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Decibel Therapeutics Expands Leadership Team With World-Class Bioinformatics Scientist; Appoints Three New Members to its Board of Directors
[January 18, 2017]

Decibel Therapeutics Expands Leadership Team With World-Class Bioinformatics Scientist; Appoints Three New Members to its Board of Directors


Decibel Therapeutics, a company focused on discovering and developing new therapies to protect, repair, and restore hearing, today announced that it has expanded its leadership team with the addition of chief data sciences officer John Keilty. Decibel has also appointed three new members to its board of directors: Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., M.P.H., executive vice president and chief medical officer, CVS Health; Roger H. Brown, president, Berklee College of Music; and George A. Scangos, Ph.D., chief executive officer, Vir Biotechnologies, Inc.

"We are thrilled to welcome John, Troy, Roger and George to Decibel's distinguished team as we seek to create a world in which the benefits and joys of hearing are available to all," said Steve Holtzman, president and chief executive officer of Decibel Therapeutics. "Achieving Decibel's mission will require the integration of a broad range of diverse perspectives and multidisciplinary excellence. Our new board members are all leaders in their respective fields and exceptionally broad thinkers, and I'm thrilled that John has decided to join our leadership team, after working with us part-time during his tenure at Third Rock."

"I've had the privilege of watching Decibel mature and assemble an extraordinary team since launch in December of 2015, and I couldn't be more excited to join at this critical stage of growth," said John Keilty, chief data sciences officer of Decibel Therapeutics. "The leadership team has done a tremendous job creating and facilitating a culture of innovation and commitment, and I look forward to being a part of the company's continued success."

John Keilty joins Decibel from Third Rock Ventures where he served as the general manager of platform operations, responsible for the development and implementation of technology roadmaps for companies across the portfolio. Prior to this role, John was the vice president of information technology and informatics at Infinity Pharmaceuticals where he owned information systems, software development, computational science, biostatistics, clinical data management and clinical informatics. Before joining Infinity in 2002, John was an early member of Millennium Pharmaceuticals where he held various roles of increasing responsibility, with broad ownership for the creation, management, implementation and transfer of many of the company's core genomic technologies. Before Millennium, John worked in the Howard Hughes (News - Alert) lab of Michael Green at the Unversity of Massachusetts Medical Center, focusing on basic research in transcription and gene splicing. John received his B.A. in biology from Clark University and his M.S. in bioinformatics from Brandeis University (News - Alert).



Dr. Troyen Brennan is executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Health. In this role, Troy oversees the development of CVS Health's clinical and medical affairs and health care strategy, as well as the company's CVS MinuteClinic and Accordant Health Care business. Prior to CVS Health, Troy was chief medical officer of Aetna Inc., where he was responsible for clinical policies and Aetna's full range of clinical operations, disease management programs and patient management services. A leading authority in public health, Troy served as president and chief executive officer of Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization and as professor of medicine, law and public health at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. Troy graduated with a B.S. from Southern Methodist University and received his M.A. from Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. He received his M.D. and M.P.H. from Yale Medical School and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Roger Brown assumed the presidency of Berklee College of Music in 2004 and has created the world's largest online music education system to attract students from 105 countries. Under his leadership scholarship support has grown from $9 million to $44 million. An accomplished entrepreneur, Brown cofounded Bright Horizons Family Solutions (NYSE: BFAM) in 1986 with his wife Linda Mason, now the largest worldwide provider of worksite childcare and early education, where he served as chief executive officer until January 2002. Bright Horizons has been named as one of the best companies to work for in America by Fortune magazine numerous times, employs 28,000 people, serves more than 80,000 families and has a market cap in excess of $4B. Prior to Bright Horizons, he was co-director of the Save the Children relief and development effort in Sudan, and he worked on the border of Thailand with Cambodian refugees for CARE and UNICEF, both with Mason. Roger is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Davidson College with a B.A. in physics and earned his M.B.A. from Yale University.


In 2017, Dr. George Scangos assumed the position of chief executive officer of Vir Biotechnology, Inc., a company investing in cures, treatments, and preventions for challenging viral and bacterial diseases, including those caused by drug-resistant bacteria and emerging pathogens. He served as chief executive officer of Biogen from 2010 and 2016 has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Prior to Biogen, George served as the president and chief executive officer of Exelixis, Inc., a drug discovery and development company, where he continues to serve as a board member. Prior to Exelixis, he was president of Bayer Biotechnology and was responsible for research, business development, process development, manufacturing, engineering and quality assurance of Bayer's biological products. George served as a professor of biology at Johns Hopkins University for six years, where he is still an adjunct professor. George currently serves as chairman of the board of directors of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), a member of the boards of trustees of the Boston Museum of Science and the Biomedical Science Careers Program, and a member of the National Board of Visitors of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine. George holds a B.A. in biology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Massachusetts. He was a Jane Coffin Childs Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Frank Ruddle at Yale University.

About Decibel Therapeutics

Decibel Therapeutics seeks to create a world in which the benefits and joys of hearing are available to all by discovering and developing new therapies to protect, repair, and restore hearing. Founded by the world's preeminent experts in impaired hearing, Decibel Therapeutics was launched in 2015 by Third Rock Ventures and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.decibeltx.com.


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