Leadership
Team

Alessandra Rispoli is the Chief Executive Officer of Ascend, leading the company’s global strategy, operations, and long-term growth. With over 28 years in biopharma, she is recognized for driving transformation, integrating complex organizations, and delivering sustainable value across development and commercial supply.
Before becoming CEO, Alessandra held senior leadership roles at Catalent, where she built and integrated Cell & Gene Therapy platforms across Europe and the United States. She also held leadership positions at Sanofi, Biotest, and West Pharmaceutical Services, and was nominated Scientific Director at Miulli Research (Italy). Her career spans global manufacturing and supply chain leadership across 10+ sites, large-scale integrations and turnarounds, cultural change, and strategic partnerships that accelerate innovation and growth.

Lauren Hudacik is Chief Operating Officer of Ascend, and President, ABL. and is responsible for overseeing operational performance and organizational growth across the two affiliated companies. Lauren has over 20 years of experience in the life sciences and biologics industry in positions spanning from research scientist to senior management, and has held key positions in Business Development, Strategic Initiatives, Project Management, and most recently as President and Chief Executive Officer of ABL. She is passionate about servant leadership and is an advocate for open, meaningful collaborations with our clients to yield the best results.

Dr. Ohmine brings more than 15 years of leadership experience across the CDMO and CRO ecosystem, combined with an exceptional scientific background in virology, gene therapy, and biologics. He holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on virology from the Mayo Clinic and has contributed to over 26 peer-review publications. Prior to joining Ascend Advanced Therapies, Dr. Ohmine held executive commercial leadership roles at Ajinomoto Bio-Pharma Services, WuXi Advanced Therapies, Pharmaron, and Eurofins Scientific, where he consistently served as a bridge between scientific innovation and product commercialization.

As Chief Financial Officer, Sharad Dubey, CA, CPA, is responsible for strengthening the company’s financial strategy, governance and operational scalability. He brings more than 20 years of financial leadership experience across public accounting, biotech, life sciences, and manufacturing, including multi-site, high-growth, and private equity–backed organizations.

Most recently, Dubey served as VP Finance/BU CFO for Catalent’s North America Cell & Gene Therapy business, where he partnered closely with operations and commercial leaders to drive performance, integration, and growth. His earlier experience includes various roles at EY and Deloitte.

Dr. Timothy Fouts, who joined ABL in 2016, is the Chief Scientific Officer and head of the Innovation and Translation team. Dr. Fouts is an inventor and biotech entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience leading discovery and pre-clinical development (up to Phase I/II) of vaccines and therapeutics against infectious diseases. Core scientific expertise includes discovery and development of vaccine products targeting sexually transmitted viruses and enteric pathogens with a particular interest in mucosal vaccines as well as vaginally and rectally applied microbicides and other anti-infective molecules. Prior to joining ABL, Dr. Fouts was one of the founding scientists at Profectus BioSciences. There, he served as Senior Director of Virology and led a team of scientists in the discovery and preclinical development a products including vaccines, small molecule and Ab based antiviral therapies and microbicides. One of the products, a vaccine for HIV, completed Phase I clinical trials. He also developed a therapeutic vaccine for HPV, and preventative vaccines for HSV, Influenza, and Henipavirus. He also served as the Vice President of Development at Rel-MD, Inc. in Baltimore, Maryland, where he directed the discovery and preclinical development of the small molecule Rel inhibitors as anti-cancer agents. Prior to Profectus BioSciences, Dr. Fouts was an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland. Dr. Fouts received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Maryland at Baltimore, and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller University.

Mark Hazard joined Ascend in June 2025, bringing over 30 years of pharmaceutical experience gained working across the US, EU, and Asia. He has held senior leadership roles in Quality and Operations, including global responsibilities at Pfizer and Synageva. At Synageva, he led the design, construction, and qualification of five biopharmaceutical facilities that achieved regulatory approvals in the US, EU, and Japan for Kanuma. At Pfizer, he directed a global quality organization spanning multiple manufacturing sites to ensure a unified quality standard and pre-approval readiness. Mark holds an MS in Management from Indiana Wesleyan University, a BS in Chemistry from Lambuth College, and is a certified Six Sigma Black Belt.

As Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, Patrick Lansky is responsible for expanding strategic partnerships and driving commercial growth. He brings more than 20 years of experience in biopharma and CDMO partnerships, and has held senior roles at SK pharmteco, Cobra Biologics, Althea Technologies and Vetter Pharma.