Dr. Duane Nash, M.D., J.D., M.B.A. has been the President of Vital Therapies, Inc. since March 08, 2016. Dr. Nash served as the Chief Business Officer at Vital Therapies, Inc. from March 19, 2012 to March 8, 2016 and also served as its Executive Vice President from May 2013 to March 2016. He served as Medical Director at Vital Therapies, Inc. from March 19, 2012 to May 2013. He served as Senior Vice President in Equity Research at Wedbush PacGrow Life Sciences. He served as Senior Vice President at Wedbush Securities Inc., Research Division. He used to cover cardiac, hepatic and regenerative medicines at the firm. He was an Healthcare Research Analyst at Pacific Growth Equities, LLC, Research Division. He has been an Independent Director of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. since 2013. He served as a Director of Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (formerly Aerpio Therapeutics, Inc.). He has practiced as an Attorney for six years. He was employed at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, where he practiced intellectual property litigation, as well as patent evaluation and strategy in the merger and acquisition context. He worked at two other Bay Area law firms and also completed his internship in General Surgery at the University of California at San Francisco, where he served as a member of the liver transplant team. According to STARMINE and Thomson Reuters, Dr. Nash is ranked first among 66 equity research analysts nationwide who publish in the biotechnology market, based on prior 12 month return on recommendations. He is a California-licensed Physician at Medical Board of California and also an inactive member of the California Bar. Dr. Nash holds his J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, his M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School, an M.B.A. from the University of Oxford and a B.A. in Biology from Williams College.