Leadership

Jerome Durso serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our Board of Directors. Prior to becoming CEO in January 2021, Mr. Durso served as Chief Operating Officer since joining Intercept in February 2017. Mr. Durso has over 25 years of experience in building and leading commercial and business operations at life sciences companies both in the United States and abroad. Prior to joining Intercept, Mr. Durso served as a consultant to the biopharmaceutical industry from September 2015 to February 2017. Mr. Durso spent the majority of his career at Sanofi, a global pharmaceutical company, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer of the Global Diabetes Division from June 2011 to April 2015. From 2010 to 2011, Mr. Durso was Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer of Sanofi’s U.S. pharmaceuticals business. Prior to that, he served in a number of commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility in business unit and brand management, marketing and sales since he first joined Sanofi in 1993. Mr. Durso earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Notre Dame.

Bryan Ball serves as our Chief Quality Officer and Senior Vice President of Operations. Prior to joining Intercept, Mr. Ball was Chief Quality Officer of Immunomedics, Inc., where he was responsible for all aspects of Quality for product development, clinical trials, manufacturing, testing and distribution of the company’s clinical stage candidates and first commercial product. Mr. Ball has served in management positions at several companies, including as Senior Vice President, Quality, Environmental Health and Safety at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and Vice President positions in the Quality departments of Ikaria, Inc. and Boehringer Ingelheim. Mr. Ball holds an M.B.A from Westminster College, a M.Sc. in cell biology from University of North Carolina, Charlotte, and a B.Sc. in biology from Central Michigan University.

M. Michelle Berrey, M.D., M.P.H., serves as our President of Research & Development and Chief Medical Officer. Michelle was most recently President and Chief Executive Officer at Chimerix from 2012 to 2019 where the focus was on viral infections in immunocompromised hosts. Prior to Chimerix, she served as Chief Medical Officer at Pharmasset where she played a critical role in the development of Sovaldi® (sofosbuvir) for hepatitis C. Michelle began her career in drug development at GlaxoSmithKline. She served in multiple roles at GW/GSK, eventually serving as Vice President, Viral Diseases, Clinical Pharmacology & Discovery Medicine. During her time at GSK she was responsible for the early development of compounds for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis viruses and hepatic fibrosis. Dr. Berrey received her M.D. from the Medical College of Georgia/Augusta University, and a Master of Public Health from Emory University. She completed her internal medicine residency at UNC Chapel Hill and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at UW in Seattle, where her research focused on transmission of HIV, early establishment of the viral reservoir, and the potential for early antiviral therapy during acute infection.

Gail Cawkwell, M.D., Ph.D. has served as our SVP, Medical Affairs, Safety & Pharmacovigilance since September 2018, having previously served as SVP, Medical Affairs since February 2018. Prior to joining Intercept, Dr. Cawkwell worked for Purdue Pharma L.P., where she served as Special Advisor to the Board of Directors from September 2017 to February 2018, Chief Medical Officer from January 2015 to September 2017 and VP, Medical Affairs from November 2014 to January 2015. From 2000 to November 2014, Dr. Cawkwell served in a number of roles of increasing responsibility at Pfizer Inc., including most recently as Vice President Medicine Team Lead for Pfizer’s tofacitinib franchise. Dr. Cawkwell also served as a Clinical Instructor of Pediatrics at Columbia Presbyterian Health Center from 2002 to 2015 and previously held several other clinical and academic posts. Dr. Cawkwell received her Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati, her M.D. from McGill University in Montreal, Canada and her bachelor’s degree from Duke University.

Lisa DeFrancesco serves as our Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Investor Relations, having previously served as VP, Investor Relations since 2019. Ms. DeFrancesco has over 20 years of experience in investor relations, finance and communications roles predominantly in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. She joined Intercept from Melinta Therapeutics where she served as SVP, Corporate Affairs and was a member of the company’s Executive Leadership Team. Prior to Melinta, Ms. DeFrancesco held roles of increasing responsibility over an eight-year tenure at Allergan plc (formerly Actavis and Watson Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition of Allergan), most recently in the role of Vice President, Investor Relations and a member of the Operations Leadership Team. Ms. DeFrancesco holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Seton Hall University.

David Ford has served as our Chief Human Resources Officer since May 2017. He brings over 25 years of experience in a variety of human resources roles across the United States, Europe, Latin America and New Zealand. Prior to joining Intercept, Mr. Ford spent nearly 15 years at Sanofi, where he most recently served as Vice President Human Resources for the Sanofi Genzyme global business unit from January 2016 to May 2017. Prior to that role, from November 2011 through December 2015, Mr. Ford served as Vice President Human Resources for the Sanofi North American businesses. Mr. Ford joined the pharmaceutical industry in 2002 as the HR Director — United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland for Sanofi-Synthelabo. Mr. Ford holds a master’s degree in business administration from INSEAD, Fontainebleau (France).

Jared M. Freedberg serves as our General Counsel. Mr. Freedberg was previously General Counsel and Secretary of Immunomedics, Inc. Prior to joining Immunomedics, Mr. Freedberg served as General Counsel, Specialty Generics Operating Division, and Vice President, Legal, Business Development and Licensing at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals. From 2001 through 2016, he held positions of increasing responsibility at Covance Inc. and was a member of Covance's Global Executive Leadership Team as Head of Strategy and Business Development from 2014 to 2016. Mr. Freedberg received a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Linda Richardson serves as our Chief Commercial Officer. Prior to her appointment to this role in February 2021, she served as Senior Vice President and Head of our Cholestasis Program since joining Intercept in 2018. Ms. Richardson has more than 30 years of commercial strategy, sales and marketing experience. Prior to joining Intercept, Ms. Richardson served as Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer at Chimerix, Inc., where she oversaw marketing, market access and reimbursement, market research and analytics, forecasting, supply chain and distribution strategies, commercial operations, product communications and sales. From 2008 to 2013, Ms. Richardson held commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Sanofi, where she led the company’s global GLP-1 diabetes franchise. Prior to joining Sanofi, Ms. Richardson held roles of increasing responsibility at both Reliant Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline. Ms. Richardson has been recognized by PM360 as an “ELITE 100” award winner in the pharmaceutical industry, by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a “Rising Star,” and by PharmaVOICE as one of its “Top 100 Most Inspiring People in Life Sciences.” Ms. Richardson holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania.

Andrew Saik serves as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Saik has more than 20 years of biopharma experience and has served in management positions in several companies. Prior to joining Intercept, he served as Chief Financial Officer of VYNE Therapeutics, where he was instrumental in building out the company’s finance department in the U.S. He also held Chief Financial Officer roles at PDS Biotechnology, Inc. (formerly Edge Therapeutics), Vertice Pharma, LLC, and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to Auxilium, he was Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasurer at Endo Health Solutions. Mr. Saik holds an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rocco Venezia serves as our Chief Accounting Officer and brings more than 20 years of relevant finance and accounting experience to the role. Prior to becoming Chief Accounting Officer in March 2021, Mr. Venezia served as Intercept’s Corporate Controller since 2016, where he led the expansion of the company’s finance and accounting department during its transition from development-stage to a fully integrated commercial organization. Before he joined Intercept, Mr. Venezia was the Assistant Corporate Controller at IKARIA, Inc., now part of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, from 2013 to 2016, where he led the accounting and finance team through operational and system transformations. From 2000 to 2013, Mr. Venezia held roles of increasing responsibility at KPMG LLP and Arthur Andersen, where he led multinational audits, transactions and due diligence engagements across several industries. Mr. Venezia also spent three years at KPMG LLP’s Department of Professional Practice where he supported engagement teams on complex technical accounting, compliance matters and audit methodology. Mr. Venezia holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Kean University and is a certified public accountant in New Jersey and New York.