Pingda Ren, Ph.D.
President, Chief Operation Officer
Pingda Ren, Ph.D. is a serial entrepreneur with 20+ years of experience in developing small molecule medicines. He co-founded Kumquat Biosciences Inc. and currently serves as the President and Chief Operation Officer. Previously, Dr. Ren co-founded Kura Oncology in 2014, a publicly held biopharmaceutical company and he served as the Senior Vice President of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences from its inception. Prior to Kura, Dr. Ren co-founded Wellspring Biosciences, Inc., an innovative biotech company that pioneered the discovery and development of small molecules directed to once-known as undruggable K-Ras oncoprotein, wherein he served as Senior Vice President of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Ren also co-founded Intellikine, Inc. in 2007, a private biopharmaceutical company, where he served as the Vice President of Chemistry until its acquisition by Takeda Pharmaceuticals in 2012. Prior to Intellikine, Dr. Ren was a Senior Research Investigator in Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation. Earlier in his career, Dr. Ren was a Senior Research Chemist at Albany Molecular Research Inc., a global contract research and manufacturing organization. He is a co-inventor of more than 100 patents and patent applications and a co-author of more than 40 scientific publications. Dr. Ren earned his B.A and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Fudan University in China. He completed his postdoctoral research with Professor Huw M. L. Davies at State University of New York at Buffalo.