Paul Wotton, Ph.D.

Rice Biotech Launchpad, Executive Director

Dr. Paul K. Wotton is the CEO and Founding Partner of RBL LLC. He is the Executive Director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad. Prior to this he was CEO and President of Obsidian Therapeutics, a cell therapy company that he transitioned from a research organization to clinical stage (melanoma) within threeyears, in partnership with colleagues at MD Anderson. Paul received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Nottingham and a B. Pharm. (Hons) from University College London. He is an experienced CEO, Board Member and international executive. He has extensive experience in strategic growth management, financial transactions, M&A and product development. Dr.Wotton serves on the Board of Directors of Vericel Corporation (NASDAQ: VCEL), Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP), Morphocell Inc., and is a Founder and Director of Sentinel Bio and Steer Biotherapeutics. He was President and CEO of Ocata Therapeutics (NASDAQ:OCAT) until its acquisition by Astellas Pharma in 2016. He then became the Founding CEO of Sigilon Therapeutics (acquired by Lilly) a spin-out from the Langer Lab at MIT. Paul is a regularly invited presenter at industry conferences and was named as a Top 100 Innovation CEO by World Biz Magazine in 2021. He won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Regional Award in 2014 for his work at Antares Pharma (acquired by Halozyme (NASDAQ:HALO ). Paul is a named inventor on numerous patents.