Wade A. Smith, CPA, brings more than two decades of financial and operational leadership across the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries to his role as Chief Executive Officer of Herald Therapeutics. The son and son-in-law of carpenters, Wade designed and built his first home in Southwestern Pennsylvania—a property he still owns today—reflecting the same hands-on, build-it-right discipline he brings to growing companies. He earned his B.S. in Business Administration and Accounting from Penn West California University of Pennsylvania, completed Duke Fuqua School of Business’s Advanced Leadership in Healthcare Program, and holds an active CPA license in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Wade most recently served as Chief Business and Financial Officer of Elevar Therapeutics, a privately-held, pre-commercial biopharmaceutical company, where he raised capital from existing and new private equity investors and lenders, prepared the company for an IPO, and led in-licensing transactions valued at more than $1.1 billion combined—including the $500M in-license of lirafugratinib from Relay Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RLAY) and the $600M global license of a novel biologic from a large Asian drug developer. During a prior decade at Mylan / Viatris (NYSE: VTRS), he served as Head of U.S. Institutional Commercial Finance for a $1 billion+ division, where Wade led launch pricing, customer contracting, managed-care engagement, and sales targeting for more than 100 new products, including the buy-and-bill oncology biosimilars Fulphila (pegfilgrastim) and Ogivri (trastuzumab). His earlier capital markets experience includes leading the $400M S-1 senior secured term bond offering for Nova Chemicals (NYSE/TSX: NCX) with Citibank as bookrunner, and executing five acquisitions, two divestitures, and a private equity exit during six years as Director of Global Accounting & Financial Reporting at Taggart Global.

A lifelong competitive endurance athlete in cycling, triathlon, and trail running, Wade brings a long-horizon discipline to building and leading clinical-stage life sciences companies. He lives with his wife and daughter.