Management Team

Mr. Mazur is an accomplished entrepreneur and pharmaceutical industry executive with notable success in founding and building multiple healthcare companies and creating value and returns for investors throughout his five-decade career. Mr. Mazur was the co-founder and Chairman of Leonard-Meron Biosciences, Inc. prior to its merger with Citius in March 2016. He was previously the co-founder and Vice Chairman of Akrimax Pharmaceuticals, LLC, which specialized in cardiovascular and general pharmaceutical products. From 2005 to 2012, Mr. Mazur co-founded and served as the Chief Operating Officer of Triax Pharmaceuticals LLC, a specialty pharmaceutical company producing prescription dermatological drugs. As founder and Chief Executive Officer of Genesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a dermatological products company that marketed its products through dermatologists’ offices and co-promoted products for major pharmaceutical companies, he successfully negotiated the company’s sale in 2003 to Pierre Fabre, a leading global pharmaceutical company. Mr. Mazur has extensive sales, marketing, and business development experience from previous tenures at Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation, ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Knoll Pharma (a division of BASF), and Cooper Laboratories, Inc.

Mr. Mazur was born in Ansbach, Germany, and emigrated with his family to the U.S. at an early age. Mr. Mazur served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve while studying at Temple University for his undergraduate degree. He earned his MBA from Temple University’s Fox School of Business in 1975.

Mr. Mazur is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor presented annually to those who immigrated to the United States during the Ellis Island era and have shown an outstanding commitment to serving the United States either professionally, culturally, or civically.

Mr. Holubiak has extensive experience in managing and leading both large and emerging pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. Mr. Holubiak was co-founder, director and CEO of Leonard-Meron Biosciences, Inc. prior to its merger with Citius in March 2016. Mr. Holubiak was the President of Roche Laboratories, Inc., a premier multinational research-based pharmaceutical company, from 1998 to 2001. As President of Roche, Mr. Holubiak helped transform Roche Labs into a leading antibiotic and biotechnology company. Before being named President, he held sales and marketing positions at Roche during his 19-year tenure. Earlier, Mr. Holubiak founded Emron, Inc., a health economics and managed care consulting company, and helped to create the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP). He was also a director of Bioscrip, Inc., a national home infusion company, serving as its Chairman of the Board from 2012 through 2016. Since 2010, Mr. Holubiak has served as a member of the Board of Directors of Assembly Biosciences, Inc. and its predecessor, Ventrus Biosciences, Inc., and is a trustee of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Foundation.

Mr. Holubiak received a BS in molecular biology and biophysics from the University of Pittsburgh. He received advanced business training from Harvard Business School and the University of London, as well as advanced training in health economics from the University of York’s Centre for Health Economics.

Mr. Bartushak is an experienced finance and operations professional for early-stage pharmaceutical companies, and has over 20 years of corporate finance, business development, M&A, restructuring, capital formation, and strategic planning expertise. Mr. Bartushak is a founder of Leonard-Meron Biosciences, and, as CFO, was instrumental in obtaining initial investment capital for its start-up in 2014. Earlier, Mr. Bartushak helped lead the sale of PreCision Dermatology, Inc. to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., and before that, he led the financial efforts for the successful sale of Triax Pharmaceuticals to PreCision Dermatology.

Mr. Bartushak holds a Master of Science and BS from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Dr. Czuczman is an experienced physician-scientist, academic oncologist, and pharma executive with decades of experience in strategic design, implementation, and oversight for the global development of novel therapeutics for hematologic malignancies. Dr. Czuczman joined Citius from Celgene where he was Vice President, Global Clinical Research and Development, Therapeutic Area Head of Lymphoma/CLL. In this role, Dr. Czuczman managed a global team of physicians and scientists responsible for cross-functional development of compounds from proof-of-principle to worldwide registration. Prior to his career in pharma, Dr. Czuczman practiced medicine for over two decades at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in Buffalo, NY, where he served as chief of the Lymphoma/Myeloma Service and head of the Lymphoma Translational Research Laboratory. In addition to his extensive publications record, membership and leadership roles on national and international research organizations, and consulting and advisory to dozens of pharma companies, Dr. Czuczman also attained the positions of tenured Professor of Medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and Professor of Oncology at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Czuczman received his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine after graduating magna cum laude in biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed his Internal Medicine residency training at Weill Cornell North Shore University/MSKCC Program, followed by Medical Oncology/Hematology fellowship training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Mr. Talarico has served as EVP, Operations since March 2016. Mr. Talarico has successfully built and led all commercial activities for a number of start-up companies. Most recently, he was a founder, partner and Executive Vice President of Leonard-Meron Biosciences, Inc.; he was instrumental in acquiring its lead product. Previously, Mr. Talarico served as Senior Vice President of Triax Pharmaceuticals, from its founding to the sale of its assets. Mr. Talarico was a founder and Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Reliant Pharmaceuticals, LLC; Reliant was later sold to GlaxoSmithKline plc. Before Reliant, he was Executive Vice President of Business Development for Ventiv Health. His earlier experience included tenures as Vice President of Sales for Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation at its start-up, and Director of Sales at ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Talarico is a graduate of Lewis University.

Mr. Wadekar has been associated with Citius since its inception. Prior to Citius, he lead the clinical program at Ischemix, Inc., a company developing novel therapies for cardiovascular conditions. Mr. Wadekar has more than thirty years of experience in areas of finance, corporate strategy, sales and senior leadership in the healthcare field. Mr. Wadekar has held numerous executive level positions throughout his career in biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries including Chairman and CEO of Able Laboratories, Inc. Most recently he served as a strategic advisor to Camber Pharmaceuticals, Inc. where he was instrumental in building the executive team and establishing Camber’s Sales Operations systems.

Kelly joined Citius from Clinipace Worldwide, a leading global contract research organization, where he served as Vice President of Regulatory and Strategic Development. As a senior-level regulatory affairs and quality assurance expert with nearly two decades of experience in biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, advanced therapies, including gene and cellular therapies, and combination products, he has provided comprehensive regulatory strategy assessments, development plans and regulatory dossiers for programs across a wide range of therapeutic areas. As head of a global CMC regulatory activities for investigational products, he has led teams throughout North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region overseeing submissions and negotiations with regulatory authorities, as well as biosafety and environmental agencies in each of these regions. Kelly has directed the implementation of multiple CMC development plans including: contract manufacturing organization selection, product manufacturing, analytical development, product characterization, specification establishment, container closure systems and stability requirements. Additionally, his substantial product development experience extends to biologics/biosimilars, small molecule, gene and cellular therapies, cancer immunotherapies, live oncolytic biotherapeutics, and microbiome therapies. Twenty products for which he prepared regulatory marketing applications (NDAs, ANDAs, and BLAs) were approved in the US and EU. Additionally, he has performed internal and external quality assurance audits for drug products, drug substance, and tissue and cell therapy products. Kelly earned his BS from New Mexico State University and his MSc and PhD from the University of Nebraska.

Nik Burlew joined Citius from Clovis Oncology, Inc. where he served as Vice President of Quality Assurance. Prior to joining Clovis, Nik was the Executive Vice President of Regulatory and Strategic Development at Clinipace where he spent 15 years providing quality and CMC consulting counsel to clinical and commercial biologics and pharmaceutical companies. As a senior-level quality assurance expert with over three decades of experience in biopharmaceuticals, pharmaceuticals, advanced therapies, including gene and cellular therapies, natural products, live-biotherapeutics and combination products, Nik has provided quality and development plans for programs across a wide range of therapeutic areas. As the global head of QA for commercial and clinical stage companies, he has led teams throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific overseeing the application of quality programs in Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Good Pharmacovigilance Practice (GVP), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) and Good Distribution Practice (GDP). Nik has successfully engaged with Health Authorities around the world in a variety of GxP inspections and negotiations including: FDA, EMA, MHRA, HPRA, BfArM, ANVISA, AEMPS, AIFA, PMDA, and Swissmedic. Additionally, his substantial product development experience extends to biologics, small molecules, natural products, gene and cellular therapies, cancer immunotherapies, live oncolytic biotherapeutics, and the microbiome. Mr. Burlew earned his B.S. in environmental, population and organismic biology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Dr. Lader has over 30 years of experience in medical research. Prior to joining Citius, Dr. Lader was the Director of Clinical Operations for Ischemix, Inc. Previously, Dr. Lader served as an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He taught Integrated Human Physiology, and was Principal Investigator for NIH-funded studies in mechanisms of lung cancer metastasis. Dr. Lader has authored more than 20 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and has presented more than 25 abstracts at scientific meetings. Dr. Lader’s career began at Hartford Hospital where he supported clinical research in cardiovascular medicine. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, M.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Biomedical Engineering and his B.S. degree in Bioengineering from Syracuse University.

John Westman has led commercial efforts—including strategy, sales management, marketing, business development, customer service and strategic partnerships—resulting in improved business results for market-leading and start-up healthcare companies. Prior positions include co-founder and Executive Vice President of Novellus, Inc., General Manager and Vice President of Marketing and Sales for PrecisionMD, NxStage, Fresenius, PharMetrics and Decision Resources Pharmaceutical. John led U.S. and global marketing and sales training at Baxter Healthcare’s Renal division and started his career at Bain Consulting/Baxter consulting firm. John is a Fulbright Scholar who received a B.A. in French and English from Colgate, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA in marketing and finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern. John is on the faculty at Harvard and Boston College.

Paul Sowyrda is a seasoned Biopharmaceutical leader and inventor with over 25 years of experience helping to build and lead development stage and commercial companies. He is co-founder of Novellus, Inc. which was sold to Brooklyn ImmunoTherapeutics, Inc. in July 2021, and served as its Executive Vice President. Mr. Sowyrda held previous positions as Vice President of Drug Development at CIBA, and Vice President of Development and Marketing at Dusa Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Sun Pharma. Mr. Sowyrda is an inventor and holds more than 15 patents, He has served on the Board of Directors for the Society of Concurrent Product Development and is a member of the American Academy of Dermatology and International Society of Dermatologic Surgery. He earned his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Notre Dame, his MBA from Babson College, and completed the MIT Sloan School of Management Senior Executives Program.

Ms. Allen has more than 20 years of experience in corporate communications, investor relations, strategy and investment banking. Ms. Allen has provided investor relations counsel to more than two dozen private and public life science companies. Previously, she advised executives across a broad spectrum of industries and growth stages, including technology startups and Fortune 500 financial institutions. Ilanit began her career as an investment banking analyst at SG Cowen with a focus on mergers and acquisitions. Ms. Allen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from The Wharton School, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.