Management

John Whelan John Whelan joined A.P. Pharma in February 2009 as Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer and was appointed President, Chief Executive Officer and Director in May 2011. Prior to joining us, he was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Raven biotechnologies, where he oversaw the finance function as well as having broad operational responsibilities. Mr. Whelan also held the position of Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Eos Biotechnology, where he was responsible for finance, business development, and administration. Previously, Mr. Whelan held a number of management positions at Hewlett Packard/Agilent, culminating in his tenure as Director of Corporate Development, during which he led the consummation of numerous acquisitions, investments, and collaborations with companies in the life sciences, medical devices, and computing industries. Mr. Whelan has a BS in Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA.

Michael Adam, Ph.D. joined A.P. Pharma as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in May 2011. Dr. Adam has been working with the Company as a consultant since July 2010 and brings over 25 years of drug development and pharmaceutical operations experience to the organization. He was most recently Senior Vice President of pharmaceutical operations at Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he oversaw CMC development, quality assurance and manufacturing. Prior to Spectrum, Dr. Adam served as Vice President, drug development operations at Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he was responsible for regulatory affairs, quality assurance, pharmaceutical development, manufacturing and project management. He also has held senior positions with Pfizer, Inc., Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. Dr. Adam earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Barr joined A.P. Pharma in 1997, and has served as a corporate officer since 2000, and was most recently promoted to Senior Vice President, Research & Development in September 2007.  Dr. Barr has played a key role in evaluating and developing the potential of our novel delivery systems. Prior to joining us, he worked as the director of Biopharmaceutics for Cortech, Inc, a Denver-based biotech firm focused on the development of novel anti-inflammatory agents. In that capacity, he was involved with both the research and development aspects of the company's intravenous and oral programs. Dr. Barr received his Ph.D. in pharmacology from the University of Glasgow in Scotland, after which he pursued postdoctoral studies at the University of Arizona.