Management Team

Raul R. Rodriguez

President and Chief Executive Officer

Raul R. Rodriguez is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Rigel and serves on our Board of Directors. Before being named CEO in November 2014, Mr. Rodriguez held management positions of increasing responsibility within the company, most recently serving as President and Chief Operating Officer since June 2010. He joined Rigel as Vice President, Business Development in April 2000. Prior to his employment at Rigel, Mr. Rodriguez was Senior Vice President, Business Development and Operations for Ontogeny, Inc. (now Curis); Executive Director, Business Development and Market Planning for Scios, Inc. (now J&J); and held various positions at G.D. Searle & Company (now Pfizer). After earning his A.B. from Harvard College, Mr. Rodriguez went on to earn his Masters of Public Health at the University of Illinois and his M.B.A. at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dean Schorno, C.P.A.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Dean Schorno was appointed as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) in May 2018. Mr. Schorno joined Rigel from 23andMe, Inc., the leading consumer genetics and research company, where he had been CFO since 2015. Before joining 23andMe, Mr. Schorno was CFO of Adaptive Biotechnologies (Seattle, WA) and Genomic Health (Redwood City, CA). During this time, he led financial operations through periods of significant business and commercial growth which included significant financing and commercial transaction activity. Mr. Schorno began his career in finance at an international accounting firm in San Francisco, CA before starting his own consultancy in 1991. A certified public accountant, Mr. Schorno is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BS, Business Administration) and Golden Gate University (MS, Taxation).

Wolfgang Dummer, M.D., Ph.D.

Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer

Wolfgang Dummer, M.D., Ph.D. was appointed Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Medical Officer in November 2019. Dr. Dummer joined Rigel from Aridis where he held the role of EVP and Chief Medical Officer, responsible for leading all aspects of drug development in various stages in the field of antimicrobial immunotherapy. Prior to joining Aridis, Dr. Dummer served as Vice President of Clinical Development at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapies for people with serious and life-threatening rare disorders. During his time at BioMarin, Dr. Dummer led his team to build a deep rare disease pipeline with up to seven molecules in more than 20 clinical trials. Before his work at BioMarin, Dr. Dummer served for 11 years in capacities of increasing importance in Clinical Research and Development at Genentech, Inc. (now part of Roche). Dr. Dummer oversaw numerous programs at Genentech including Rituximab and Ocrelizumab. He has gained deep knowledge of immunology during a research fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. Dr. Dummer authored and co-authored more than 40 clinical and scientific publications in peer reviewed journals. He is a board-certified clinical dermatologist and allergist/immunologist.

Dave Santos

Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer

David Santos was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer in August 2020. Mr. Santos joined Rigel from Jazz Pharmaceuticals, where he held the role of Hematology/Oncology Business Unit Head, responsible for leading US commercialization of the oncology portfolio. During his tenure at Jazz, he successfully grew the business unit through three launches to eventually have four promoted products in the leukemia, transplant and lung cancer markets. Prior to joining Jazz, Mr. Santos served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Medivation (now Pfizer), responsible for commercializing Xtandi^® for metastatic prostate cancer, and Vice President, Kinase Inhibitor Franchise for Onyx (now Amgen), responsible for leading sales and marketing efforts with Nexavar^® and Stivarga^®. Before his work at Onyx, Mr. Santos served for nearly 9 years in roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech, Inc. (now a member of the Roche Group), where he launched and held key commercial leadership roles on several successful brands, including Avastin^®, Herceptin^® and Tarceva^®. Mr. Santos also held marketing and sales roles at Lilly Oncology and Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he started his pharmaceutical sales career. He received his BS in Chemistry from St. Louis University.

Dolly Vance

Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel

Dolly Vance has been our Executive Vice President, Corporate Affairs and General Counsel since May 2010. Ms. Vance is also Rigel’s Corporate Secretary, a title she has held since 2006. She was appointed Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2007 and was appointed General Counsel and Vice President of Intellectual Property in January 2003. She joined Rigel in September 2000 as Rigel’s first in-house counsel. From 1997 until September 2000, she was at the law firm of Flehr Hohbach Test Albritton & Herbert (now Dorsey & Whitney), where she was a partner. Prior to law school, she worked in various research laboratories, including the laboratory of Norman Davidson, at California Institute of Technology. She holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California, San Diego and a J.D. degree from Boston University School of Law.

Esteban Masuda, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President, Research

Esteban Masuda, Ph.D. was appointed Executive Vice President, Research in January 2020. Before being named to that position, Dr. Masuda held the title of Senior Vice President, Research since 2016. He joined Rigel as a scientist in 1998. He has worked on and led numerous drug discovery projects in inflammatory and allergic diseases, and served as the first project leader of the program that led to the discovery of fostamatinib. His work has resulted in: moving several product candidates into clinical development; establishing various corporate partnerships; producing 57 publications; and issuing 49 U.S. patents. Prior to joining Rigel, Dr. Masuda spent seven years at DNAX Research Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology in cytokine biology. He received a B.S. in biochemistry from University of California, Riverside and a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Hiroshima University, Japan.

Joseph Lasaga

Senior Vice President, Corporate Development

Joseph Lasaga was appointed Senior Vice President, Corporate Development in January 2020, having previously served as Senior Vice President of Business Development and Alliance Management. Prior to rejoining Rigel in 2016, Mr. Lasaga was Vice President, Business Development and Alliance Management at Galena Biopharma, Inc., where he was responsible for managing corporate and business development strategy and activities. From 2010 until 2014, Mr. Lasaga was Director, and later named Senior Director, Business Development at Nektar Therapeutics, where he led licensing activities, managed key alliances and structured research collaborations. He began his career at Rigel in 1998, working in research before moving into business development, most recently as Associate Director. In that role, he served as the alliance manager for all of Rigel’s partners, was an integral member of the negotiating team for Rigel’s out-licensing of fostamatinib to AstraZeneca in early 2010, and managed all other aspects of business development. Mr. Lasaga graduated from San Jose State University with a B.S. in Molecular Biology and earned his M.B.A. in Marketing from San Francisco State University.

Lily Cheung

Vice President, Human Resources

Lily Cheung was appointed Vice President of Human Resources in January 2020.  She brings over 20 years of HR experience across the technology and biopharmaceutical industries.  Ms. Cheung has more than 12 years of commercial state biopharma experience.  Prior to joining Rigel in 2018, she was with Actelion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (now Janssen Pharmaceuticals, a Johnson & Johnson Company) where she held positions of increasing responsibilities. Before Actelion, Ms. Cheung served 6 years at Covad Communications leading the HR Operations team.  Ms. Cheung also held positions at National Semiconductor and UnitedHealthcare. She received her BS in Management from San Francisco State University.