Management

Rick Hawkins is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Lumos Pharma. Previously, Mr. Hawkins founded Pharmaco and as Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, he managed the growth of that organization to over 700 employees. Pharmaco offered a full range of clinical drug development services to the pharmaceutical industry, including Phase I-IV clinical trials and analytical chemistry services. The company merged with Applied Bioscience International. Mr. Hawkins managed their 2000 employee international Research & Development operations. Pharmaco merged with PPD of Wilmington, NC to form PPD Pharmaco, one of the largest clinical contract research organizations in the world.

After selling Pharmaco, Mr. Hawkins founded id2, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology research management company. Through his position as Chairman and CEO at id2, he has served as an advisor and mentor in the start-up of numerous companies, including Sensus Drug Development Corporation. Sensus, a biotechnology company, developed a Growth Hormone Antagonist for use in acromegaly, the complications of diabetes, and regulation of growth hormone in the treatment of specific types of tumors. Mr. Hawkins co-founded Sensus and served as the Chairman. Sensus was sold to Pharmacia (now Pfizer).

In addition to Sensus, Mr. Hawkins was co-founder and Director of Covance Biotechnology Services, Inc., a full-service contract manufacturer of recombinant proteins located in Research Triangle Park, NC. Covance Biotechnology Services was sold to Akzo Nobel, Inc in early 2001. Mr. Hawkins co-founded and acted as CEO, President, and Chairman of LabNow, a diagnostic device company established to improve the quality of patient care and lower overall treatment costs through deployment of rapid, point-of-care, physician office-based diagnostic testing systems.

Mr. Hawkins currently serves as a Director for Plus Therapeutics (PSTV) and Savara Pharmaceuticals (SVRA).

Mr. Hawkins was inducted into the Hall of Honor for the College of Natural Sciences at the University of Texas. In 2006 he received Ohio University’s Distinguished Business Achievement Award and was named on the top 10 Life Sciences CEO’s in Texas by the Texas Healthcare & Bioscience Institute. He is a member of the National Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame. In 2015, he received Ohio University’s Konneker Medal, the highest award given to a faculty member or former student for entrepreneurial excellence.  Mr. Hawkins resides in Austin, Texas and maintains a residence near Columbus, Ohio.

Mr. Hawkins has served on the Lumos Pharma Board since 2012 and Chairman since March 2020.

John McKew is Chief Operating Officer, Chief Scientific Officer and President of Lumos Pharma. Dr. McKew has twenty-seven years of experience developing novel therapeutics where he successfully advanced therapies through preclinical and into clinical development. Prior to Lumos Pharma, Dr. McKew served as V.P. of research at aTyr Pharma where he led a research team discovering and advancing protein-based therapeutics for rare diseases. He has also served as Acting Scientific Director for the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) intramural group, a part of the National Institute of Health (NIH). At NCATS, his lab’s work on rare diseases and public/private partnerships led to the collaborative advancement of several therapeutic candidates currently being commercialized by pharmaceutical companies. Prior to his position at the NIH, Dr. McKew held a Director level position at Wyeth Research, after beginning his career at Genetics Institute, Inc., before the two companies merged.

Beyond his work with Lumos Pharma, Dr. McKew is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and has previously served as the Chair Elect, Chair and Immediate Past Chair of the American Chemical Society’s Northeastern section. Dr. McKew also serves on multiple translational review panels at the NIH and other funding agencies. He has over 70 peer-reviewed publications and granted patents. Dr. McKew graduated from State University of New York at Stony Brook with B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biochemistry, completed his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at University of California, Davis and held post-doctoral research positions at the University of Geneva and Firmenich, SA.

Dr. McKew currently resides on a small organic farm in the Agricultural Reserve of Montgomery County Maryland.

Lori Lawley is the Chief Financial Officer of Lumos Pharma. She brings over ten years of experience and accounting expertise in overseeing financial operations, including over five years of public company senior management experience in biotechnology. Prior to the merger with Lumos Pharma, she held various senior roles of increasing responsibility in NewLink’s finance department, including Corporate Controller, Director Financial and SEC Reporting, and most recently as Vice President of Finance and Controller and member of the Office of the CEO. As a member of the senior management team, she assisted in the development and execution of the corporate strategy, financial planning, and communications with key external stakeholders. 
 
Ms. Lawley has over eight years of public accounting experience at Ernst & Young where she was a Senior Manager in Assurance Services. There Ms. Lawley oversaw teams through the planning and completion of integrated and non-integrated audits of financial statements within both the public and private sectors.

Ms. Lawley is a licensed certified public accountant. She earned a BBA in Accounting and a master’s degree in Professional Accounting from The University of Texas at Austin, Red McCombs School of Business.

Aaron Schuchart has over twenty years of experience in key leadership roles for both large multinationals and small biotech companies, including Amgen, Novartis Diagnostics/Grifols, and Coherus Biosciences. Recently, as Chief Business Officer of Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Mr. Schuchart led the Business Development, Commercial Planning, and Intellectual Property functions to build an integrated, late stage company based on a protein engineering platform with utility in rare disease and cancer. Throughout his tenure in the industry, Mr. Schuchart has led or advised on over 30 transactions totaling over $15 billion; developed and executed portfolio strategies for various technology platforms, therapeutic areas and markets toward the achievement of strong operating and financial growth performance for biopharmaceuticals and diagnostics businesses.

Mr. Schuchart received a B.B.A. in Accounting from Texas Tech University and an M.B.A. from UCLA Anderson School of Management. He is a Certified Licensing Professional and is licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.

Brad Powers is the General Counsel of Lumos Pharma. Prior to the merger with Lumos Pharma, he served as General Counsel at NewLink Genetics where he was directly responsible for all legal matters including corporate transactions, risk management, intellectual property, compliance, regulatory affairs, human resources, quality assurance and business development activities. As member of the senior management team, he helped develop corporate strategy and communications with board of directors, investors, and stakeholders. Prior to joining NewLink Genetics, Mr. Powers served as General Counsel and Interim Director of Global Sales, Service and Marketing at Kinze Manufacturing, Inc., a privately held, international agricultural manufacturer. Before that, he held senior legal positions at McKee, Voorhees and Sease, Iowa’s largest Intellectual Property boutique firm where he managed patent litigation, intellectual property licensing, and trademark protection. During his time at Iowa State University and Drake University School of Law, Mr. Powers also worked as the Director of Information Technology at NewLink Genetics.

Mr. Powers graduated from Iowa State University with a master’s degree in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and a bachelor’s degree in Biology. He earned a juris doctor degree from Drake University School of Law. Mr. Powers is a registered US patent attorney and is licensed to practice law before Iowa’s State and Federal Courts, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Patent and Trademark Office.