Thomas B. Okarma

THOMAS B. OKARMA, PhD, MD, was appointed President and Chief Executive
Officer of Geron Corporation in July 1999. Dr. Okarma has served as
Geron’s Vice President of Research & Development since May 1998. From
December 1997 until May 1998, Dr. Okarma was Vice President of Cell
Therapies at Geron. Prior to joining the Geron Corporation in 1997,
Dr. Okarma was a senior Vice President at Rhone-Poulenc Rorer. In 1995,
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer acquired Applied Immune Sciences, Inc. (AIS), which
was founded by Dr. Okarma in 1985. By the time of its acquisition by
Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, AIS was in advanced cell therapy human clinical
trials in cancer and bone marrow transplantation and in early gene
therapy human trials in breast cancer. Dr. Okarma was Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of AIS from 1991 until its acquisition. Prior
to founding AIS, Dr. Okarma was a member of the faculty of the Stanford
University School of Medicine where he also received both his PhD and
MD degrees. He is the author of over 50 peer-reviewed publications on
cell and gene therapy and is an inventor on numerous patents in the
field.