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.
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.
Stacy Price
CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER
Kathy Reape
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Kathy Reape
CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER
Dr. Kathy Reape is the Chief Development Officer at Akouos. She brings over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including significant gene therapy translational and development expertise, to Akouos. Most recently, Dr. Reape served as the Chief Medical Officer at Spark Therapeutics, where she was responsible for global clinical programs utilizing gene therapy in rare diseases and was a key member of the team responsible for the U.S. FDA approval and EMA marketing authorization of LUXTURNA®, the first FDA-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease. Earlier, she was senior vice president of clinical development focusing on global brands research and development at Allergan and Actavis. Dr. Reape holds both her undergraduate and M.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and completed her internship and residency at the University of Florida and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
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
CEO, PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Emmanuel Simons
CEO, 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.
Aaron Tward
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Aaron Tward
CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER
Aaron Tward M.D. Ph.D is Chief Scientific Officer at Akouos. He brings to Akouos more than fifteen years of experience in Otology. He is a surgeon-scientist and pioneer in the application of high-throughput sequencing technologies to critical problems in biomedicine. Dr. Tward serves as an Associate Professor at UCSF, and is a co-founder of Affinia Therapeutics Dr. Tward has authored more than 30 publications spanning the fields of genomics, cancer biology, stem cell biology, and skull base surgery. He received both a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and an M.D. from UCSF and completed his residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery and fellowship in otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery at Harvard Medical School. He completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
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

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John Connelly

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY & R&D OPERATIONS

Michael McKenna

CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER & CO-FOUNDER

Sachiyo Minegishi

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Stacy Price

CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER

Kathy Reape

CHIEF DEVELOPMENT OFFICER

Karoline Shair

CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER & CORPORATE SECRETARY

Emmanuel Simons

CEO, PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER

Aaron Tward

CHIEF SCIENTIFIC 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.