Management Team
Ron Najafi, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO
Ramin (“Ron”) Najafi is the founder and Chairman of NovaBay. He has served as President since July 2002, and as Chief Executive Officer since November 2004. Previously, Dr. Najafi served in various management positions within NovaBay including as Chief Scientific Officer.
Prior to founding NovaBay, Dr. Najafi was the President and CEO of California Pacific Labs, Inc., a chemical laboratory safety devices company. He has also held scientific roles at Rhone Poulenc Rorer (now Sanofi-Aventis), Applied Biosystems, a division of PerkinElmer, Inc., and Aldrich Chemical.
Dr. Najafi received a B.S. and M.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of San Francisco and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of California at Davis.
Thomas Paulson, M.B.A., Chief Financial Officer
Thomas (“Tom”) Paulson has served as NovaBay’s Chief Financial Officer since January 2008.
Prior to joining NovaBay, Mr. Paulson was a partner at Tatum LLC, an executive services and consulting firm in the United States. Mr. Paulson was also President and CEO of The Paulson Group, a management consulting company whose clients included high-technology and biotechnology companies. He also held senior management positions at Avigen Inc., Neurogen Corporation, Ciba-Corning Diagnostics, Quidel Corporation and Abbott Laboratories.
Mr. Paulson received a B.A. from Loyola University and an M.B.A from the University of Chicago.
Behzad Khosrovi, M.A., Ph.D., Chief Alliance Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Development, NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Dr. Behzad Khosrovi has directed research and development for NovaBay Pharmaceuticals since he joined the company in 2003. He currently serves as NovaBay’s Chief Alliance Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Development.
Dr. Khosrovi plays a major role in managing collaborations between NovaBay and its corporate partners Alcon and Galderma.
Dr. Khosrovi’s accomplishments managing new drug and biologic research span more than 30 years. He has in-depth experience in the chemistry, manufacturing, preclinical, clinical and regulatory requirements for both biologics and drugs, as well as a long history of product development achievements. Dr. Khosrovi has taken numerous diverse product candidates through the FDA's Investigational New Drug procedure, with three of these approved and currently sold in both the U.S. and Europe.
Prior to joining NovaBay, Dr. Khosrovi was vice president of development for Neurobiological Technologies Inc. He also served in various roles of escalating responsibility at Cetus Corp., where he was ultimately vice president of development. He has acted as a consultant to several biotechnology companies, advising on manufacturing, quality control and product development.
Educated in England, Dr. Khosrovi received his M.A. degree in natural sciences from the University of Cambridge and earned his Ph.D. in applied microbiology & biochemical engineering from the University of Manchester.
Roy J. Wu, M.B.A., Senior Vice President, Business Development
Roy J. Wu joined NovaBay Pharmaceuticals in July, 2009 as Senior Vice President of Business Development. Mr. Wu brings to NovaBay more than 30 years of highly successful experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He has held management positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of global business development, licensing, international marketing, project management, clinical development, and Pacific sector regulatory and pharmaceutical development.
Prior to joining NovaBay, Mr. Wu was Vice President of Business Development at Genelabs Technologies Inc., where he was responsible for all business development and licensing activities, including search, evaluation, and contract negotiations for all in- and out-license transactions, as well as alliance management and assisting in corporate financing activities. At Genelabs, Mr. Wu completed numerous licensing agreements and research collaborations with companies including Novartis, Gilead Sciences, Tanabe Seiyaku and Affymetrix.
Mr. Wu also has served as Vice President of Kissei Pharma USA, where he was responsible for clinical development, regulatory affairs and business development. Prior to Kissei, Mr. Wu served as Director of Business Development for Quintiles-BRI. Earlier in his career, Mr. Wu spent 16 years at Syntex Corporation, where he rose from the role of chemist to ultimately become the Director of Research & Development and Program Planning & Management, Japan.
Mr. Wu received his MBA in International Finance from the University of San Francisco, School of Business.
Ken Krantz, M.D., Ph.D., Vice President, Medical Affairs
Ken Krantz, M.D., Ph.D., has served as NovaBay's Vice President, Medical Affairs since 2003.
Dr. Krantz brings over 30 years of related experience to his position of Vice President, Medical Affairs at NovaBay. He has held senior management roles at Searle, Schering-Plough, Ayerst, and Johnson & Johnson as well as at numerous start-up and biotech companies including ImClone, Neurocrine and NaPro.
Dr. Krantz received his doctoral degrees in medicine and pharmacology from
The University of Chicago.
David Stroman, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Ophthalmology
Dr. David Stroman joined NovaBay in October 2011 as Senior Vice President of Ophthalmic Drug Development. Dr. Stroman brings over forty years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry to the company, including thirty years of which in the discovery and development of anti-infectives. Dr. Stroman has a long track record of bringing ophthalmology and otic anti-infective products to markets in the US and many other countries around the world; he and his teams have authored over 40 publications and posters in support of six new anti-infective products launched within the past ten years.
Prior to joining NovaBay, Dr. Stroman served in various positions at Alcon for 21 years, most recently as Therapeutic Unit Head for Anti-Infectives. Dr Stroman joined Alcon in 1990 to create and lead the Anti-Infective program, and his work was instrumental in achieving extensive label claims compared to competitors for numerous products.
Before joining Alcon he worked in the Infectious Disease Research Unit of The Upjohn Company in Michigan, and in leading the Biotechnology Unit at Phillips Petroleum Company and its joint ventures with The Salk Institute, Bissendorf Peptide, GmbH, and Baylor College of Medicine.
Dr. Stroman received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Oklahoma Medical School, and a B.S. in Chemistry, with a minor in Mathematics from Bethany Nazarene College, now Southern Nazarene University.
Russell Hoon, Senior Vice President, Advanced Wound Care
Russell Hoon joined NovaBay in September 2011 as Vice President of Advanced Wound Care, bringing to the Company more than 30 years of experience in medical product development, sales, marketing, and management at all levels. Over the course of his career, Mr. Hoon’s expertise has been critical in the clinical development, regulatory approval process, manufacturing scale-up, and sales and marketing of various medical products and devices. To date, Mr. Hoon has brought over eight devices to market. Mr. Hoon also holds a process patent as well as several patent applications.
Prior to joining NovaBay, Mr. Hoon served as President of Hoon Consulting, where he assisted biomedical and medical device manufacturers with strategies for bringing new products to market. Before founding that consulting business, Mr. Hoon worked at Xylos Corporation, a start up medical device manufacturer specializing in biosynthesized cellulose polymers, for ten years, nine of which as President and Chief Operating Officer. He also served as Director of Marketing and Business Development at Tutogen Medical Inc and Marketing Manager at Integra LifeSciences, among others.
