Shape Therapeutics Welcomes Google and Stripe Veterans Gayathri Rajan, Kelly Sims to its Board of Directors
Rajan, Sims bring unique platform technology experience to help build the next generation of RNA medicine
SEATTLE, April 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Shape Therapeutics Inc., the RNA technology company advancing programmable medicine, today announced the addition of two new members to its board of directors. Technology industry executives Gayathri Rajan and Kelly Sims will bring their expertise to enhance the next phase of ShapeTX’s business, as it continues to deploy its platform to repair the genetic causes of disease.
ShapeTX is leveraging AI to discover RNA medicines that are effective, safe, and easy to manufacture. ShapeTX’s platform enables the design of innovative medicines across a wide range of diseases, including genetic disorders and debilitating conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many more.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Gayathri and Kelly to our Board of Directors, both of whom are recognized leaders in their respective technology fields,” said Francois Vigneault, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of ShapeTX. “They have played instrumental roles in the development of leading technology platform companies. Their complementary areas of expertise are a huge gain to our organization and will serve us well as we continue to weave together tech and biology to make programmable RNA medicine a reality.”
Gayathri Rajan recently joined DriveWealth as Chief Product Officer after more than 16 years with Google, where she worked on a number of strategic platform initiatives, ranging from Google Payments to Google Maps. Most recently, as VP/GM for Google Maps Platform, she scaled the enterprise business to reach more than three million customers worldwide. Prior to joining Google in 2006, Rajan led technology teams at Unilever, Air Products, and the Vanguard Group. Rajan currently serves on the board of Maximus, a leading provider of health and human services worldwide.
“As I’m entering a new phase in my career, I want to focus my energy on helping companies that are dedicated to improving people’s quality of life,” Rajan said. “I believe we’re at the beginning of a new era in medicine – one in which we can use remarkable technological innovation to treat any and every disease at the genetic level. I’m honored to bring my experience and insights in building and scaling platforms to help ShapeTX realize such an important mission and vision.”
Kelly Sims was an early member of the Stripe team and served as head of communications, overseeing public affairs, internal and external communications, brand development, social media and media relations. In addition to helping grow the internet economy for fintech giant Stripe, which was recently valued at $95 billion, she has held leadership positions at Twitter, Abernathy MacGregor, and IBM. Sims currently serves as a board adviser to Watershed, a software platform company for climate programs, and the AI research company OpenAI.
“AI holds tremendous potential for transforming nearly every aspect of society – but the power it has in advancing patient care and outcomes is especially powerful,” Sims said. “I’m excited to help ShapeTX deploy AI across its innovative RNA technology platform to create new and better medicines, knowing it will have tremendous impact on the health of patients everywhere while also driving major innovation in both science and technology.”
About Shape Therapeutics Inc
ShapeTX is the RNA technology company advancing programmable medicine to repair the genetic causes of disease with AI and RNA. The ShapeTX platform uses AI to identify which RNA medicines, among hundreds of billions of possibilities, are most likely to be effective, safe, and easy to manufacture—all based on insights from analyzing data at a massive scale. The ShapeTX platform enables pharma innovators to design treatments across a wide range of diseases, including rare genetic disorders as well as debilitating conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and many more. You can find us at shapetx.com and on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Contact
Investors & Media
Cindy Fung, PhD
cindy@shapetx.com
