Our Company
Dr. Parkinson has been ESSA’s President and Chief Executive Officer since 2016 and has been a member of ESSA’s Board of Directors since 2015. Dr. Parkinson has more than 30 years of experience in clinical oncology development. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Parkinson was a Venture Partner at New Enterprise Associates, Inc. and served as the President and CEO of Nodality, Inc., a biotechnology company developing human cell-based translational diagnostic tools. Throughout his career, Dr. Parkinson has held senior roles in clinical oncology development at a number of pharmaceutical and biotech companies, including Biogen, Amgen and Novartis, and has overseen the successful clinical development of a series of cancer therapeutics, including Gleevec, Zometa, Femara, and Vectibix. Dr. Parkinson currently serves as Director on the Boards of CTI Biopharma, Inc. and Angiocrine Bioscience Inc. Dr. Parkinson received his M.D. from the University of Toronto, has previously held academic positions at Tufts and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and has served as Chief of the Investigational Drug Branch and acting Associate Director of the Cancer Therapy Evaluation Program of the National Cancer Institute. He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and is a recipient of the FDA’s Cody Medal.
Mr. Virsik has been ESSA’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer since 2016. Mr. Virsik has over 20 years of experience in corporate development, strategy, new product planning, alliance management, and finance. Prior to joining ESSA, Mr. Virsik was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development for XenoPort (acquired by Arbor Pharmaceuticals), where he led licensing, strategy, new product planning and alliance management. Mr. Virsik also worked in corporate development for Gilead Sciences, where he was involved in building Gilead’s HIV franchise through the acquisition of Triangle Pharmaceuticals and the licensing of Vitekta® (elvitegravir). Earlier in his career, Mr. Virsik worked at J.P. Morgan in the biotechnology equity research group, as a consultant for Ernst and Young, and in research and development at Genentech. Mr. Virsik received an M.B.A. from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, an M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
Mr. Wood has been ESSA’s Chief Financial Officer since 2013. Mr. Wood has over 30 years of experience in management of both early and late stage companies in North America and the U.K. and has over 18 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry, where he has overseen several M&A transactions and numerous financings. Prior to joining ESSA, Mr. Wood was Head of Finance, Secretary and Treasurer at Celator Pharmaceuticals Inc., now a subsidiary of Jazz Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Mr. Wood was a Managing Director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals (UK) Ltd. and Finance Director at TerraGen Discovery, Inc. Mr. Wood began his career in the finance and exploration departments of Chevron Corp. He received a B.Sc. in Biology from Queen’s University, an M.B.A. from University of Western Ontario and holds a CPA, CMA accounting designation.
Dr. Cesano has been ESSA’s Chief Medical Officer since 2019 and Executive Vice President since 2023. Prior to joining ESSA, Dr. Cesano served as Chief Medical Officer at NanoString Inc., focusing on the development of translational and diagnostic multi-plexed assays for the characterization and measurement of mechanisms of immune response and resistance. Previously, Dr. Cesano was the Chief Medical Officer at Cleave Biosciences, Inc., and Nodality, Inc. Throughout her career, Dr. Cesano has held various management positions at Amgen, Biogen Idec and SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where she helped advance various oncology drugs through late-stage development and FDA approvals. Early in her professional career, Dr. Cesano spent 12 years conducting research in tumor immunology, including nine years at the Wistar Institute, an NCI Basic Cancer Center connected with the University of Pennsylvania, and she has authored over 100 publications. Dr. Cesano received an M.D. summa cum laude, a Board Certification in Oncology and a Ph.D. in Tumor Immunology from the University of Turin.