What is a significant accomplishment or project you’ve been involved in that made a difference in advancing Acumen’s vision?
The announcement of the INTERCEPT-AD results and ensuing financing in the summer of 2023 was definitely trial-by-fire as I hadn’t been at a biotech without revenue streams before, meaning this data release was of utmost importance for go-forward funding of the company. I was incredibly impressed by the whole team that digested and read-out the results during that time and was very proud to help craft it into a story for investors.
How does your role contribute to the overall vision of the company?
The IR role is the conduit of information between the executives and investors, communicating the strategy to investors and ensuring the executives are apprised of investor views. Investor communication for a company our size is vital to achieve our goals.
What excites you most about the work you do at Acumen?
Acumen retains its start-up feel; every member of the team is excited to advance sabirnetug and other elements like biomarkers and clinical best practices for this disease, and it is tangible.
Which of Acumen’s four values (People, Integrity, Innovation, and Perseverance) resonates most with your work and role?
Integrity is critical in the broader field of IR but also for biotech where so much typically weighs on the belief in the potential of your data. In other industries, things like revenues, units sold, users gained, etc. are markers of progress but in biotech, it is so often science and belief in what could be that drives progress until definitive data. Because this is less tangible, integrity becomes even more important, closely linked with credibility. I try to infuse this into everything we communicate.
From your perspective, what sets our company apart in the field of Alzheimer’s research?
It’s notable that despite our small size, the team has successfully reported out rich and, in some ways, unprecedented Phase 1 data compared to other much larger pharma companies in AD. And followed up with impressive enrollment timing for the Phase 2. Small in this case means stealthy. Despite investors being forward-looking, we always remind them of this track record of execution.
Outside of work, what are some of your hobbies or interests that you enjoy in your free time?
I try to get out when I can to jog with the dog, improve my (currently poor) golf game, and travel with my 10 year old daughter. I read voraciously but wish I liked non-fiction more than I do (if you have a good rec, send my way!). I was a volunteer coach for a high school girls’ crew team a few years ago and hope to repeat that at some point and maybe find time to return to rowing myself.
What is one topic you could talk about for hours?
Total history and genealogy nerd, all cultures and geographies. I grew up on the same street in Amherst, NH as Horace Greeley (kind of an odd claim to fame: he founded the New York Tribune and famously coined the phrase ‘Go west, young man’ in the mid-1800s), and each time we passed his house I thought about how people lived before us and what they dealt with on an everyday level. A typical example of my nerdiness: we were recently in Charleston where I was fascinated by an antique house tour while my husband and daughter swam in the hotel pool!
