To those well familiar with the career milestones that typically mark the path to the CFO office, Lou Arcudi’s resume at first may appear to be upside down.
Or at least it could be said that the same operational projects and roles that frequently populate the tops of the resumes of aspiring CFOs are instead found at the bottom of Arcudi’s.
To put it another way: Arcudi acquired his operations experience early.
Read MoreArcudi spent his college summers working at a General Motors chemical plant in Framingham, Mass., where he was encouraged to apply to a training program offered by the General Motors Institute of Technology (now Kettering University). The school accepted Arcudi’s application, and after 6 months of training, the young recruit was offered a position at one GM’s many plants.
“It was kind of like the military, where you usually get to choose your posting and specialty, so I picked the Framingham plant and manufacturing accounting and inventory control as my discipline,” recalls Arcudi, whose GM experience soon helped to advance him into a divisional controllership role at chemical company Millipore.
At the time, Arcudi was responsible for consolidating the financials for two chemical plants within the United States and two others in Japan and Ireland.
“The role helped me to understand what really happens out in the field—it wasn’t about keeping a balance sheet but about being P&L-driven, and it became foundational for my career,” observes Arcudi, as he flags the origins of an operations mind-set that would help to propel him upward and accompany him as he served in a subsequent succession of CFO roles. –Jack Sweeney
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CFOTL: Tell us about Amolyt Pharma … what does this company do, and what are its offerings?
Arcudi: Amolyt is a clinical-stage biotechnology company that’s focused on rare endocrinology diseases. Our mission is really to transform the lives of patients who are suffering from these rare diseases and thereby the lives of their caregivers, too. We have a really deep, diverse pipeline, as well as a lot of initiative to actually bring new programs in. Right now, we have two programs.
One is for a product called AZP-3601, which is a long-acting PTH analog with a potential use as a treatment for a disease called hypoparathyroidism. Usually, you have your thyroid, and behind it, you have these parathyroids. When these are missing through surgery—and you thus have hypoparathyroidism—basically what happens is that your body is not able to produce the PTH hormone.
Read MoreThis hormone is important because it actually drives or acts like a thermometer in our system. When our calcium levels go below a certain level, this particular hormone, this particular check and balance, drives our calcium levels back up. But if it’s missing, if this parathyroid is missing, it can’t do that. You end up missing calcium in your body and trying to get it in other ways. So, this is an analog replacement to give the body not natural PTH but an analog of the PTH hormone in order to get rid of some of the disease symptoms that these people would have.
Our other program is a growth hormone receptor—again in the endocrinology space—for a disease called acromegalia, which causes people to be very large in stature. They actually have this overgrowth hormone that just makes their body grow larger and larger, which ultimately creates issues. This is actually near and dear to me, as my father actually suffered from this. We’re trying to build a pipeline through our internal programs that we’re doing, as well as have an ongoing licensing activities.
So, this is really what our company does. When you think about our firm, you see that it checks all of the boxes when it comes to the fundamentals. We have a very experienced team with know-how in all of these disciplines. We know how to take companies from a private to a public state. We know how to take portfolio assets all the way through registration, and we have the expertise to actually taking these products into commercialization. The board is strong—it’s knowledgeable and skillful. We have a strong financial position, with a very supportive, high-quality set of private investors, and strong IP with partnerships. And, again, we’re private. Our goal is ultimately to try to become a publicly traded company on either NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange.
jb
“Enter a field that is exciting to you and one you feel passionate about. Be patient and be willing to take a lateral move when entering that field. Make everyday a learning journey and be willing to be part of the team. I am extremely passionate about helping patients and their caregivers, therefore being part of the biotech community I view as a privilege.” – Lou Arcudi, CFO Amolyt Pharma
Amolyt Pharma | www.amolytpharma.com | Cambridge, MA