Allan Camaisa co-founded Calidi Biotherapeutics in 2014 and has served as CEO and Chairman of the Board since 2018. He was an early investor in Calidi, and determined to bring a cure for difficult-to-treat cancers to market after losing his own father to cancer. Allan has nearly a decade of experience in oncology and has successfully guided the clinical and preclinical development of Calidi’s NeuroNova and SuperNova platforms. Allan has led multiple financing rounds steering the company to a public listing, while successfully negotiating license agreements with pharmaceutical companies, California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) grants, and National Institute of Health collaborations.

Previously, Allan was the CEO and Chairman of Parallel6, Inc., a digital mobile/cloud software platform for managing pharmaceutical clinical trials. In 2005, Allan founded Anakam, Inc., a software security company focused on healthcare, which safeguarded digital medical records through a platform that delivered government-level multifactor authentication and security. Prior to Anakam, Allan founded High Technology Solutions (HTS), a software systems integrator that he grew from two people to more than 500 employees and $50 million in revenue. Before entering business, Allan served eight years as a surface warfare officer in the United States Navy, graduating from the United States Naval Academy and the prestigious Owners Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Boris Minev, M.D. is a highly accomplished physician-scientist with extensive industrial and academic experience in Immuno-Oncology, oncolytic viruses and stem cell biology and applications. He has a significant track record in tumor immunology and cancer vaccine development, having worked closely on the development of the first cancer vaccine to be approved by a regulatory body (Melacine).

Dr. Minev has also extensive expertise in immunotherapy clinical trial designs, logistics, and regulatory issues. He has a considerable supervision & management experience in industrial and academic settings and has excellent skills in biotech business development, communication, and collaboration.

Previously he held a position as the Director of Immunotherapy and Translational Oncology at Genelux Corporation, where he was directing several preclinical and translational projects on oncolytic virotherapy, immunotherapy, and nanotechnology.

Dr. Minev is also an adjunct professor at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. There, he served previously as Principal Investigator and Director, Laboratory of Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy where, for more than 15 years, his research has been focused on the discovery of new target antigens for immunotherapy of cancer and the development of optimized cancer vaccines. Prior to that, Dr. Minev worked in Dr. Steven Rosenberg’s Tumor Immunology Section at the Surgery Branch of the National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Minev is an Advisory Board Member of the European Society for Translational Medicine (EUSTM). He is a member of the Scientific and Clinical Advisory Boards of several biotechnology companies and has been an advisor for Amgen, Johnson & Johnson, Geron Corporation, McKinsey Consulting and Thomson Current Drugs, among others. He is the recipient of the European Association of Cancer Research Fellowship and the Fogarty International Fellowship.

Mr. Jackson is a financial executive with over 25 years of corporate finance experience with success in publicly traded companies and venture capital backed startups. Mr. Jackson most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of Eterna Therapeutics Inc. from May 2022 to May 2023. Prior to his position at Eterna Therapeutics, Mr. Jackson served as the Chief Financial Officer of Ra Medical Systems, Inc. from April 2018 until May 2022, and as its Interim Chief Executive Officer from August 2019 to March 2020. From October 2016 to April 2018, he was Chief Financial Officer for AltheaDx, Inc, a molecular diagnostics company specializing in precision medicine. From March 2014 to March 2016, Mr. Jackson held senior financial positions, including Chief Financial Officer, at Celladon Corporation, a publicly traded, clinical stage biotechnology company. From April 2013 to March 2014, he held senior financial positions at Sapphire Energy, an industrial biotechnology company. Mr. Jackson received a MSBA in Finance in December 2006 from San Diego State University and a BSB in Accounting in June 1992 from the University of Minnesota. He is a certified public accountant (inactive).

Stephen Thesing serves as Chief Business Officer, a position he has held since 2021. In this role, Stephen has led the company’s Series B financing and public listing activities and secured strategic biopharma collaboration agreements and licensing agreements on the company’s behalf. Stephen joined Calidi in 2016 and previously served as Chief Operations Officer, Chief Administrative Officer, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Operations, during this time he oversaw the integration of Calidi subsidiary StemVac GmbH into the company.

Stephen has extensive experience in strategic licensing and dealmaking having served in several high-growth companies across multiple industries prior to joining Calidi. Stephen served as Vice President of Business Development and Marketing for HiPaaS Inc., a software technology provider and systems integrator for Healthcare Payers, where he closed revenue deals with several large payers and cultivated valuable strategic partnerships with Dell-Boomi, and Qlik. He also held executive level business development roles at several startups including Civica Software (acquired by Granicus), Parametric Sound (acquired by Turtle Beach Corp), Anakam (acquired by Equifax), Dot Hill Systems, and Troika Networks (acquired by Qlogic).

Mr. Thesing received a Bachelor of Science in Business, Information Systems, and Marketing from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.

Wendy Pizarro, Esq. has served as Calidi’s Chief Legal Officer and Chief Diversity Officer since September 2021. Honored as one of the “Power Women of San Diego” by Discover Magazine, Wendy is a role model for women as a seasoned corporate attorney and digital health advocate.

Wendy joined the executive leadership team, because she is passionate about the vision of Calidi and finding an innovative cure for cancer. In her combined role at Calidi, she is responsible for the Company’s global legal strategy and implementation, which includes overseeing all legal matters across corporate governance, securities and compliance; regulatory issues; licensing and intellectual property strategy; patent portfolio protection; employment; corporate transactions; and litigation. Furthermore, Wendy is the Company’s lead in shaping external and internal policies in recruitment and marketing related to furthering principles of diversity, equity and inclusion in the Company’s strategic plan. Wendy also serves as Calidi’s Corporate Secretary.

Wendy has over 20+ years of experience in corporate and business law, and since 2010, she founded and has led California Law Partners, a boutique law firm primarily serving as outside general counsel, corporate counsel and the lead crisis manager to select high net worth multi-family offices. She has directed legal strategy related to risk management, compliance and operations to manage and grow an asset portfolio of over $1.5 billion in multi-generational wealth with over 60% of the portfolio in private investments, some of which include Calidi.

Previously, she worked with leading Silicon Valley law firms, including DLA Piper in Palo Alto, on numerous general corporate and intellectual property matters and corporate securities transactions for disruptive technology companies in all phases of their life cycles from start-up to liquidity event (IPO and M&A) primarily in small teams serving infrastructure and e-commerce, including McAfee, Applied Materials and Yahoo!.

Wendy is also an active tech investor in start-ups or early-stage funds related to digital health, preventative medicine, life sciences, and digital media. Most recently, as a co-founder and investor of Never Train Alone, she designed the software user interface for an Apple iOS app related to mobile fitness, corporate wellness and preventative health.

Wendy continues to be active as a community leader and volunteer and has served on non-profit boards, for example, working with Rady Children’s Hospital Auxiliary as a unit officer, board member and/or lifetime member.

A former teaching fellow at Harvard University, Wendy was awarded the Derek Bok Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has been asked to conduct legal seminars or be a guest speaker at numerous events throughout her career and has authored eBooks, legal kits and other media in different areas of law, including start-up and corporate matters.

Wendy holds a J.D. from the Harvard Law School, M.ST. from the University of Oxford, and M.A. and B.A. from Yale University graduating magna cum laude with honors in distinction. She is proficient in Spanish, Italian and Tagalog. Wendy is a member of the State Bar of California and U.S. District Court, Southern District of California.

Antonio Santidrian, Ph.D., serves as Chief Scientific Officer, a position he has held since 2023. In this role, he is responsible for leading all of the company’s research and development initiatives. Antonio is the coinventor of Calidi’s CLD-201 (Supernova) and CLD-400 (RTNova) platforms and leading the development of the innovative Pipeline. Since joining Calidi in 2015, Antonio held several other research and development leadership positions of increasing responsibility enabling him to apply his more than 20 years of experience, in academia and biotech, in anti-cancer translational research to the company’s product development activities.

Prior to joining Calidi, Antonio led translational studies at The Scripps Research Institute for several small molecule and biological drugs to treat breast cancer metastasis. He also worked closely on translational cancer studies for the development of ACADRA to treat Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) at the University of Barcelona (Spain).

Antonio received degrees in pharmacy from the University of Barcelona, and his Ph.D. in biomedicine, specializing in anti-cancer therapies, from the University of Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain. He also received fellowships from the August Pi I Sunyer Foundation, the Ministry of Science and Education (Spain), and the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

Dr. Patel has over 18 years of global biopharma and biotech leadership experience, providing strategic guidance throughout the entire biologic product life cycle. Dr. Patel is responsible for critical oversight of Global Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to produce Clinical and Commercial therapies utilizing Calidi’s innovative cell-based delivery of oncolytic virus.

Over the course of his career, he has led the development of over fifteen INDs, two commercial product approvals, and numerous PAS submissions. He was most recently the Senior Director of Product Development at Emergent BioSolutions (formerly PaxVax, Inc., prior to acquisition), where he successfully built and directed cross-functional teams working on numerous technology platforms. Dr. Patel has served on several in-license, out license, and mergers and acquisition deals. Dr. Patel’s work at Emergent included extensive experience with a wide range of biologics, including viral vectors, virus-like particles, nanoparticle formulations, and bacterial products. He served as an Operations excellence council member.

Prior to Emergent, Dr. Patel led the technical development of oral insulin delivery technology at Ansun Biopharma and cell transplantation therapy for patients with diabetes at MicroIslet. He currently serves as a member of the UCI Customer Experience Advisory Board, and the global Operational Excellence Council, and frequently gives back to the scientific community by participating in NIH review panels.

Dr. Patel received Ph.D. in Engineering/Nanotechnology and MS in Chemical Engineering from Louisiana Tech University, Louisiana specializing in using nanotechnology tools for enzyme and DNA encapsulation and delivery funded by a NASA grant. He has Bachelors of Engineering in Chemical from Poona University, India.

Dr. Barbara Haertl is an experienced scientist who specializes in process development and manufacturing in the field of oncolytic viral therapy. Barbara has more than 12 years of industry experience that spans oncolytic virotherapy, translational oncology, and biological drug development. She joined StemVAC GmbH/Calidi Biotherapeutics in 2016 and has focused on Vaccinia Virus-based process development and manufacturing activities for virus, cell, and combination products.

Prior to joining StemVAC GmbH, Barbara led translational product development studies for oncolytic virus cancer theranostics at Genelux GmbH – a clinical-stage oncolytic virus therapy company.

Dr. Haertl received her Ph.D. in Virology on studying Adenovirus from the University of Regensburg, Department for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Germany

Dr. Thomas Herrmann is a professional scientist with more than 16 years of experience in the development of cellular manufacturing processes and companion analytics. He holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Wuerzburg, Germany.

Dr. Herrmann joined StemVAC GmbH/Calidi Biotherapeutics in 2016 and has dedicated his scientific career to the research and engineering of manufacturing processes and assay development for oncolytic viruses, stem cells, and cellular combination products.

Before joining StemVAC GmbH, Thomas specialized in the investigation of new recombinant oncolytic vaccinia viruses and radiotracers for application in molecular PET diagnostics of tumors at Genelux GmbH, a clinical-stage oncolytic virus therapy company. Prior to StemVAC, Thomas worked as group leader for the Department of Clinical Neurobiology at the University Clinics of Wuerzburg, contributing greatly to the field of therapeutic application for spinal muscular atrophy with lentiviral vectors.