served on a competing immunotherapy biotech board — Louie Freeh (Bristol Meyers), Leary's boss.
Wow, did not know that, thanks for mentioning it. That’s a disqualifying conflict of interest.
There are a lot of other red flags in Freeh’s bio from my perspective but the BMY connection is a show stopper in itself. That Woodford recommended his group is not a good sign.
Let's consider Cofer Black in light of nwbo's publicly stated objections to Elliott Leary:
No biotech experience No pharma experience No experience interacting with investors No experience with fundraising
Black fails every one of those too.
Woodford fell on his sword publicly about his firm's due diligence failing to understand the nwbo governance issues. i.e. Cognate. Given that level of sloppiness, I find it hard to believe that he knew about potential conflicts much less planned them nefariously.