MapLight Therapeutics Appoints Kris Hanson as General Counsel
Hanson Brings 25 Years of Experience Advising Public and Private Companies to MapLight as the New Legal and Compliance Leader
SAN FRANCISCO and BOSTON, June 20, 2023
MapLight Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company working to develop targeted, novel therapeutics to improve the lives of people with brain disorders, today announced the appointment of Kris Hanson as the company’s General Counsel.
“We are excited to welcome Kris to our leadership team as MapLight’s General Counsel,” said Christopher Kroeger, MD, MBA, MapLight’s Chief Executive Officer and Founder. “His significant experience and expertise in building and leading in-house legal and compliance teams will be critical to us as we continue to build our company and progress our clinical and pre-clinical pipeline.”
“It’s a terrific time to be joining MapLight and I am thrilled to be a part of such a world-class team,” said Hanson. “My career has focused on advising emerging growth companies like MapLight on critical legal and compliance matters, including capital markets and strategic transactions, commercial contracting and licensing, IP portfolio management and corporate governance. I look forward to bringing that expertise to MapLight as we build out our legal department and continue to grow as a company.”
Prior to joining MapLight, Hanson was a member of the executive leadership teams at PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals and Nalpropion Pharmaceuticals, where he had day-to-day responsibility, oversight and management of the legal and compliance functions. Previously, he served as Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Orexigen Therapeutics and in senior legal roles at Lytx, Cricket Communications, and SAIC. Before beginning his in-house career, Hanson worked in private practice as a corporate lawyer at Morrison & Foerster and Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, after having completed a clerkship for U.S. District Court Judge John S. Rhoades.
Mr. Hanson received a BA from Georgetown University and a JD from the UCLA School of Law.
About MapLight Therapeutics
MapLight Therapeutics is developing targeted, highly effective therapeutics to improve the lives of those with difficult-to-treat brain disorders. Today, there are few therapeutic options for people living with conditions such as schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s, and autism spectrum disorder. Available treatments are limited by modest efficacy and significant side effects. MapLight is committed to redefining this standard of care. The company’s unique discovery platform combines novel, proprietary technologies to uncover the individual circuits that misfire in brain disorders and treat those circuits with effective, safe therapeutics. MapLight was founded in 2019 by a team of renowned neuroscientists who led the discovery of the two groundbreaking technologies, optogenetics and STARmap. Learn more at www.maplightrx.com.
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Media Contact for MapLight Therapeutics
Charmaine Lykins
Chief Commercial Officer
858-255-9392
