Board Leadership

Amanda Banks is a CEO, physician and entrepreneur with a unique combination of skills and experience
in biotech, software and data analytics, clinical medicine and diagnostics. Amanda is driven by a desire to
work with great people to advance transformative science that can equitably improve lives. She is
constantly striving to make a substantial impact in ways that promote autonomy, access and fairness for
patients and global populations.

Michael R. Dougherty has been involved in the life sciences community over the past four decades, joining Centocor, Inc. in 1983 and later serving as Centocor’s Chief Financial Officer. He has since held senior positions at several biopharma companies, including President and CEO at Magainin Pharmaceuticals and at Adolor Corporation, and most recently Executive Chairman at Celator Pharmaceuticals.

Mike has also served as an independent director at a number of companies in the industry, including Viropharma Incorporated and Foundation Medicine, Inc. He was a founding Board Member of Pennsylvania BIO (now Life Sciences PA), and is currently a Director at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Marinus Pharmaceuticals and Trevena Inc.

Mike is a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area and a 1980 graduate of Villanova University. He and his wife Eileen are the parents of five children, and have six grandchildren.

Jeff founded and built Spark Therapeutics into the world’s first fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company, serving as co-founder and CEO from 2013 to 2022. Under Jeff’s leadership, Spark developed and launched LUXTURNA® for a rare blinding disorder, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease in the United States, spearheading the creation of novel reimbursement models to ensure patient access to genetic medicines. As CEO, Jeff shepherded multiple gene therapies into the clinic for patients with conditions ranging from inherited retinal diseases to rare bleeding and neuromuscular disorders.

While at Spark, Jeff raised $1 billion and established major partnerships with Pfizer and Novartis. Jeff’s successful orchestration of Spark’s $4.8 billion sale to Roche in 2019 marked a 100-fold increase in the company’s market value over six years and delivered financial returns of $750 million to Spark’s non-traditional founding investor, CHOP. At the time of his departure, Spark had grown to 850 employees and was named #5 in Science magazine’s rankings of top employers across the biopharmaceutical industry.

Jeff currently serves on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations, including Life Science Cares Philadelphia and The Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement. In 2022, Jeff and his wife founded the Marrazzo Family Foundation to support arts-integrated education within Philadelphia.

Jeff holds two bachelor’s degrees in systems science and engineering and in economics from the University of Pennsylvania as well as two master’s degrees in business and public administration from Wharton and Harvard University, a dual-degree program which he founded.

As president & CEO of Life Sciences Pennsylvania, Christopher Molineaux serves as the chief advocate and spokesman for the life sciences industry that calls Pennsylvania home. Molineaux oversees the strategic direction for the association, assuring Life Sciences Pennsylvania continues to be the catalyst that makes Pennsylvania the top location for life sciences companies.

Molineaux brings to Life Sciences Pennsylvania more than 25 years of experience in the bio-pharmaceutical and health care industries, with front-line experience in developing and executing strategies to navigate a shifting economic and political environment.

Prior to joining Life Sciences Pennsylvania in September 2009, Molineaux served as worldwide vice president of pharmaceutical communications and public affairs for Johnson & Johnson. He began his Johnson & Johnson career as vice president of corporate communications at Centocor in Malvern, PA, and was later promoted to vice president for communications of Johnson & Johnson’s global Biotechnology, Immunology & Oncology (B.I.O.) business unit.

Molineaux previously served as vice president of public affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). Prior to his role at PhRMA, he was vice president, communications and marketing at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, developing public awareness and education strategies related to commercial and government payer systems. Molineaux also worked as a public affairs executive for the federal Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture, and as a press officer on the White House staff of President George H. W. Bush.

In addition to leading Life Sciences Pennsylvania, Chris Molineaux serves as a non-executive Director of Aclaris Therapeutics, a non-executive Director of NexEos Diagnostics, on the Chester County Economic Development Council and the Valley Forge Tourism & Convention Board. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of BioAgilytix of Durham, NC and St. John Vianney Church of Gladwyne, PA.