Prashant Kohli
Chief Executive Officer and Director
Prashant Kohli has served as the Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer since April 2023. He has over 20 years of commercialization experience leading strategy, sales, marketing, and product management. Prior to joining Acasti in August 2021, Mr. Kohli was VP, Commercial Operations of Grace Therapeutics since December 2017. He has expertise crafting go-to-market plans for products with unique value proposition that address critical unmet needs. He has built, deployed, and led sales and marketing from the ground-up with significant experience in organization design, recruiting, performance management, incentive compensation, and P&L accountability. He has successfully implemented evidence-based, consultative-selling model that is rooted in deep understanding of the health ecosystem including patients, providers, health systems, government, and payers. He has also designed strategic marketing plans that generate leads and increase share-of-voice, augmenting the salesforce with digital tactics that increase reach and frequency. He has extensive commercial experience with specialty and small molecule drugs including in rare and orphan diseases. Mr. Kohli has worked at Archi-Tech Systems, Cardinal Health, IMS Health, Rosenbluth, and Dun & Bradstreet. He has a BA in Computer Science and Math from Augustana College and an MBA from The Wharton School.
Robert J. DelAversano
Principal Financial Officer and Principal Accounting Officer
Robert J. DelAversano is a certified public accountant and has over twenty-five years of experience in accounting including thirteen years in public accounting. Mr. DelAversano joined the Company in November 2023 as Vice President, Finance and serves as the principal financial officer and principal accounting officer. From 2018 to July 2023, Mr. DelAversano worked in roles of increasing seniority at OncoSec Medical Incorporated (“OncoSec”), a clinical-stage immuno-oncology company, in positions including Vice President of Finance, Principal Accounting Officer and Controller, and Executive Director of Finance, where he had global responsibility for accounting, external financial reporting, and financial controls covering all aspects of OncoSec’s business. Prior to joining OncoSec, Mr. DelAversano was the Director of Financial Reporting and Taxation at Brio Financial Group (“Brio”), where he served as the firm’s Director of Financial Reporting and Taxation, consulting with various public companies in financial reporting, internal control development and evaluation, budgeting and forecasting. Prior to joining Brio, Mr. DelAversano was a manager at Bartolomei Pucciarelli, LLC and oversaw its accounting and tax practice with industry focuses in manufacturing, wholesalers and medical devices services. Mr. DelAversano received a B.S. in Accounting from Rider University.
Dr. R. Loch Macdonald, MD, PhD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. R. Loch Macdonald is a scientist, researcher and neurosurgeon and a recognized expert on brain hemorrhage, including subarachnoid hemorrhage and delayed cerebral ischemia. For the past 25 years, his research interest has focused on improving patient outcome after brain hemorrhage, with a specific focus on developing a cure for cerebral vasospasm and DCI. Dr. Macdonald was the former Head, Division of Neurosurgery, St. Michael's Hospital, University of Toronto and Chief Scientific Officer of Edge Therapeutics, Inc. Dr. Macdonald has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and authored multiple textbooks, including one of the definitive textbooks on cerebral vasospasm. His publications have been cited thousands of times and he has spoken at many national and international conferences on the topic of subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral vasospasm and delayed cerebral ischemia. Prior to St. Michael’s Hospital, he was Professor of Surgery and Radiation & Cellular Oncology at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Dr. Macdonald completed medical school at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and completed his Ph.D. in Experimental Surgery at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He completed his Neurosurgery residency at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is currently a neurosurgeon, medical director of neurovascular surgery and of research at Community Neurosciences Institute, Community Health Partners in Fresno, California.
Carrie D'Andrea
Vice President Clinical Operations
Carrie D'Andrea is a clinical operations executive with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Carrie began her career as a Clinical Research Associate and was the Vice President of Clinical Operations for several small companies, including Edge Therapeutics and Erydel. Carrie is a hands-on leader with extensive experience in clinical strategic planning, global clinical trial management and quality oversight. She received her master's degree in Pharmaceutical Quality and Regulatory Affairs from Temple University and was also named a Healthcare Businesswomen's Associate Rising Star in 2009. Carrie also teaches Clinical Trial Design and Operations at Rutgers University in the Master of Business and Science program.
Amresh Kumar, PhD
Vice President Program Management
Amresh has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience leading drug development, CMC, and program management activities supporting the investigational and marketed products for rare diseases and neurology. Prior to joining Acasti, he held the position of Senior director of program management with Foresee Pharma, a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company. He previously served as program leader at Grace Therapeutics, Senior Manager R&D at Sun Pharmaceuticals and various product development positions at Revogenex Inc, Colorcon and Alembic Limited. Amresh received a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Science from Sunrise University, India, focusing on complex injectable drug delivery systems of highly insoluble oncology drugs. He has published many research articles and has more than 10 granted patents and many patent applications worldwide to his credit.