medicines for rare, autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases. During Mr. Kelliher’s 9-year tenure at Horizon, he led an aggressive growth and expansion agenda through acquisitions, development collaborations and other transactions. He was instrumental in transforming Horizon into a $28.0 billion innovation-driven biotech company. Prior to his time at Horizon, from 2009 to 2014, Mr. Kelliher held progressive financial roles at Elan Corporation (now Perrigo Company), a leading global pharmaceutical company where he oversaw strategic partnerships and collaborations and advised its board of directors and senior leadership on investments, business development, product commercialization and asset monetization. Mr. Kelliher began his career in banking, public accounting and corporate finance and holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University College Cork (Ireland). He is also an Associated Chartered Accountant.

Mr. Musket has been a member of the Capricor, Inc. Board since 2012 and a member of the Company’s Board since November 2013. He currently services as the Chairman of the Company’s Audit and Compensation Committees. Mr. Musket has vast experience in strategic finance and has been following developments in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries for over 30 years. Mr. Musket began his investment career as an equities research analyst at Goldman Sachs & Co. following the pharmaceutical industry. From 1991 through 2016 he served as President of Musket Research Associates, a registered broker/dealer focused exclusively on venture banking transactions for emerging healthcare companies. From 1996 to 2022 he was a General Partner of ProMed Management, a healthcare-focused investment management company. He has served on the boards of several private and public companies throughout his career. From 1999 to 2007, Mr. Musket served on the board of directors of publicly-traded Conor MedSystems, Inc. a medical device company sold to Johnson & Johnson in 2007 for $1.4 billion. Mr. Musket holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Psychology from Boston College.

Ms. Es Sabar joined the Company’s Board in July 2021 and is currently the Chairman of the Company’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. She is a corporate director and strategic advisor for private and not for profit organizations. From 2016-2025 she has been the CEO and General Partner at Quark Venture LP, a venture capital investment firm, leading their global health sciences enterprise. Prior to Quark Venture, Ms. Es Sabar was President and CEO at the Centre for Drug Research and Development (CDRD), Canada’s national drug development and commercialization center, responsible for developing and executing on the overall strategic direction. Ms. Es Sabar has held senior management positions with multinational pharmaceutical companies, most notably as Director International Division, and later Global Head Marketing and Business Development at Sanofi Pasteur based in Toronto. She holds degrees in Neurochemistry from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, in Biochemistry and Chemistry from the University of Salford Manchester, and an Executive Certificate in Management and Leadership from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Ms. Es Sabar is also the Chair of the Health Biosciences Economic Strategy Table (Government of Canada) and she serves on the board of directors of several biosciences companies. She is a Member of the Order of British Columbia, and recipient of Canada’s Most Powerful Women: Top 100 Award and Canada’s Gold Award for Business Excellence amongst others.