Team

Dr Sanjay Aggarwal is Apollo Therapeutics’ Chief Medical officer. Sanjay has spent over 20 years in the biopharmaceutical industry, including extensive experience in building and leading clinical development teams. He has a track record of taking drugs through development to successful regulatory approvals. He joined Apollo from Angiocrine Bioscience, a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company. Previously he was the architect of the Rezurock™ (belumosudil) development program at Kadmon, leading to its FDA approval for chronic graft versus host disease. Before Kadmon he was the global development lead for Kyprolis® (carfilzomib) at Amgen, leading to its approval in multiple myeloma in the USA, EU and numerous other territories. Earlier in his career, he held positions of increasing responsibility in both biotech (Exelixis, Onyx Pharmaceuticals) and pharma (GSK, Novartis, Sanofi), overseeing development of early and late-stage assets across several therapeutic areas, and including roles in the USA, Europe and Asia-Pacific. Sanjay studied mathematics and medicine to earn his medical degree (MB BChir) from The University of Cambridge where he was a member of Queens’ College. He has an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Clinically, he trained in internal medicine and public health and is a member of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). 

Sue is a highly experienced Executive Assistant who has worked at Board level in various multi-national companies over the past 24 years.  Prior to joining Apollo,  Sue spent twelve  years as Executive Assistant to the Chief Financial Officer & Non Executive Board, and Office Manager at the specialist healthcare company BTG plc.

Malcolm holds a degree and PhD in Pharmacology, and following academic posts with the National Institutes of Health (USA), and National Institute of Medical Research (UK) joined GSK in 2005. While at GSK Malcolm predominantly worked in Respiratory medicine, leading a number of projects from Target ID through Ph2 Proof of Concept. 

Vasundhara Bhargava is a Vice President at Patient Square Capital. Ms. Bhargava has over eight years of investment and acquisition experience, most recently as a vice president at Golden Gate Capital. Earlier in her career, Ms. Bhargava was a private equity investor at GIC, and prior to that was an associate at TPG Capital, the private equity platform of alternative asset manager TPG. Prior to TPG, Ms. Bhargava was an analyst in the investment banking division at Goldman Sachs.

Ms. Bhargava holds a bachelor’s degree in finance, a bachelor’s degree in economics, and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Indiana University. She also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Gemma joined Apollo as an FP&A Business Partner in 2021. She is a Chartered Accountant with over ten years post qualified experience in both Financial Planning and Analysis and Management Accounting roles. She spent four years in Audit at Ernst & Young LLP where she completed her accounting qualifications. 

Josh is an accomplished clinical operations professional with over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Josh brings extensive experience in managing and strategically directing clinical trials, optimizing operational efficiency, team leadership, compliance with regulations, vendor management, and fostering collaboration to Apollo.

Richard has with over 24 years of experience in the biotech and pharma industry. He has led projects in both drug discovery and clinical development. Prior to joining Apollo, he has worked at PsiOxus Therapeutics, Amgen and UCB. He obtained a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath, and a PhD from the Institute of Cancer Research. 

Clare Burles is Apollo Therapeutics’ VP People and Communications.  Clare has over 20 years experience in Human Resources and is a highly accomplished People / HR Board Director (FCIPD) and executive coach.  Clare has extensive experience with high-growth companies, developing forward-thinking people strategies which enable organizational transformation and effective scale-up. Most recently Clare was the Group People Director at Stagecoach Group where she led strategic HR transformation, cultural change and large-scale restructuring.  Clare holds a BA Honors in Business Studies and a Masters in Human Resource Management.

Dr Richard Butt is Apollo Therapeutics’ Chief Scientific Officer. He joined Apollo in 2016 and served as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer until 2021. Richard spent more than 20 years at Pfizer, holding multiple leadership roles in preclinical and clinical R&D. During his tenure, he led programs to candidate selection, developed IND-enabling and preclinical regulatory packages, and led design, planning, execution and delivery for over 30 clinical studies spanning Phase 0 to Phase 2. Richard has always focused on project and portfolio leadership across the preclinical, translational and clinical phases of R&D. Richard is a cell biologist with a degree in biochemistry from the University of York and a doctorate from University College London. 

Matthew supports Apollo clinical development programs across the portfolio, applying his experience in rare diseases, haematology, immunology and dermatology from similar positions at Pfizer, Novartis,  and more recently in R&D strategy and consulting.  He holds a BS/ME in Biomedical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. 

Megan joined Apollo in 2024 as an In-house Clinical Research Associate, working within clinical operations to support oncology and immunology programs. She has over five years of clinical research experience, including coordinating therapeutic oncology trials at an investigational site and supporting rheumatology trial operations at a biotech startup. With a passion for improving patient care, Megan is committed to ensuring ethical trial practices and compliance.   

Joana has a MSc and PhD in Biotechnology with 15 years of industry experience in antibody discovery and in vitro pharmacology. With a track record in driving the progress of innovative drug discovery programs towards the clinic, Joana has held R&D roles in leading pharma and biotech companies including Genzyme/Sanofi, F-star and Kymab/Sanofi and is a named inventor in several patents and authored high-profile peer-reviewed publications.