Dr. Wataru Akahata, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Director, and Chief Executive Officer

Prior to founding VLP Therapeutics, Dr. Akahata was a senior researcher at the Vaccine Research Center, National Institutes of Health (NIH). While working at NIH, he gained over 10 years of experience in vaccine development

against emerging infectious disease such as HIV, influenza and alphaviruses. Most notably, Dr. Akahata invented the ckikungunya virus (CHIKV) virus like particle vaccine, which is now under the Phase I trial at NIH. Dr. Akahata was also engaged in the collaboration research with organizations such as the U.S. Army, WHO and other universities involved in the emerging infectious diseases. Dr. Akahata’s research efforts led to a number of patents and CRADA agreement with a major pharmaceutical company and he also received NIH Director’s Award for his work in the development of alphavirus vaccines.

After leaving NIH, Dr. Akahata founded VLP Therapeutics, LLC to focus on developing new generation of vaccines to treat the diseases that lack effective treatments. Dr. Akahata received Ph.D. in Human and Environmental Studies from Graduate School, Kyoto University.

Kei Tolliver, Esq., Co-Founder, Director, and General Counsel

Ms. Tolliver joined Sucampo in May of 1998 as the first full-time employee of the company. She assisted Dr. Ueno and Dr. Kuno to launch the U.S. operations of the company. Since May 2002, Ms. Tolliver has worked as Associate Director of Business Development

and was mostly involved in the group’s global operations in Japan and Europe, including General Manager of Sucampo Pharma Europe to set up the Group’s European operations. Ms. Tolliver re-joined Sucampo Pharmaceuticals as Director of Business Development in October 2004. She was closely involved in the company’s major transactions, which include the Initial Public Offering and acquisition of the overseas affiliates in the U.K. and Japan. She became VP of Business Development before leaving Sucampo in 2008 to pursue her long-time goal of obtaining a law degree. She returned to Sucampo as a Board of Director in May 2013.

While working full-time, Ms. Tolliver studied law at Columbus School of Law at Catholic University in Washington D.C., and received her Juris Doctor degree with honors in May 2013. She was a member of the Catholic University Law Review. Mr. Tolliver has been a member of Maryland Bar since December 2013. In 2015, Ms. Tolliver launched her own law practice and is providing legal counsel to start-ups and entrepreneurs leveraging her business experience in working for and growing the start-ups.

Izumi Kobayashi, Director

Current Positions:

  • Member of the Board of Director, OMRON Corporation
  • Independent Director, Fujitsu Limited

Izumi Kobayashi is currently a Member of the Board, OMRON Corporation and an Independent Director, Fujitsu Limited.

After graduating from university, she joined Mitsubishi Kasei Kogyo (now Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation). From 2001 to 2008, she was in the position of Representative Director and CEO of Merrill Lynch in Japan. In 2008–13, she was CEO and Executive Vice President of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the political risk insurance arm of the World Bank Group. She also served on the Osaka Securities Exchange as a Non-Executive Board Member from 2002–2008 and Board Member of Japan Association of Corporate Directors (Keizai Doyukai) from 2007–2009 and from 2015-2019. After returning to Japan in 2013, she took Independent Directors positions of ANA Holdings, Mitsui & Co. and Mizuho Financial Group.