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Management Team

Executive Officers

David F. Hale is one of our co-founders and has served as Executive Chairman of our Board of Directors since December 2007. Mr. Hale served as our Interim CEO from January 2008 to August 2008 and as Non-Executive Chairman of our Board from August 2003 to December 2007. Mr. Hale is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hale BioPharma Ventures. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of CancerVax Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company, from October 2000 through its merger with Micromet, Inc., in 2006 where he became Chairman. He was President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Women First HealthCare, Inc., from January 1998 to May 2000. Mr. Hale served as President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman and a director of Gensia Inc., a biopharmaceutical company which merged to become Gensia Sicor, from May 1987 to November 1997. Prior to joining Gensia, Mr. Hale was President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Hybritech, Inc., and previously held sales, marketing and general management positions with Johnson & Johnson and Becton Dickinson. Mr. Hale serves as Chairman of the boards of directors of Santarus, Inc., and SkinMedica, Inc., specialty pharmaceutical companies, and Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company. He also serves as a director of privately-held biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies including Verus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Conatus Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Hale is also a co-founder and member of the boards of directors of industry organizations including BIOCOM/San Diego, the California Healthcare Institute, and CONNECT and is a member of the boards of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization and Rady Children’s Hospital, the San Diego Economic Development Corporation, and the Biotechnology Institute. Mr. Hale received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Chemistry from Jacksonville State University.

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Richard W. Pascoe joined Somaxon as our President and Chief Executive Officer in August 2008. Before joining Somaxon, Mr. Pascoe was the Chief Operating Officer at ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, an emerging oncology company, where he led commercial operations, manufacturing, information services, program and alliance management and business development. Mr. Pascoe held a series of senior management roles at King Pharmaceuticals, Inc., including senior vice president of neuroscience marketing and sales and vice president positions in both international sales and marketing and hospital sales. He also held positions in the commercial groups at Medco Research, Inc. (which was acquired by King), COR Therapeutics, Inc. (where he helped lead the successful launch of eptifibatide [Integrilin®]), B. Braun Interventional and the BOC Group. Mr. Pascoe served as a commissioned officer in the United States Army following his graduation from the United States Military Academy at West Point where he received a B.S degree in Leadership.

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Susan E. Dubé is one of our co-founders and has served as our Senior Vice President, Corporate Development since our inception in August 2003. Throughout 2002 and 2003, she served as a consultant to a number of specialty pharmaceutical companies and venture firms, including Cypress Bioscience, Inc., Women First HealthCare, Inc. and Windamere Venture Partners. From October 2000 to February 2002, she was the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for Women First HealthCare, a specialty pharmaceutical company. She joined Women First as the Vice President, Strategic Planning & Acquisitions in June 1998 and became the Senior Vice President, Strategic Planning & Acquisitions in December 1999. Prior to Women First, Ms. Dubé served as the Senior Vice President, Strategy and Corporate Development at Imagyn Medical Technologies, Inc., a medical device company, from October 1997 to June 1998. She joined Imagyn Medical Technologies upon its acquisition of Imagyn Medical, Inc. where she served as the Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Development from February 1996 until its acquisition. She has also served as the Chief Executive Officer of BioInterventions, Inc., Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Adeza Biomedical Corporation, Vice President, Ventures at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as a consultant to a number of health care companies. Ms. Dubé holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.A. in government from Simmons College.

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Jeffrey W. Raser is one of our co-founders and has served as our Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing since our inception in August 2003. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Raser was the Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Marketing for CancerVax Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer. Prior to CancerVax, from 1998 to 2000 he served as Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Women First HealthCare, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Mr. Raser also held a variety of positions at Roche Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, in sales, marketing and strategic planning and at Lederle Laboratories, a pharmaceutical company, in government and corporate affairs. Mr. Raser holds a B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College.

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Philip Jochelson, M.D., has served as our Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer since April 2005. From 1998 to March 2005, Dr. Jochelson was employed by Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc., where he led the insomnia and diabetes clinical development programs. During this time, Dr. Jochelson designed and implemented the clinical development programs which encompassed 70 studies and progressed the insomnia programs from Phase I through to NDA submission. Previously, Dr. Jochelson held positions of increasing responsibility in clinical development at Boehringer Ingelheim and Alliance Pharmaceutical Corp. Dr. Jochelson graduated from Medical School in South Africa and is a licensed physician in California.

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James L'Italien, Ph.D., has served as our Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Quality Assurance since March of 2007. Previously, Dr. L'Italien was Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Compliance at Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Ligand, Dr. L'Italien was Vice President, Global Regulatory Affairs at Baxter BioScience, a division of Baxter Healthcare Corporation. He has also held management positions with Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Ortho Biotech and SmithKline Beecham. Dr. L'Italien earned his Ph.D. in protein biochemistry from Boston University and a B.S. in chemistry, cum laude, from Merrimack College.

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Meg M. McGilley is one of our co-founders and has served as our Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since our inception in August 2003. Earlier in 2003 and in support of the founding of Somaxon, Ms. McGilley worked as a consultant to Windamere Venture Partners. From 2000 to 2002, Ms. McGilley was previously the Chief Financial Officer for Instromedix, Inc. and LifeWatch Holdings Inc., sister companies in the cardiac device monitoring business. She has also held positions as the Senior Director of Finance for Women First HealthCare, a specialty pharmaceutical company, from 1998 to 2000 and as Director of Finance for Gensia Automedics, a partially-owned subsidiary of Gensia Sicor, and LMA North America, a medical device company, from 1997 to 1998. Ms. McGilley also worked for twelve years beginning in 1985 in a variety of financial, business development, sales and marketing positions with Alaris Medical Systems (formerly IVAC Corporation). She is a Certified Public Accountant with over three years in the San Diego office of Ernst and Young LLP. Ms. McGilley holds a B.S. in Accounting from the University of San Diego.

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Matthew W. Onaitis is our Vice President and General Counsel and has been with the company since May 2006. Mr. Onaitis previously served as associate general counsel for Biogen Idec Inc.’s oncology strategic business unit. Earlier, he was director, legal affairs for Elan Corporation, plc, serving as lead transactional counsel for the commercial operations and business development groups. Before that, Mr. Onaitis practiced corporate and commercial law at the law firms Clifford Chance US LLP, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP and King & Spalding LLP. He earned a juris doctorate degree from Stanford University and a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

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Brian T. Dorsey has served as Vice President, Manufacturing and Program Management and since January of 2007 has served as Vice President of Product Development. Before joining Somaxon, Mr. Dorsey served as Head of Project Management and Planning at Maxim Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he was a Director, Head of Biopharmaceutical Project Management at Baxter Bioscience, a division of Baxter Healthcare Corporation, and Global Project Leader at Pfizer Global Research and Development – La Jolla (formerly Agouron Pharmaceuticals). He earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and a master's degree in executive leadership, both from the University of San Diego .

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Robert L. Jones has served as our Vice President, Human Resources since January 2007. From April 2006 until December 2006, Mr. Jones was Executive Vice President with DHR International, a retained executive search firm. From 2001 through 2006, Mr. Jones served as Vice President, Human Resources for CancerVax Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of immunotherapeutic products for the treatment of cancer. From 1998 to 2001 he was Vice President, Human Resources for Women First HealthCare, a specialty pharmaceutical company. Mr. Jones was Vice President, Human Resources for Jack InThe Box Restaurants from 1984 to 1994, after serving in a variety of human resources positions for General Foods Corporation. Mr. Jones holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Ball State University.

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