Our Leadership

J. Warren Huff is the Chairman of the Board, Secretary, and Chief Executive Officer of Reata. He has served as our sole Chief Executive Officer and as Chairman of the Board since our founding in 2002, and as our President until February 2022.

Prior to founding Reata, Mr. Huff served as Chief Executive Officer in a number of biotechnology and information technology start-up enterprises. Mr. Huff started his career as an attorney with Johnson & Gibbs, P.C., where he was a partner and Chairman of the Corporate Securities Practice. Mr. Huff received a B.B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University. Our Board believes that Mr. Huff is qualified to serve on our Board due to his extensive experience investing and working in the pharmaceuticals industry.

Manmeet S. Soni is Reata’s President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer and oversees manufacturing, quality assurance, global alliances, program management, business development, corporate strategy, finance, accounting, treasury, tax, corporate communications, investor relations and information technology. He joined Reata in August 2019 as Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, and assumed the additional role of Chief Operating Officer in June 2020. In February 2022, Mr. Soni was promoted to President.

Prior to joining Reata, Mr. Soni served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from May 2017 until August 2019. From March 2016 to February 2017, Mr. Soni served as the Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company, when ARIAD was acquired by Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Mr. Soni continued as an employee of ARIAD through May 2017. Previously, Mr. Soni served as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Pharmacyclics, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company, until its acquisition by AbbVie in 2015. Prior to joining Pharmacyclics, Mr. Soni worked at ZELTIQ Aesthetics Inc., a publicly held medical technology company, as corporate controller. Prior to ZELTIQ, Mr. Soni worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their Life Science and Venture Capital Group.

Mr. Soni currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Pulse Biosciences, Inc. and Summit Therapeutics Inc., and previously served as a member of the board of directors of Arena Pharmaceuticals, Inc., each of which is a publicly traded company. Mr. Soni graduated from Hansraj College at Delhi University in India. He is a CPA and Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Colin J. Meyer, M.D. joined Reata as one of our first employees in 2003, served as Chief Medical Officer until July 2020 and was appointed Chief Research and Development Officer in July 2020. Beginning in February 2022, his title was changed to Chief Innovation Officer to reflect his focus on providing strategic input on our portfolio of potential products, including indication expansion of our clinical programs, early-stage development and identifying new technology platforms, as well as supporting our regulatory submissions.

Dr. Meyer received a B.S. in chemistry with specialization in biochemistry and a B.A. in biology from the University of Virginia. He received an M.D. from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business.

Dawn C. Bir joined Reata as Chief Commercial Officer in September 2016 to develop and oversee marketing, market access, sales, training, and commercial operations.

Prior to joining Reata, Ms. Bir most recently served as Vice President of Sales with Pharmacyclics, LLC. From February 2013 to September 2016, she built and led their first hematology national sales organization of sales representatives, division managers and regional sales directors responsible for the launch of IMBRUVICA® in the United States and Puerto Rico. From October 2011 to February 2013, Ms. Bir served as Vice President Sales & Marketing with McKesson US Pharmaceutical, SKY Pharmaceuticals and RxPak. Prior thereto, she held positions of increasing responsibility within McKesson Corporation, Genentech, Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.

She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Geron Corporation, a publicly traded clinical-stage pharmaceutical company. Ms. Bir holds a B.S. in Biology from Binghamton University.

Michael D. Wortley joined Reata as Chief Legal Officer in April 2015. Prior to joining Reata, Mr. Wortley was an attorney at Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. from 1995 to March 2015, serving in various capacities, including Chief Operating Partner of the firm and Managing Partner of the Dallas office, and, prior to 1995, at Johnson & Wortley, P.C., serving as Chairman of the Board and President.

He currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Pioneer Natural Resources Company, a publicly traded company. Mr. Wortley earned a B.A. in Political Science from Southern Methodist University, a master’s degree in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law.

Samina Khan, M.D. joined Reata as Chief Medical Officer in July 2020.

Prior to joining Reata, she served as Clinical Development Team Lead at Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma America, Inc. from May 2017 to July 2020. From March 2015 to April 2017, Dr. Khan served as Vice President, Clinical Development at Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In her roles at Mitsubishi Tanabe and Quark, Dr. Khan was responsible for clinical science and clinical development. She led large cross functional teams for multiple molecules in her previous positions at Mitsubishi Tanabe and Quark. Prior to March 2015, Dr. Khan served in leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories and AbbVie Inc. Dr. Khan attended Fatima Jinnah Medical University. She completed her residency and fellowship at Tufts Medical Center program and served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. She also received post-graduate training in rheumatology and immunology. Dr. Khan received an M.P.H. from Harvard Medical School of Public Health and an M.B.A. from Brandeis University.

Chris is Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer & Founding Scientist of Reata Pharmaceuticals. Since joining Reata in 2003, he has held positions of increasing responsibility and in his present role, oversees scientific strategy and leads discovery biology, in vitro pharmacology, research operations & quality, and scientific communications supporting our pipeline from early discovery through advanced clinical programs.

Chris holds a B.S. in Biochemistry and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Texas Tech University. His postdoctoral training was conducted in the Departments of Molecular Genetics and Physiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Andrea L. Loewen joined Reata in February 2020 and serves as the Senior Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs. She has more than 30 years of regulatory experience in drug development and commercial life cycle management primarily working in neurology, oncology, metabolic, renal and rare diseases. Prior to joining Reata, Ms. Loewen served as Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Retrophin (now Travere Therapeutics) from 2017 to 2020. In this role she helped to develop multiple late-stage rare disease programs, including negotiating several phase 3 studies with global health authorities in renal and neurology indications, and managed global life cycle management and label expansion for several marketed drugs. Prior to this, Ms. Loewen served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality at Vital Therapies from 2013 to 2017. Ms. Loewen started her career at Baxter Healthcare and has held increasingly senior management roles in regulatory affairs, including a 10-year tenure at Biogen and serving as Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Shire Pharmaceuticals. Ms. Loewen earned a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Gustavus Adolphus College and a master’s degree from Pepperdine University.

Dakota is Vice President, Chief Healthcare Compliance Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals. He joined in January 2020 to oversee Reata’s global compliance program and provide strategic counsel to the company’s leadership team.

Previously, he served as Compliance Counsel for blockbuster oncology products at Pharmacyclics (Abbvie), Medivation, and Pfizer. More recently, he worked as Senior Counsel at Dermira (Eli Lilly), where he led the legal function in all commercial efforts and product launch. Prior to moving in-house, Dakota worked as a healthcare law consultant, advising U.S. and international biopharmaceutical clients on complex legal and compliance issues.

A U.S. Army Veteran, he earned his B.A. in Political Science from Saint Francis College and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Steve joined Reata in April 2019 as Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer. He has over 25 years’ Human Resources Management experience spanning diverse industries such as Transportation, Automotive Supply, Architectural Coatings, and Infant Formula.

In addition to holding global roles, Steve has worked in Europe and Latin America before moving to the U.S. in 2002. He joined Reata from LALA U.S., Inc. where he was the VP, Chief Human Resources Officer. Previous roles were with Hutchison Port Holdings, PPG Industries, and Mead Johnson Nutrition.

Steve earned his MBA from Nottingham Trent University in the U.K. His focus is to develop and execute a world-class HR strategy to support Reata’s ambitious growth plans.

Bhaskar is Chief Accounting Officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals and oversees accounting & reporting, taxation, global alliances, corporate communications, and investor relations. Prior to joining Reata, Mr. Anand served as Corporate Controller of JUUL Labs, where he led the global expansion from less than $500M to a multibillion-dollar business. Prior to that, Mr. Anand also served as Head of technical accounting and SEC reporting at Oracle and was a key member of the M&A and Business Development teams that successfully acquired 20 SaaS companies in two years including the acquisition of NetSuite for $10B. He started his career at PwC where he worked for more than a decade servicing client across various industries. Mr. Anand has over 20 years of finance leadership experience. He is a CPA from California and Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.