Kirk Dornbush
Performance Optimization C-Level Executive
Tenacious Fund Raising ✦ Entrepreneurial Direction ✦ Pragmatic Management
A Senior C-Level Professional with a notable record of achieving significant value-creating milestones for companies and their investors. Expert at aligning founders, investors, and internal stakeholders with the corporate vision and strategy, by converting tactical objectives into reportable metrics and gaining belief in and commitment to achievement from all participants. Proficient at identifying actual and potential performance gaps; decisive in taking collaborative remedial action. A leader eager and able to help any organization identify the next mountain to climb and conquer.
Drive organizational success by listening to what all stakeholders want to achieve, then focusing on:
Highlands, NC
828-526-8840
Kdornbush1@gmail.com
Vision
ensuring a clear understanding of corporate vision and objectives then aligning stakeholders with those objectives to engage everyone in the process of achieving the vision.
Milestones
converting objectives into reportable metrics that will inform all stakeholders on the success of individual, team and corporate actions; identify and mitigate areas of weakness.
Filling in Gaps
through continuous review, finding gaps in teams or other resources that hinder achievement of objectives and taking the collaborative actions necessary to plug those gaps.
Celebrating Success
giving all stakeholders an ownership in the achievement of the vision, celebrating wins and always monitoring where the organization can find its next mountain to conquer.
Achievements
Work History
A pre-clinical stage biopharmaceutical company developing a drug to treat acute bleeding.
Co-Founder, Co-CEO, Chief Operating Officer
Managed all company functions, other than research and product development, and served on the board.
- Primary driver behind the closing of a $21 million Series A venture-backed financing raised by accurately defining the proper investor audience, effectively promoting the benefits presented by the opportunity and reconciling cultural and legal differences in the traditional business practices of two different countries.
- Expanded investor involvement by collaborating with the Co-CEO in drafting and obtaining approval to communicate corporate goals and budgets.
- Maximized the efficiency of the operating budgetby outsourcing financial functions, such as payroll and benefits administration, as part of a strategy to install a multi-country governance and reporting system.
- Raised operational efficiency and employee engagement by initiating a cross-vertical, multi-national executive committee enriching discussion and accelerating buy-in to action plans.
- Recruited and hired all key leadership positions (including Korean staff) within six months of closing the Series A financing and starting the company.
Provided consulting services to C-suite clients prior to starting Coagulant Therapeutics Corp.
President
Assisted the CEOs of Lambda Vision and Coagulant with strategic planning and fundraising. Appointed to serve on Lambda’s board of directors.
- $500,000 received to support business operations by guiding a client’s senior management in securing funding from a state-run department dedicated to assisting innovation.
- Facilitated the acquisition of needed funding by recognizing and resolving the problems caused by holding disparate intellectual property in a single corporate entity; recommended allocating IP into two different companies.
A clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on development and commercialization of new therapy drugs.
Co-Founder and President | 2014 – 2016
Assumed president’s role after hiring a new CEO. Oversaw financial, legal, manufacturing, and administrative duties.
- Assisted new CEO in raising $50 million in Series B funding, allowing the company to expand R&D into diseases beyond initial focus area.
- Instrumental in recruiting the requisite number of patients required to complete a Phase 2 clinical study by accelerating enrollment through personal visits and engagement of study investigators (physicians) and coordinators.
- Deepened employee job satisfaction by collaborating with a third-party HR consultant to frame new travel and expense policies and publish a revised personnel handbook.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer | 2007 – 2014
In addition to responsibility for finance, manufacturing, legal, clinical operations and administrative oversight, managed consultants, contract research organizations and contract suppliers with a team of six PhDs and five physicians.
- Raised $20 million in private and venture-backed Series A funding, secured despite traumatic economic conditions, by maintaining positive, reinforcing dialogue with investors, vendors, and consultants.
- Raised $20 million of venture-backed Series B financing which facilitated signing an option agreement with a large pharmaceutical company and hiring the company’s new CEO.
- Realized key pre-clinical and clinical milestones by initiating and overseeing implementation of the company’s i) cGMP development and manufacturing campaign; ii) definitive toxicology studies; iii) Phase 1 clinical studies.
- Obtained $12 million in cash and equity investment by initiating, negotiating terms, and consummating an option agreement with a large pharmaceutical company to review clinical-study data with the intention of establishing a long-term partnership commitment.
Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer | 2003 – 2007
Led licensing of the company’s key intellectual property from Yale University and continued directing fundraising, fiscal management, manufacturing, legal, and administrative operations. Served as a board member.
- Secured key, private start-up funding ($1.5M) used to license its technology from Yale University and achieve critical research and manufacturing milestones.
- At the start-up stage, designed the initial corporate structure, Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws to ensure maximum exit flexibility.
- Raised millions in additional Series A investment by serving as corporate spokesperson and primary contact for 47 individual and institutional investors.
Lambda Vision & Iconic Therapeutics, Member, Board of Directors
Education
Juris Doctorate, Boston University School of Law
Bachelor of Arts in English, The Colorado College
For Profit & Non-Profit Boards
- Coagulant Therapeutics Corporation: Co-Founder and Co-CEO (2019-2021)
- Iconic Therapeutics, Inc.: Co-Founder; Audit Committee (2003-Present)
- Lambda Vision, Inc.: Director, (2018-Present)
- The Literacy and Learning Center of Highlands, NC, Vice-Chair and Treasurer (2019 – Present)
- Rotary Club of Highlands, Mountaintop: Member (2018-Present); President (2020/2021)
- Indie Bio: San Francisco, CA, Mentor (2017)
- National Park Foundation: Director; Chair, Investment Sub-Committee (2009-2015)
- Pinnacles Partnership: Secretary; Chair Development Committee (2016-2017)
- The Carter Center: Member, Board of Counselors (2009-2014)
- Hebrew Benevolent Congregation of Atlanta: Secretary, Board of Trustees, (2011- 2013)
- Atlanta Jewish Film Festival: Co-Chair (2012-2014); Development Chair (2009-2011)
- The Paideia School: Member, Endowment Board (2000-2014); Member, Board of Trustees (1997-2003)
- Carpatsky Petroleum, Inc.: Member, Board of Directors (2000-2004)