Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., co-founded Sirtris in 2004 and has since served as Chief Executive Officer.  In addition to leading Sirtris as an independent discovery performance unit within GSK, Dr. Westphal serves as the Senior Vice President of GSK’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD).  At CEEDD, Dr. Westphal and his team are developing a network of external alliances with world-class biotech companies to bring breakthrough medicines into the GSK pipeline.  He is based at Sirtris, which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Under his leadership, Sirtris has become a recognized pioneer in the research and development of small molecule drugs that target the sirtuins, a family of enzymes that control the aging process.  In 2007, Dr. Westphal successfully led the company through its initial public offering, resulting in recognition by the Boston Globe as one of the Globe 100 top IPOs of 2007.  In June 2008, GSK acquired Sirtris for $720 million.

Prior to establishing Sirtris, Dr. Westphal co-founded Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: ALNY), Momenta Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: MNTA) and Acceleron as CEO.  Dr. Westphal was formerly a general partner at a venture fund and a consultant with McKinsey.  He earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Ph.D. in genetics from Harvard University.  He graduated with a B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Columbia University.

Dr. Westphal currently serves on the Board of Directors for Alnara Pharmaceuticals, Concert Pharmaceuticals and Magen BioSciences, and he serves on the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School.  Dr. Westphal has been the lead or senior author on several patent applications and scientific papers in journals including Cell, Nature and Nature Genetics.

Dr. Westphal has received a number of industry awards, including the 2008 Outstanding Individual of the Year Award at the annual Laguna Biotech Meeting; recognition in the Pharmaceutical Executive “45 Under 45” and PharmaVOICE 100 issues, both in 2008; Mass High Tech All Star Award in 2007; and Ernst & Young’s New England Entrepreneur of the Year award in the Biopharmaceutical category in 2006.

Dr. Westphal enjoys traveling (he has visited over 130 countries) and playing the cello.  He is also fluent in English, German, Spanish and French.  Dr. Westphal is married with three young children.

Garen Bohlin has served as Chief Operating Officer since 2006. Prior to Sirtris, Mr. Bohlin served as Chief Executive Officer of Syntonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for six years from its inception in 1998. Prior to Syntonix, which was acquired by Biogen Idec in 2006, Mr. Bohlin spent 14 years in executive management at Genetics Institute, Inc. In his last role at Genetics Institute, Mr. Bohlin served as Executive Vice President with responsibility for most of the non-scientific areas of the company that comprised approximately half of the company's then 1,600 employees. Mr. Bohlin played a leading role in structuring and implementing a strategic alliance with American Home Products (now Wyeth) that resulted in the eventual acquisition of Genetics Institute at an implied valuation of approximately $3 billion. Prior to Mr. Bohlin's tenure at Genetics Institute, he was a partner at Arthur Andersen & Co., where he spent 13 years. Mr. Bohlin serves as a director of Acusphere, Inc. and Targanta Therapeutics Corporation.

Peter Elliott, Ph.D. has served as Senior Vice President of Research & Development since 2005. Prior to joining Sirtris, from 2001 through 2005, Dr. Elliott held various positions at CombinatoRx, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, including Executive Vice President of Product Development. Dr. Elliott was Vice President of Pharmacology and Drug Development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Elliot co-developed Velcade while at ProScript which was bought by Millennium.  Prior to Millennium, Dr. Elliott spent four years at Alkermes, Inc. and five years at Glaxo in the UK. Dr. Elliott holds a B.S. in Pharmacology from London University and a Ph.D. in Psychopharmacology from Cambridge University.