About Us

Listening is in our DNA.

Ακούω in Greek translates to Listen in English. At Akouos (ah KOO ohs), we strive to be a team that listens to one another, to healthcare providers, and to the deaf and hard of hearing (D/HH) community. Our partnerships and collaborations are focused on common goals and predicated on respect, trust, and transparency.

Common Goal Partnerships

In partnering with the D/HH community, we will use the principles outlined here as our guide.

Our Principles

Hearing loss is one of the greatest challenges in medicine today, and with no FDA-approved pharmacologic therapies available, an area of severe unmet need.

Manny Simons, PH.Dfounder and CEO of Akouos

We Are Akouos

John Connelly
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY & R&D OPERATIONS
John Connelly
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY & R&D OPERATIONS
John Connelly, M.B.A., is Senior Vice President, Portfolio Strategy and R&D Operations. He has over 25 years of experience in biotech with over twenty of these specifically working on new product development. Prior to joining Akouos, Mr. Connelly was Vice President, Program and Alliance Management at Voyager where he managed the multi-target alliance with Sanofi and led the team developing Voyager’s lead AAV program to treat patients with Parkinson disease. Prior to Voyager Mr. Connelly held various positions in program management at Genzyme, most recently leading the program management function for their rare disease portfolio. Mr. Connelly earned a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Vermont and a M.B.A. from Suffolk University.
Aninda Katragadda
FINANCE CONSULTANT
Aninda Katragadda
FINANCE CONSULTANT
Aninda Katragadda is Senior Vice President, Finance and Treasurer at Akouos. Ms. Katragadda has more than 25 years of experience in finance leadership roles in the life science industry. Prior to joining Akouos, she served in finance leadership roles at Voyager Therapeutics, The Medicines Company, Metabolix, and Vertex, where she was responsible for all finance functions, including transitioning companies from private to public reporting companies. She began her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and earned her CPA in Massachusetts. Ms. Katragadda holds a B.S. in Accounting from University of Missouri, St. Louis and B.A. in English Literature from Meenakshi College for Women, Chennai, India.
Michael McKenna
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER
Michael McKenna
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER
Michael J. McKenna, M.D., is Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of Akouos. He is a world-renowned neurotologist with expertise in translational inner ear drug delivery research. For the past 15 years, Dr. McKenna led efforts to establish inner ear drug delivery systems to enable the development of hearing restoration therapies. Prior to founding Akouos, he held the Joseph B. Nadol, Jr. Chair and was the director of the Division of Otology and Neurotology at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and a professor of otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. McKenna’s laboratory shaped the field’s understanding of the molecular pathophysiology of otosclerosis through over three decades of pioneering research. He and his colleagues were the first to demonstrate an association between the COL1A1 gene and clinical otosclerosis. Dr. McKenna holds an M.D. from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed his otolaryngology residency at Harvard Medical School, and his fellowship in neurotology and skull base surgery at the House Ear Clinic.
Sachiyo Minegishi
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Sachiyo Minegishi
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Sachiyo Minegishi, M.B.A., is Chief Financial Officer of Akouos. She is a strategic cross-functional leader with twenty years of diverse biotechnology industry experience in roles across finance, business development, commercial and program leadership. Most recently, Ms. Minegishi led the gene therapy program for Sickle Cell Disease at bluebird bio to initiation of Phase 3 studies and regulatory alignment on clinical path to registration. Earlier, Ms. Minegishi held leadership roles at Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Human Genome Sciences, Genzyme, and Amgen. She began her career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch with a focus on execution of equity financing and mergers and acquisitions in the biotechnology industry. Ms. Minegishi earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Morgan Molloy
CHIEF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Morgan Molloy
CHIEF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Morgan Molloy is the Chief Corporate Development Officer of Akouos. He brings more than 25 years of broad operational and commercial experience in rare diseases and gene therapy. Most recently he served as the Chief Commercial Officer of Enzyvant Therapeutics. Prior to Enzyvant, Mr. Molloy served as the Head of U.S. Commercial for Spark Therapeutics and was responsible for the development of commercial strategy and implementation in the U.S. for Luxturna®, and Spark’s investigational gene therapy programs. Starting in 2007, Mr. Molloy spent seven years at Sanofi-Genzyme and held multiple leadership roles in several of the Genzyme franchises, including Vice President, Global Disease Lead for the Fabry disease business. Before Sanofi-Genzyme, he spent ten years at Biogen in multiple commercial leadership roles of increasing responsibility. Mr. Molloy started his career at Allergan and holds a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Rabia Gurses Ozden
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Rabia Gurses Ozden
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Rabia Gurses Ozden, M.D., is Chief Development Officer of Akouos. She brings to Akouos more than 15 years of clinical development, operations, pharmacovigilance and medical affairs experience with novel therapeutics and medical devices. Most recently, Dr. Ozden served as the Chief Medical Officer at Nightstar Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on rare inherited retinal diseases, which was acquired by Biogen. Prior to Nightstar, Dr. Ozden held leadership positions at Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation and GlaxoSmithKline, and earlier in her career held clinical development and operations roles at Quark Pharmaceuticals, Baush & Lomb Pharmaceuticals and Carl Zeiss Meditec. Dr. Ozden received her M.D. from Hacettepe University School of Medicine, completed her ophthalmology residency at Ankara University School of Medicine, and her clinical fellowship in Glaucoma at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.
Greg Robinson
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Greg Robinson
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Gregory Robinson, Ph.D., is Chief Scientific Officer of Akouos. He brings more than 20 years of scientific leadership experience to Akouos. Most recently, he served as the Chief Scientific Officer at Nightstar Therapeutics, a gene therapy company focused on rare inherited retinal diseases, which was acquired by Biogen. Before that, Dr. Robinson served as Chief Scientific Officer at Agilis Biotherapeutics, a biotechnology company that worked on rare CNS disorders and was acquired by PTC Therapeutics. Earlier, he was also Senior Director of Scientific Licensing at Shire, a pharmaceutical company acquired by Takeda Pharmaceuticals, where he evaluated rare disease opportunities. Prior to joining Shire, Dr. Robinson led the biology and drug discovery group at Eyetech Pharmaceuticals and held various positions at Pharmacia Corporation and Hybridon. Dr. Robinson holds a B.S. in Biology from Macalester College and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Boston University.
Karoline Shair
CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER & CORPORATE SECRETARY
Karoline Shair
CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER & CORPORATE SECRETARY
Karoline Shair, Ph.D., J.D., is Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at Akouos. She brings to Akouos more than 20 years of senior leadership and global legal expertise in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Most recently, Dr. Shair was the vice president, head counsel intellectual property (IP) program portfolio at Biogen, where she led the company’s global IP portfolio strategy, IP diligence and transactions for business development and M&A opportunities. Prior to Biogen, she was vice president legal, chief intellectual property counsel and corporate secretary at FORMA Therapeutics, where she was responsible for building the legal department and providing strategic counsel on all legal matters. Dr. Shair also held leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceuticals, including vice president, IP region head, where she led IP strategy, litigation and transactions for the global oncology therapeutic area and business unit. Dr. Shair has also practiced law at Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Choate, Hall & Stewart. Dr. Shair received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry from Bryn Mawr College, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and a registered patent attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Emmanuel Simons
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Emmanuel Simons
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Emmanuel J. (Manny) Simons, Ph.D., M.B.A., is CEO, President, and Co-Founder of Akouos. Dr. Simons is a scientist and entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in hearing science research and new venture formation. Prior to founding Akouos, Dr. Simons held leadership roles in business and corporate development at Voyager Therapeutics and Warp Drive Bio, where he was instrumental in leading strategic partnerships with aggregate value exceeding $1 billion. Earlier in his career, Dr. Simons was an Entrepreneurial Fellow at Flagship Ventures, where he was a member of the founding team of Seres Therapeutics. Dr. Simons earned an A.B. magna cum laude in Neuroscience and Music from Harvard College; a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from MIT under Professor Robert Langer; and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Alan Smith
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Alan Smith
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER
Alan Smith, Ph.D., is the Chief Technology Officer of Akouos. He brings over 30 years of experience in R&D, Manufacturing and Quality roles in cellular therapeutics and previously served as Executive Vice President, Technical Operations at Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, having started at the company as Senior Vice President of Manufacturing. Earlier, Dr. Smith was Vice President of R&D and Cellular Therapeutics for LifeNet Health, and its wholly owned subsidiary, The Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Prior to consulting to the cell therapy industry for a number of years, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer for Cognate BioServices and COO and SVP Research & Development for Osiris Therapeutics. Previously, Dr. Smith led the R&D functions for Aastrom Biosciences and Genetic Sciences, and he served as Director of Cell Separations Research & Development at Baxter Healthcare. He is a former Adjunct Professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School, California State University—Long Beach, and Utah State University. Dr. Smith holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Southern Utah University and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Utah State University.
Jennifer Wellman
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Jennifer Wellman
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Jennifer A. Wellman is Chief Operating Officer at Akouos. She has twenty years of dedicated experience in adeno-associated viral (AAV) vector gene therapy research and development. Prior to joining Akouos in early 2018, Ms. Wellman was Head of Product Development Strategy at Spark Therapeutics, Inc., of which she is a co-founder. While at Spark, and in her prior role as the Director of Regulatory for the Center for Cellular and Molecular Therapeutics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, she led the regulatory and clinical development for several AAV gene therapies, including Luxturna®, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease. Prior to CHOP, Ms. Wellman served as Associate Scientist at Avigen, Inc., an early clinical-stage AAV gene therapy company. Ms. Wellman holds an Honours B.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from Queen’s University (Canada) and an M.S. from University of New Haven.

Our Partners

Partner with us

Join us in the pursuit of healthy hearing for all.

What’s at our core

We Work to Change Lives

Akouos listens: to each other, to the individuals and families we work to serve, to our collective conscience.
Akouos engages: Honestly, transparently, respectfully.
Akouos leads: Authentically, boldly, bravely, with purpose and passion.
Akouos creates: High standards, opportunities to excel, better medicines.
Akouos trusts: Ourselves, each other, our science.

Learn More

Join us in the pursuit of healthy hearing for all.

Akouos is building a leading gene therapy company focused on hearing disorders. Our objectives are to restore the inner ear’s ability to produce functional proteins required for hearing, rejuvenate structures of the hearing circuit critical for high-fidelity signal transduction and inner ear homeostasis, and reinforce healthy hearing with local, enduring protein production to protect against drug-, noise-, and age- associated ototoxicity.

Career Openings

About Us

Advancing Precision Genetic Therapies With the Potential to Restore, Improve and Preserve Hearing

Listening is in our DNA.

Common Goal Partnerships

We Are Akouos

Filter By:

John Connelly

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY & R&D OPERATIONS

Aninda Katragadda

FINANCE CONSULTANT

Michael McKenna

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER

Sachiyo Minegishi

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Morgan Molloy

CHIEF CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Rabia Gurses Ozden

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Greg Robinson

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER

Karoline Shair

CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER & CORPORATE SECRETARY

Emmanuel Simons

PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER

Alan Smith

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

Jennifer Wellman

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Our Partners

Join us in the pursuit of healthy hearing for all.

What’s at our core

We Work to Change Lives

Join us in the pursuit of healthy hearing for all.