Richard Larson, MD, PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and Board Member
Richard S. Larson MD, PhD has 35+ years experience in bioscience and healthcare industries. He is a physician-scientist, inventor, professor, health care leader, and entrepreneur. Dr. Larson founded and served as the director of the Clinical and Translational Science Center in New Mexico for 17 years, an organization that runs 60-250 clinical trials annually.
Dr. Larson is also an accomplished inventor and entrepreneur. His scientific achievements include more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and over 40 patents. Several patents served as the basis for new biotechnology companies in the areas of drug development, radioimaging, and in vitro diagnostics. His inventions have been recognized with the Chief Scientist Award for Excellence from the Defense Intelligence Agency and a Top 100 Technology Award from R&D Magazine. He is an honorary commander at Kirkland Air Force base.
Dr. Larson helped launch, lead, and govern TriCore Reference Laboratories, which has grown into one of New Mexico’s 9th largest businesses. In addition, having served as Executive Vice Chancellor and Vice President for Research of a $2.4 billion health care entity for more than 10 years, he has overseen a broad array of activities and programs in education, research, community outreach and clinical care. He also serves on the board of directors of Triopsy, Inc, a company developing devices and AI to improve biopsy techniques and the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
Dr. Larson received both his M.D. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. He completed his residency at Washington University in St. Louis and his fellowship training at Vanderbilt University.
John Dessouki
Chief Financial Officer
John Dessouki joined Metabolics as Chief Financial Officer in 2024, bringing a wealth of experience from his diverse career in finance, venture capital, and investments. Prior to Metabolics, John worked at Scientia Ventures, where he focused on investments in biotech and digital health companies. His expertise also includes key roles at Route 66 Ventures, where he helped launch the firm’s early-stage FinTech venture fund and credit opportunity fund, driving significant growth in financial services investments.
Earlier in his career, John was part of JMP Securities, where he covered internet stocks, and Hovde Capital, where he specialized in private equity investments in financial services. He began his financial career at Standard & Poor’s in structured finance, advising investment banks and hedge funds on complex credit transactions.
John holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and a Masters in Accounting from the College of William and Mary. He passed the Virginia State CPA Exam in 2006.
William Kinney, PhD
Co-Founder, Senior VP, Research & Development
Dr. Kinney is a drug discovery scientist, process development chemist, and entrepreneur with greater than 30 years of experience in large pharmaceutical (Wyeth, Johnson & Johnson), biotechnology (Magainin), and non-profit (Blumberg Institute) research and development.
He has demonstrated expertise in drug design; synthesis; lead optimization of peptides, small molecules, natural products, and cGMP drug development; and is inventor of three molecules that advanced to human clinical trials – Perzinfotel (CNS disorders and pain), Squalamine (oncology and AMD), and Trodusquemine (obesity). He was the chemistry leader on the initial squalamine IND project team, delivering drug substance to launch a Phase I clinical trial on time and on budget. The squalamine cGMP scale-up campaign required building and leading an internal process group, partnering with analytical chemistry on method development and stability studies, working with multiple domestic and international collaborators, and writing the CMC section of the IND.
In 2000, he joined Johnson & Johnson, where he pursued peptide-mimetic integrin antagonists and urotensin-II receptor modulators for cardiovascular indications. He also made seminal discoveries with respect to self-assembling collagen-mimetic peptides that stimulate platelet aggregation.
Currently, Dr. Kinney is co-founder and Vice President of Research and Development at Enterin, Inc. where he leads scale-up of drug substance and drug product for the ENT-01 IND for the treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. His scientific contributions include 80 publications, invited lectures, and oral presentations and inventorship on 42 issued U.S. patents.
Hilde Williams
Senior Regulatory Advisor, Regulatory Strategy and Operations
With over 30 years’ in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry, Hilde is an expert in strategic regulatory affairs and clinical development across multiple disease areas and compound classes. Hilde’s deep regulatory affairs expertise has focused on investigational pharmaceutical products, including Phase I through Phase IV development. Hilde served as Sr. Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Development, Acadia Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw the only successful Phase 3 program in Parkinson’s Disease Psychosis. Hilde garnered FDA agreement for an NDA submission based on a single study, gained strategic Breakthrough Designation (first for FDA Psychiatry Division) and oversaw development of a high-quality NDA granted Priority Review by the FDA, and subsequent approval. During her career, Hilde has provided leadership on regulatory and development activities associated with the launch and conduct of five other development programs for CNS and psychiatric indications.
Kimberly Man
Vice President of Operations
Kimberly is a project management and business operations leader with a strong focus on strategy development and driving execution and operational excellence. She has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical development encompassing roles in project and portfolio management, product development, and clinical and regulatory operations at organizations including Sandoz, Cutanea Life Sciences, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and URL/Mutual Pharmaceuticals.
Kimberly holds a master’s degree in Business Administration from Auburn University, a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from Penn State University, and has been certified as a Project Management Professional since 2009.
