Biography

Maxine Gowen was appointed a member of Idera’s Board of Directors in January 2016. Dr. Gowen also has served as a member of the boards of directors of Aclaris Therapeutics since 2019, Merus NV since 2021, and Passage Bio, including as the chair of the board, since 2021. Dr. Gowen served as the CEO and a board director of TamuroBio Inc., a privately held drug development company, from 2019 to 2021; she remains a member of its board of directors. She was also the founding President and CEO of Trevena from 2007 until her retirement in 2018; she remained a member of its board of directors until 2021.

Prior to joining Trevena, Dr. Gowen was Senior Vice President for the Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery at GlaxoSmithKline plc, or GSK, where she held a variety of leadership positions during her 15-year tenure. Before GSK, Dr. Gowen was Senior Lecturer and Head, Bone Cell Biology Group, Department of Bone and Joint Medicine, of the University of Bath, U.K. She also previously held a board seat in the state biotechnology industry association, Life Sciences Pennsylvania, from 2015 until 2021, and in the national biotechnology industry association, BIO, from 2008 until 2018. In addition, Dr. Gowen previously served as a director of Human Genome Sciences, Inc., from 2008 until 2012, Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. from 2014 until 2021, and Panorama Medicine from 2020 until 2021.

Dr. Gowen holds a Ph.D. from the University of Sheffield, U.K., an M.B.A. with academic honors from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.Sc. with Honors in Biochemistry from the University of Bristol, U.K.