Executive Team

Bruce Culleton, MD

Dr. Culleton joins ProKidney from CVS Kidney Care, a wholly owned subsidiary of CVS Health, where he was most recently Vice President and General Manager. Previously, he served as Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at CVS Kidney Care. Before joining CVS Health, he was Vice President, Global Clinical Development and World Wide Vice President, Medical Affairs, Medication and Procedural Solutions at Becton Dickinson; and previously Vice President, Renal Therapeutic Area at Baxter Healthcare. Prior to beginning his industry career in 2007, Dr. Culleton was a Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Dr. Culleton holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Science and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland; and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management. He completed a specialization in Internal Medicine and Nephrology through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, as well as a fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at Boston University, Framingham Heart Study.

Farah Ali, MD, MS

Farah joins ProKidney bringing extensive experience and a proven track record in clinical development, including oversight of global clinical programs, regulatory submissions, and product lifecycle management. Her previous roles include Senior Vice President, Clinical Development at Immunovant leading endocrinology and rheumatology, Vice President, Clinical Development for Rare Disease at Amgen, and Vice President, Clinical Development at Horizon Therapeutics, specializing in rare and autoimmune diseases. In those roles she led multiple clinical development programs across diverse disease states involving global development in both biologic and small molecules. Across her time in industry, including roles at AbbVie and Baxter Healthcare, she served as a leader within clinical development as well as global medical affairs.

Prior to joining industry, Farah held a faculty position at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine where she conducted clinical research in addition to providing patient care. She earned a BA in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley and both her MD and a Master’s in Clinical Investigation from Northwestern University. She completed her residency and fellowship training at Northwestern University and is a board certified Pediatric Nephrologist.

Emily Butler, PhD

Dr. Butler joined ProKidney in April 2021 as Director, Biostatistics. She was promoted to Vice President, Biometrics in 2022 and built the Biostatistics, Data Management, Statistical Programming and Data Science functions. She is responsible for owning, managing, analyzing and reporting data across the portfolio and has served as Senior Vice President, Biometrics since 2023. Prior to ProKidney, Dr. Butler worked at GlaxoSmithKline supporting the oncology therapeutic area. She led the early phase development of the cell therapy asset in both solid tumor and hematological malignancies. Dr. Butler has a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS in Statistics from Carnegie Mellon University.

James Coulston, CPA

Mr. Coulston has served as ProKidney’s Chief Financial Officer since January 2022. Prior to that, Mr. Coulston served as ProKidney’s Senior Vice President, Finance, from January 2021 to December 2021 and ProKidney’s Vice President, Finance, from February 2019 to December 2020. Before joining ProKidney, from August 2015 to January 2019, Mr. Coulston served as the Executive Director, Finance, of Banner Life Sciences LLC, a privately held clinical‑stage pharmaceutical company combining a proven history of formulation expertise with proprietary technologies to create specialty pharmaceuticals that solve real unmet clinical needs, where Mr. Coulston oversaw the financial, human resources, and IT activities. From 2007 to 2015, Mr. Coulston held finance roles of increasing responsibility at Targacept Inc. (Nasdaq: TRGT), a clinical‑stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel NNR Therapeutics™, including Senior Director, Finance, and Controller. Mr. Coulston earned his B.S. and master’s degree in accounting from North Carolina State University and is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of North Carolina.

Todd C. Girolamo, JD, MBA

Mr. Girolamo joined ProKidney as Chief Legal Officer in March 2022. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Caladrius Biosciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLBS), where he served as Chief Legal Officer, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Corporate Secretary. He began his legal career at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in 1990 and later at Reid & Priest, practicing in the areas of securities law, intellectual property, employment law and general commercial litigation. After private practice, Mr. Girolamo spent 12 years on Wall Street in institutional equities as a series 24, 7 and 63 licensed principal at Oppenheimer & Co., CIBC World Markets, Leerink Swann (now SVB Securities LLC) and Summer Street Research Partners where he specialized in equity research, sales, and trading of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical technology market sectors. Mr. Girolamo then served as an analyst and portfolio manager at Lion’s Path Capital managing a long-short portfolio of biopharma and med-tech equities. Mr. Girolamo received an A.B. with honors from Harvard College, a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Ken Locke

Mr. Locke brings more than 25 years of experience leading technical operations, manufacturing, sourcing, and supply chain organizations across multiple therapeutic modalities. Throughout his career, he has built and led organizations responsible for manufacturing, sourcing, process development, supply chain, contracting, and quality, supporting products from early development through eventual commercial launch.

Most recently, Mr. Locke served as Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Carisma Therapeutics, where he led the CMC functions supporting the development and manufacturing of viral vectors and autologous cell therapy products in clinical development. Prior to Carisma, he held global leadership positions of increasing responsibility at Novartis and Celgene/Juno Therapeutics. During his tenure at Novartis, Mr. Locke contributed to the technology transfer of CTL019 from the University of Pennsylvania and helped develop the sourcing and supply chain capabilities that supported the clinical development, regulatory approval, and commercialization of Kymriah®, the first FDA-approved CAR-T cell therapy. He later led external ex-U.S. manufacturing operations, technology transfers, and supply chain strategies supporting additional viral vector and cell therapy programs at Celgene/Juno Therapeutics.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Locke held research and development roles at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he developed and transferred innovative cell-based assay technologies to automated platforms to improve efficiency and throughput.
Mr. Locke holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Millersville University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Science degree in Molecular Biology from Lehigh University.

Greg Madison

Mr. Madison brings more than two decades of executive leadership experience across commercial strategy, general management, launch planning, business development, and company building in both clinical and commercial-stage biopharmaceutical companies. Most recently, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Shield Therapeutics plc, where he redesigned the commercial strategy, identified and led a transformative business development transaction, and raised capital to position the company on a path to profitability. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer of Melt Pharmaceuticals, creating the company and advancing a novel sublingual combination drug from preclinical to Phase 2. Prior to that, he served as President and CEO of Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, leading its evolution from a clinical to commercial-stage organization, launching a novel iron-based phosphate binder for dialysis patients, and advancing a second indication for iron deficiency anemia. Earlier in his career, Mr. Madison was Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of AMAG Pharmaceuticals, and Vice President/General Manager of the Global Renal Business at Genzyme, where he helped drive Renagel/Renvela to blockbuster status with over $1 billion in annual revenue.

Carla Poulson

Carla Poulson is a strategic Senior Human Resources Leader with 25 years of experience in the US and Europe. She has experience with a variety of operations (building a European operation, company in hyper-growth phase) in which HR played a critical role in ensuring organizational capability and structure, as well as building the culture. Carla has excellent ability to partner with people at all levels and work collaboratively to provide innovative business solutions. She values and nurtures an organization with diverse perspectives, recognizing that is where an enterprise gets the most out of its people.

Carla is a strategic thinker with a deep passion for ensuring HR is a key force for creating and implementing strategies to drive efficient operations and culture. Recognized for building long lasting relationships with business partners, vendors, key clients, and executives, she consults with senior executives to assess organizational capabilities, designing operating and governance models, integrating talent strategies, and building performance cultures.

Prior to ProKidney, She has worked at Uniqure, Mersana Therapeutics and Akcea Therapeutics as Chief People Officer. Prior to that she spent 10 years at Vertex Pharmaceuticals in a variety of HR leadership roles, including the role as Head of International HR in London, UK. Carla has a BS in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and a MS in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign.

Joseph Stavas, MD, MPH

Dr. Stavas has served as ProKidney’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs since December 2022. He joined ProKidney as Senior Vice President of Clinical Development in October 2019 and led the strategic advancement of clinical trials and scientific discovery and development. He brings over 30 years of experience in medical practice, academics and research endeavors and has been affiliated with ProKidney since 2012. He also serves as liaison between consultants, clinical investigators and scientists, and is actively involved in trial implementation and medical oversight. From May 2016 to October 2019, Dr. Stavas served as the Chairman of the Department of Radiology and was responsible for clinical and academic operations, research, and healthcare system strategy at Creighton University School of Medicine, an academic university and a healthcare system provider. From October 2005 to December 2008, Dr. Stavas served as the Division Chief for Clinical Interventional Radiology Procedures and was responsible for research trials and division operations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Hospital. Dr. Stavas holds a M.D. degree from Creighton University School of Medicine and completed his Radiology Residency at the University of Minnesota—Minneapolis. He attended the University of California San Diego for subspecialty training in Interventional Radiology at UCSD Hospital. Dr. Stavas also earned a Master of Public Health degree in Health Policy and Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Darin J. Weber, PhD

Dr. Weber has served as our Chief Regulatory Officer since December 2022, having served as Senior Vice President of Regulatory Development since September 2020, where Dr. Weber is responsible for leading the development and implementation of ProKidney’s regulatory strategy in all markets, worldwide, and interfacing with regulatory authorities. Dr. Weber has over 30 years of experience in cellular and tissue-based regenerative medicine products, with previous roles as Senior Vice President of Regulatory and Quality at Medeor Therapeutics from February 2016 to December 2019; Executive Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs and Quality Management at Mesoblast from June 2011 to February 2016; Senior Consultant for Cell and Gene Therapies at Biologics Consulting Group from February 2004 to May 2011, and positions of increasing responsibility at the FDA’s CBER, including as Chief of Cellular Therapies Branch in the Office of Cellular, Tissue and Gene Therapies (now known as the Office of Therapeutic Products) from September 1996 to January 2004. He recently concluded 20 years of service as a volunteer member on several United States Pharmacopeia (USP) expert committees for human tissues and advanced therapies. Dr. Weber received his B.S. in Molecular Biology from The Evergreen State College and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Oregon State University.

Richard Williams

Mr. Williams joins ProKidney with more than 30 years of experience leading IT strategy and driving digital transformation across the biopharmaceutical, healthcare, and consumer industries.

Most recently, Mr. Williams served as Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Celgene Corporation, where he established and led the company’s global IT organization as its first CIO. In this role, he advanced the development of patient and consumer digital platforms, strengthened cybersecurity and product risk management capabilities, and built enterprise-wide technology platforms supporting cell and gene therapy. His leadership helped transform the company into a global enterprise operating in more than 85 countries.

Prior to Celgene, he was Senior Vice President and Group Chief Information Officer at AstraZeneca PLC, where he led global information services and operations. Over a 19-year tenure, he held multiple senior leadership roles spanning product development, commercialization, and IT. He was also a founding member of the Astra/Merck joint venture prior to the formation of AstraZeneca.

He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from Temple University and an MBA from Saint Joseph’s University Haub School of Business.