About

Tom King is President and a member of the Board of Directors at Satsuma, bringing more than 40 years of leadership experience across the biopharmaceutical industry, spanning emerging development-stage companies to publicly traded commercial organizations. Throughout his career, he has successfully built, operated, and led the strategic growth and sale of multiple specialty pharmaceutical companies with commercial products. Most recently, Tom served as Interim Executive Chair of Achieve Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACHV) from August 2024 to June 2025 and was a member of the company’s Board of Directors from 2023 to 2026. He previously served on the Board of Directors of VIVUS, Inc. (Nasdaq: VVUS) from 2017 to 2020, including periods as Interim Chief Executive Officer and Interim President. From 2003 to 2016, Tom was President, Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: ALXA). Alexza focused on the development and commercialization of rapid-onset inhaled therapies for central nervous system conditions using its proprietary Staccato® drug delivery platform, including the U.S. and international approvals of Adasuve® (Staccato loxapine). Under Tom’s leadership, Alexza advanced from a development-stage company to a commercial organization and was ultimately acquired by Grupo Ferrer in 2016. Tom also held several senior leadership roles at Anesta Corporation (Nasdaq: NSTA), including President and Chief Operating Officer and later President and Chief Executive Officer. Anesta specialized in pain management and advanced drug delivery technologies, including innovative transmucosal therapeutic systems that resulted in multiple U.S. and international product approvals. The company was acquired by Cephalon, Inc. in 2000. Tom earned a B.A. in Chemistry from McPherson College and an M.B.A. from the University of Kansas Graduate School of Business.

Rob has been supporting Satsuma’s commercialization and business development activities since 2020 and joined as our Chief Commercial Officer in 2026. Rob has over 25 years of commercialization experience with more than 15 years in commercial leadership roles in both small and large pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Satsuma Pharmaceuticals, Rob served from 2016 to 2020 as the Vice President, Strategic Planning & Business Development for Durect Corporation. Before 2016, Rob was in senior commercial roles at various public pharmaceutical companies including ALZA, Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson and Wyeth Laboratories. Since entering the pharmaceutical industry in 1993, Rob has been responsible for the launch and commercialization of drugs for a variety of indications in the areas of women’s health, urology, pain management, CNS and metabolic disease. In several of these roles, Rob was the company’s first commercial hire with responsibility for building a commercial organization and launching its first product. Rob received a B.S. in biochemistry from the University of Vermont and holds an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

Tom joined Satsuma Pharmaceuticals in January 2019 as Chief Financial Officer and served in that role until the company’s acquisition by SNBL in June 2023. He rejoined Satsuma as Chief Financial Officer in May 2026. Tom brings more than 25 years of experience across start-up and publicly traded companies, with leadership expertise spanning finance, investor relations, operations, corporate strategy, business development, and commercialization. Prior to rejoining Satsuma, he provided financial consulting services to life sciences companies from June 2023 to August 2024 and June 2025 to May 2026 and served as Chief Financial Officer of Rivus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from August 2024 to June 2025. Prior to Satsuma, Tom served as Chief Financial Officer at Protagonist Therapeutics, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from February 2016 to January 2019; as Chief Financial Officer for Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., a public biopharmaceutical company, from March 2015 to September 2015; as Chief Financial Officer of Sorbent Therapeutics, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, from January 2014 to July 2014; as a consultant to Sorbent and a variety of health care and technology companies from September 2011 to December 2013; as Vice President of Finance & Administration of ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., a biopharmaceutical company, from December 2009 until its acquisition by Cephalon in August 2011; and as Vice President of Finance & Administration of Nodality, Inc., a biotechnology company, from March 2007 to May 2009. Tom has also served in finance and operations roles in medical device, technology, and other services companies. Tom received B.A. degree from Pomona College, and an M.B.A. from The UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management.

Dave joined Satsuma in 2019 and currently serves as Chief Operating Officer.  Dave has over 20 years of drug/device combination product development, manufacturing and packaging experience with roles in Engineering, Validation, Quality and Operations Management.  Dave began his career with Procter & Gamble, followed by GlaxoSmithKline and Pearl Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca).  Dave received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech, and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Cincinnati.

Koji Nakajima joined Satsuma as Head of Corporate Strategy in 2026.  Koji joined Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. (SNBL) in 2025 and currently serves as Executive Officer and Head of Corporate Planning. He also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of SNLD Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of SNBL. He has over 15 years of experience in global business development and cross-functional leadership. Koji began his career with Re-tem Corporation, followed by Misumi Group and Arthur D. Little, the world’s oldest strategy consulting firm, where he advised leading global corporations on new business development and corporate strategy. He later joined Sansan, then one of Japan’s leading unicorn startups, where he served as Director of Sales and led digital transformation initiatives for major enterprise clients. Koji holds an MBA from the University of Michigan, with concentrations in Corporate Strategy and Accounting.