Leadership

Ketan is the founder of Tris Pharma. Under his leadership, Tris Pharma has developed many innovative technologies, launched new products and established itself as a leader among technology-driven pharmaceutical companies. Ketan’s work at Tris has led to many discoveries and inventions. Before founding Tris Pharma, Ketan worked for Capsugel (formerly a division of Pfizer) in sales, marketing and business development for eight years. Prior to Capsugel, he spent approximately six years as a pharmaceutical scientist for three different large pharmaceutical companies. Ketan is a pharmacist by education and holds an M.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Oklahoma

Cheryl joined Tris Pharma in 2011 and is responsible for both the human resources and corporate administration functions. With over 30 years of experience, she excels in developing cultures where leaders create highly engaged teams and companies develop workforces that maintain a high level of productivity during times of change and accelerated growth. Prior to joining Tris Pharma, Cheryl served as President of Capella Consultants LLC, where she led the human resources and management consulting groups and prior to Capella, Cheryl spent more than 15 years at Sovereign Bank, the last seven years as Executive Vice President, Human Resources. She is active in volunteer activities within the Central New Jersey business community and was a recipient of the HR Person of the Year Award from the Society of Human Resources Management. She earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration, summa cum laude, from the University of Richmond, Virginia.

Manesh joined Tris in 2023 and is responsible for leading commercial functions at the company. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry across a range of commercial functions and is passionate about ensuring patients and caregivers are knowledgeable about and have access to therapies for their conditions. Prior to joining Tris, he was the Chief Marketing Officer at Althera Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he led commercial operations and analytics at Mallinckrodt (formerly Ikaria Inc.) and was Chief Business Officer at Bellerophon Therapeutics. He has also held multiple roles at Novartis, Pfizer and McKinsey. Manesh has a B.E. in Chemical Engineering and an M.Sc. in Chemistry from BITS, Pilani, India, an M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dr. Hackworth joined Tris in 2021 to lead the brand division of the company. He has over 15 years of multi-therapeutic area experience domestically and internationally with an extensive track record in licensing, M&A and partnership transactions, particularly those with a high degree of complexity, pharmaceutical commercialization and drug development. Most recently, he founded and was President of Park Therapeutics until it was acquired by Tris in April 2021. Prior to founding Park Therapeutics, James held the position of Chief Business Officer at DeepBiome and was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Commercialization Strategy at Shionogi. James holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Columbia University and a B.S. degree in Physics from The Ohio State University.

Dr. Cappuccino joined Tris in 2021 and is responsible for all aspects of quality and compliance. Nick has more than 40 years of experience leading Quality and R&D teams as well as working with the U.S. FDA and other global regulatory agencies. His experience includes senior leadership roles at Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Eagle Pharmaceuticals, Andrx Pharmaceuticals, Sandoz Inc. and Apotex Inc. Nick holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Stevens Institute of Technology and an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Norma has led Tris’ Regulatory Affairs teams for both brand and generic regulatory operations for over 10 years. She has over 35 years of experience in international and domestic regulatory affairs within the pharmaceutical industry, with therapeutic areas of expertise including CNS, respiratory, cardiovascular and endocrinology. Norma has proven success in NDA and ANDA submissions in her previous leadership roles with Ono Pharma, Celltech Americas, Medeva Americas and Fisons Corporation. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Rochester with a double major in Biology and Toxicology.

Dr. Grieco joined Tris Pharma in 2022 as Vice President of Clinical Development. He leads clinical development and pharmacovigilance, informs asset development and oversees the operational execution of clinical trials. Joe has an extensive background in clinical development programs in multiple therapeutic areas with a focus on severe rare congenital disorders including lysosomal storage disease, genetically based cognitive disorders, seizure and neo-natal conditions as well as severe ophthalmological conditions. Prior to his current role at Tris, Joe held roles of increasing responsibility in both biotech and academia. His early work began as an academic neuroscientist studying Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s dementia with a focus on rare congenital cognitive disorders, specifically Angelman and Fragile X syndrome. Most notably during this tenure he identified the first candidate medicine for the treatment of Angelman syndrome, which led to the first-ever clinical trial in this population with a severe unmet need. Dr. Grieco holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and a M.S. degree in Medical Science from the University of South Florida, Tampa.

Dr. Liang joined Tris in 2021 and is responsible for leading research and development of Tris’ products and pipeline of novel investigational therapies. He has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry leading high-performing R&D teams in the execution of end-to-end formulation and process development in both brand and generic pharmaceutical environments, from conception to commercialization. His broad experience also encompasses drug delivery technology innovation, patent creation, building product portfolio assets and extending product life cycle. Alfred has held positions of increasing management responsibility at Alpharma (King/Pfizer), Actavis (Teva) and most recently at Ferring Pharmaceuticals. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and a B.S. degree in Pharmacy, both from Rutgers University. He’s a registered pharmacist in New Jersey.

Dr. Potenziano joined Tris in 2023 and is responsible for leading medical affairs. He has over 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Jim brings an extensive background in life cycle management across multiple disciplines, most notably in pain, neurological disorders, oncology, cardiovascular medicine and critical care neonatology. He has led or significantly participated in the development and launch of nine new drugs and devices, with four of these becoming multibillion-dollar products, and has been instrumental in the filing of 120+ patents worldwide. Prior to joining Tris, he was Chief Operating Officer / Interim President at Proterris, Inc. where he led clinical development programs and IP strategy. Earlier in his career, Jim held various medical and scientific affairs leadership positions at Mallinckrodt / Icaria, Inc. and Reliant / GSK Pharmaceuticals. Jim earned his Ph.D. from The State University of New York (SUNY), Binghamton and holds a post-doctoral fellowship from the National Institutes of Health.

Jason joined Tris in 2025 and is responsible for leading all aspects of the company’s financial operations, including accounting and financial reporting, audit, financial planning and analysis, tax and treasury. He has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 25 years across a range of organizations, including Schering-Plough, Merck and multiple startup biopharma companies. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer for Vaxxinity, a publicly traded vaccine developer. Jason holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, an undergraduate degree in Finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and is a Certified Professional Accountant (CPA) in the State of New Jersey.

Ankit joined Tris in July 2008 and is responsible for all aspects of operations activities. He has effectively scaled up and troubleshot products and processes. Prior to joining Tris, Ankit worked in different companies as a pharmacist, a manufacturing chemist in a parenteral department, and a research chemist in a chemical lab. Ankit is a pharmacist by education and holds an M.S. degree in Pharmaceutical Engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

Janet joined Tris Pharma in 2013 and leads the Generics business unit. Bringing a diverse background to Tris, Janet spent the first 12 years of her career working across multiple functional areas within GE and PepsiCo divisions in industries spanning consumer durables, financial services and hospitality. In 1999 she joined Amerisource, eventually heading up the Generics group for Amerisource and then AmerisourceBergen. Since then, Janet has held senior management positions with smaller and midsized generic pharmaceutical companies. She holds an MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and a B.A. degree from Western University.

Brinda joined Tris in May 2025 as the Chief Information Officer to lead Tris’ Information Technology (IT) department. In this role, she is responsible for all aspects of Tris’ IT infrastructure and business applications, as well as fostering digital innovation at Tris. Brinda has over 23 years of experience within the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, having held various U.S. and global business leadership roles spanning the entire pharmaceutical value chain at organizations such as Biogen, Forest Laboratories and Pfizer. Brinda holds an MBA from Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics Engineering from the National Institute of Technology, India.

Franchesca joined Tris Pharma in 2024 and brings 15 years of dynamic experience, most recently serving as the Head of Legal and Compliance, as well as the Global Associate General Counsel, for Demant, a global medical device company based in Copenhagen, Denmark. At Demant, she spearheaded legal and compliance efforts for the company’s subsidiaries in the U.S. spanning retail, manufacturing and diagnostics, as well as fostered a culture of compliance and authenticity within its internal organizations. Prior to Demant, Ms. Fowler supported the GE life science business as a legal deal support leader. Ms. Fowler received her B.S. degree in Finance from Fordham University and her J.D. degree from Rutgers Law School.

Tim joined Tris Pharma in 2024 and brings two decades of portfolio management, product planning, executive leadership and operational excellence experience from his previous roles in small and medium-size biotech companies (PTC Therapeutics, Edge Therapeutics, SDIX) and large pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Otsuka). Most recently, Tim served as Senior Vice President of Global Operations and Chief of Staff at PTC Therapeutics. Over his tenure, in addition to his Chief of Staff responsibilities and as a member of PTC’s Executive Committee, Tim led the company’s global operations team and global infrastructure group, where he was responsible for managing over 20 facilities worldwide. Tim also served as the company’s corporate secretary to the board of directors. Tim earned his B.A. degree in Government Affairs from Skidmore College, his M.S. degree in Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance from Temple University, and his MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.