Meet our management team

Stacy Wheeler
Chief Executive Officer

Stacy is Chief Executive Officer of Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an Asahi Kasei company. Stacy joined Veloxis in March 2016 as Vice President of Supply and Trade Relations. She transitioned into Chief Operations Officer in 2023 before accepting the CEO position in October 2024. Over the years, Stacy has led a robust team consisting of Manufacturing, Market Access, Quality, and Supply Chain.

Stacy has more than 20 years’ experience managing global pharmaceutical supply chains at Biovail, Cornerstone Therapeutics, and Chiesi USA. At Chiesi USA, she was responsible for a wide variety of products with complex, international supply chains spanning a variety of licensing, purchase, and manufacturing agreements.

Stacy holds a BS from North Carolina State University.

Fredrik Johansson
Chief Financial Officer

Fredrik Johansson is Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Prior to joining the company, Fredrik was the CFO and Chief Operating Officer at Techstep ASA (formerly Birdstep Technology). Earlier in his career, he served as CFO at Phone Family, CFO at Teligent Telecom and Acting CFO at Wayfinder Systems.

Fredrik received a Master of Business Law from Jönköping International Business School. He also completed studies in Management at Georgia State University, Finance at the University of South Carolina and Business at Lund University.

Carl Kraus, MD
Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Carl Kraus is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and a physician-scientist with extensive biotech, clinical development, and regulatory leadership experience. Trained at Washington University in St. Louis (M.D.), the University of Chicago (Internal Medicine), and the NIH (Infectious Diseases), Dr. Kraus also served as a Medical Officer at the U.S. FDA and has been Principal Investigator on multiple NIH and Department of Defense-funded research programs, advancing novel therapeutics across multiple indications. Prior to joining Veloxis, he served as CMO for several biotechnology organizations, leading integrated scientific and clinical development teams.

Patrick M. Shea
Chief Commercial Officer

Patrick Shea is the Chief Commercial Officer. Patrick brings extensive experience building and scaling organizations, brands, and teams in highly technical and rare disease/orphan markets. His expertise spans product launch, business development, M&A, and high-performing global partnerships.

Before joining Veloxis, Patrick served as Chief Executive Officer and Board Director at Intrance Medical Systems where he helped transform the company from an early-stage concept into an operationally viable pharmaceutical company. He held senior executive commercial leadership roles at Antares Pharmaceuticals (now Halozyme Therapeutics), Egalet Corporation (now Assertio Therapeutics), and Clarus Therapeutics. Patrick also held senior leadership positions overseeing U.S. commercial operations at CSL Behring and Astellas Pharmaceuticals.

Earlier in his career, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim. Patrick received a B.S. in Psychology from Alfred University.

Ed Sleeper
Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer

Ed is Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, Inc., an Asahi Kasei company, joining the organization in 2023.

Ed has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare and pharmaceutical space. Before joining Veloxis, Ed served as Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for HutchMed International and Esperion Therapeutics where he rapidly established compliance programs to support product commercialization. Ed also served as an executive leader in Global Compliance at Celgene supporting multiple franchises across several countries. Prior to his move to industry, Ed was an Executive Compliance Consultant for over 10 years working closely with small and midsize organizations to develop and execute their compliance programs.

Ed holds a MS in Organizational Design and Communications from Ithaca College and a Healthcare Care Compliance Certification from Seton Hall University School of Law.

Tracy Sapp
Sr. Vice President, Pharmaceutical Operations & Technology

Tracy Sapp is Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations and Technology. Prior to joining Veloxis, Tracy served as the Head of Quality Management Systems and Compliance for the advanced therapies and large molecule divisions at Novartis, focusing on quality system integration and remediation. Before Novartis, Tracy managed North America Quality and Compliance for the drug product division at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Earlier in her career, she worked in manufacturing, automation engineering, and quality at Biogen.

Tracy received an M.S. in Regulatory Science from the University of Maryland, School of Pharmacy and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Noel Barnard
Sr. Vice President, Legal and General Counsel

Noel joined Veloxis in March 2016 as Senior Director, Legal Affairs, and was promoted to Vice President, Legal and General Counsel, in December 2018. Noel is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Veloxis’s global legal affairs.

Previously, Noel was a part of the legal team at Chiesi USA, Inc. In that capacity, Noel held broad responsibilities that included overseeing of the company’s intellectual property portfolio and commercial contracting function. Noel also served as Assistant General Counsel at Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., prior to its acquisition by Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.

Noel holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina School of Law.

Neil Morton
Vice President, Global Business Development

Neil Morton is Vice President of Global Business Development. He is responsible for overseeing all aspects of Veloxis’ global strategic planning and business development opportunities.

Neil brings more than 25 years of industry experience, focused on driving growth through strategic partnerships, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions. He has an extensive deal sheet and a track record of successfully executed transactions on both the buy and sell side, including public and private corporate M&A.

Prior to joining the company in 2025, Neil was a member of the Business Development team at Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Before Acadia, he served as Chief Business Officer of Apricus Biosciences. Earlier in his career, he worked in Business Development for both King Pharmaceuticals and Auxilium Pharmaceuticals.

Neil received an M.B.A. from Wake Forest University and a B.A. in Biology from Bucknell University.