We Are Spark

Federico Mingozzi, Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Federico Mingozzi is the chief scientific officer at Spark Therapeutics, bringing two decades of experience in gene therapy, immunology, as well as biochemistry and molecular biology in both industry and academic settings.

Federico began his scientific career studying the genetic basis of bleeding disorders. At the Children’s Hospital Philadelphia (CHOP) he conducted pioneering studies on liver gene transfer with adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors and immunology. Federico was involved in several first-in-human clinical studies of gene therapy based on the AAV vector platform while serving as the director of translational research the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics, at CHOP. He also led studies aimed at the characterization of human immune responses to AAV vectors and the development of strategies to modulate vector immunogenicity.

He then joined the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) as Research Director and Genethon, a leading French nonprofit R&D organization focused on gene therapy for rare diseases, as Team Leader. There, he spearheaded the development of in vivo gene therapies for inherited diseases. His work continued to focus on the characterization of human immune responses to AAV vectors and on the development of strategies to overcome immune responses in gene transfer.

Throughout his distinguished career, Federico has received several awards and has contributed to the field of gene therapy with more than 100 scientific publications, including seminal findings in the field of AAV gene therapy. He is also the at-large director on the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) board of directors.

Federico received his bachelor’s degree in biology and his Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Ferrara in Italy, and his M.B.A. from Drexel University. Federico also served as faculty at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, France, and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain.

Jeffrey D. Marrazzo
Chief Executive Officer

Jeff Marrazzo founded and has led the growth of Spark Therapeutics from a research center within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to a fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company that is challenging the inevitability of genetic disease by discovering, developing and delivering potential treatments in ways unimaginable – until now.

Under Jeff’s leadership, Spark received regulatory approval for the first gene therapy for a genetic disease in both the U.S. and EU, launched the first gene therapy for a genetic disease in the U.S., and established human proof-of-concept of Spark’s gene therapy platform in both the retina and liver. In more than eight years, Jeff has built an organization of more than 600 employees while securing over $1 billion in capital and successfully orchestrating a merger with Roche.  Spark has been named a top-ten Science Magazine Top Employer in 2019 and 2020, listed on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Best Places to Work list four consecutive years and was awarded the Prix Galien for Best Biotechnology Product in 2019.

Prior to Spark, he helped build the first genetic testing benefit management company up to and through the acquisition of a majority of the company’s shares by CVS Caremark. Previously, Jeff served as an advisor to former Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, where he led reforms in the financing and delivery of healthcare.

Jeff currently serves on the boards of the Life Science Cares Philadelphia and The Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement. Jeff received a B.A. in economics and B.S.E. in systems science and engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. He also holds a dual M.B.A. / M.P.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, a program which he founded.

Jeff can be found on Twitter @JeffMarrazzo.

Lisa Dalton
Chief People Officer

Lisa Dalton is the Chief People Officer (CPO) at Spark Therapeutics, where she has responsibility for Corporate Communications and Community Engagement, Human Resources, Information Technology, and Corporate Facilities and Real Estate and is focused on how to enable and empower Spark’s most important resource – its talented people.

Lisa has over 20 years of experience across the biopharmaceutical and financial services industries. She began her tenure at Spark Therapeutics in July 2014 as the Head of Human Resources and has been instrumental in helping lead the company’s growth from a few dozen people then to more than 600 people today. She and her team are champions of Spark’s culture – a key component to the company consistently being ranked as a Great Place to Work.

Lisa was previously vice president, human resources at Shire, where she led various human resources functions to meet the needs of a high-growth organization, including human resources-related merger and acquisition efforts, the total rewards function and the human resources operations function. While on international assignment in Switzerland, Lisa played a critical role in planning and launching Shire’s European hub, where she was a member of the site leadership team, championed the culture and values of the organization and had oversight of the talent strategies for the newly established site.

Lisa also has held roles in human resources with Franklin Templeton Investments, Applied Biosystems and Goldman Sachs.

Lisa serves as a member of the Board of Advisors of Life Science Cares Philadelphia and is on the External Advisory Board of the Drexel University Solution’s Institute. She also serves as an advisor on the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce’s Cell & Gene Therapy and Connected Health Initiative committee. In 2020, Lisa was named a “Woman of Distinction” by the Philadelphia Business Journal. She holds an M.B.A. from Rutgers University School of Business and a B.A. in psychology from Pennsylvania State University.

Ron Philip
Chief Operating Officer

Ron Philip serves as Chief Operating Officer, working across the corporate management team to shape and implement strategic corporate priorities that drive the successful development, manufacturing and commercialization of Spark Therapeutics’ current and future gene therapies.

He is responsible for leading product strategy development and execution for Spark’s early and late-stage pipeline assets, including the governance and proactive management necessary to bring more gene therapies to patients living with genetic diseases.  Ron is also responsible for the commercial organization, including commercial development, global marketing, commercial operations, diagnostics, market access and patient services functions.

Ron joined Spark in 2017 and most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer. He and his team developed Spark’s novel distribution and reimbursement model to support the launch of the first gene therapy approved for a genetic disease in the United States.

With more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, Ron has a proven track record of improving operating performance in multiple therapeutic categories and global markets. Prior to joining Spark, he served in several senior leadership roles at Pfizer including Regional President for Africa/Middle East, Head of Global Business Unit Strategy, Head of Business Development Search and Evaluation and Commercial Development Lead within Pfizer’s Innovative Products Business.

He previously worked at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals in U.S. commercial operations, with Deloitte Consulting in their strategy and operations practice and at Merck and Co. in the manufacturing and marketing divisions.

Ron is an alumnus of Drexel University.

Joseph La Barge, J.D.
Chief Business Officer

Joe La Barge serves as the Chief Business Officer of Spark Therapeutics, Inc., where he oversees business development, government affairs, legal, compliance, patient advocacy and pricing and reimbursement. As of Dec. 2019, he is also leading the Finance function on an interim basis.

Joe served as the Chief Legal Officer from 2013 to 2020, during which time he led multiple public and private financings, raising more than $1 billion in capital, structured multiple collaborations and partnerships and negotiated the merger with the Roche Group, including successfully guiding Spark through antitrust reviews by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission and the U.K. Competition and Market Authority. He has been instrumental in the development of novel distribution and reimbursement models for one-time therapeutics.

Prior to joining Spark, Joe spent 20 years as a corporate attorney in private practice and in-house representing private and public companies in mergers and acquisitions (M&A), licensing transactions, corporate governance matters and capital raising transactions.

Joe currently serves on the Board of Director of the National Pharmaceutical Council. He received a B.A. from Bucknell University and a J.D. from Temple University – James E. Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, where he served as Editor in Chief of the Temple Law Review.

Gallia G. Levy, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Gallia Levy is the Chief Medical Officer at Spark Therapeutics and leads strategic and operational teams throughout the product development lifecycle with responsibility for setting the global development strategy for current and pipeline programs. She serves as the principal physician and resident medical expert at Spark.

Prior to joining Spark, Gallia was Vice President and Global Head of the Rare Blood Disorders Franchise in Product Development at Genentech, another member of the Roche Group, where she was responsible for the clinical development of treatments for hemophilia A and other rare blood disorders such as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), and atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome (aHUS). Gallia first joined Genentech in 2009, where she worked in both early and late-stage clinical development. She later moved to Portola Pharmaceuticals, where she led the clinical development program for hematology and oncology indications spanning Phases 1 to registrational trials. She eventually returned to Genentech, taking responsibility for the global clinical development program for HEMLIBRA® during which time she led the transition from Phase 1 through to global registration for adults and children with hemophilia A.

Gallia is board-certified in hematology and earned an M.D. and Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Michigan, during which time discovered ADAMTS13, responsible for Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (TTP). She completed her residency in internal medicine at Stanford University and a fellowship in hematology at the University of California, San Francisco. She also spent time at the Pasteur Institute during which she received an M.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Paris, VI and she holds a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Michael Retterath
Chief Strategy Officer

Michael Retterath serves as Chief Strategy Officer at Spark Therapeutics, where he leads the development and implementation of Spark’s long-term corporate strategy, including portfolio and technology prioritization, enterprise-wide processes, long-range financial planning and the cultivation of collaborative partnerships to advance Spark programs.

Michael joins Spark Therapeutics from Bain & Company, where he served as a partner in the healthcare practice for a decade. In this role, Michael focused on corporate and business unit strategies, organizational transformations, product launches, growth strategies and new market entries. His experience spans multiple therapeutic areas, including rare disease, the central nervous system and ophthalmology across a wide range of modalities.

Prior to joining Bain in 2010, Michael was a partner at Monitor Group and head of the New York office, where he supported pharmaceutical treatment launches and growth strategies for 10 years. Before that, Michael was senior vice president at Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur in Paris, France and a senior director at Boehringer Mannheim (now Roche) in Mannheim, Germany.

Michael earned an M.B.A. from the Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) and holds a MSc. in molecular biology and a BSc. in biochemistry from the University of Waterloo in Canada.

Cynthia Pussinen
Chief Technical Officer

Cynthia Pussinen, who has more than 25 years of experience leading teams in manufacturing, quality, supply chain, formulation development and process sciences in the biopharma industry, serves as Spark’s Chief Technical Officer (CTO). As CTO, Cynthia oversees pipeline process development, preclinical and clinical manufacturing and the commercial manufacturing and distribution of LUXTURNA® (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl). The team Cynthia leads also includes Technology Strategy and Operations, Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Analytical Sciences, Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology Development.

Previously, Cynthia served as Global Vice President and General Manager, Life Sciences and Specialty Chemicals for Honeywell International, Inc., where she developed and executed a comprehensive strategy designed for significant, sustained growth and innovation across multiple verticals including process automation and artificial intelligence (AI).

Prior to her role at Honeywell, she was the Executive Vice President, Technical Development, Operations and Supply Chain for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Cynthia also worked at Ipsen Biosciences, the U.S. subsidiary of Ipsen, serving as President and, prior to that, Vice President of Technical Operations and Development. She spent more than 18 years at Pfizer in a variety of roles including portfolio and project management, logistics and supply chain, pharmaceutical sciences and as a scientist in medicinal chemistry.

Cynthia holds a Master of Science in R&D management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, with a minor in engineering from the University of Connecticut. She is lean six sigma certified, has been a mentor through the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association and is a past recipient of a WEST (Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology) Giving Back Award.