Management Team

Rob Neville

Mr. Neville is CEO of Savara. Prior to co-founding Savara, Mr. Neville was founder and CEO of the Austin Technology Incubator-based Evity, Inc., which was acquired by BMC in 2000. Based on his work at Evity, Rob was honored as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He later founded the management consulting company Clockwise Consulting. Clockwise partnered with local biotech companies, the Texas Children's Hospital and the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston to develop an ICU-based monitoring and diagnostic device. Mr. Neville holds a post-graduate Engineering degree from the University of Natal South Africa.

Taneli Jouhikainen, MD, PhD, MBA

Dr. Jouhikainen is Head of Product Development for Savara responsible for product and platform development. He is a veteran executive in the medical and pharmaceutical industries. During his career, Dr. Jouhikainen has held executive positions with several companies including Interim CEO and Senior Vice President of Product Development at Akela Pharma Inc., President and CEO at Focus Inhalation, Chairman of the Board at Spectrum Medical Sciences, and Director of Clinical Research at Leiras / Schering AG. Dr. Jouhikainen is a licentiate of Medicine, Doctor of Medical Sciences and holds a masters in business administration.

John Lord, PhD

Dr. Lord is Head of Pharmaceutical Development at Savara and is responsible for all CMC activities. He has over seventeen years of inhalation product development experience working on products ranging from early formulation to commercial. His experience includes leadership roles at numerous pharmaceutical companies including Rhône-Poulenc Rorer and Nektar Therapeutics, with a focus on pharmaceutical development of inhalation products. He has experience across multiple inhalation formulation and device technologies including dry powder inhalers, pressurized metered dose inhalers and nebulizers. Dr. Lord holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutics from the University of Bath where he studied particle interactions in dry powder inhalations.

Chris Marich, MBA

Mr. Marich is Head of Business Operations and co-founder of Savara. He has significant experience managing the financial and logistical components of large multi-team projects across numerous industries and geographies including enterprise software and pharmaceutical product development. As co-founder of numerous companies from idea to successful exit, including one to a Fortune 1000 company, he specializes in business strategy, corporate structures, fundraising, operations, project management and finance. He holds a BS in Finance and Computer Science from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of South Florida.

Cory Berkland, PhD

Dr. Berkland is co-founder and inventor of Savara’s platform technologies. He is an Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at The University of Kansas. Dr. Berkland received his Ph.D. in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering from the University of Illinois.