Executive Team

Francis Knuettel II has served as our Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Treasurer and Secretary since June 2022. Prior to that, from December 2020 to April 2022, he served as Chief Executive Officer and director of Unrivaled Brands, a California-based operator of cannabis assets in California and Oregon, where he helped grow revenue from an annualized rate of $10 million to $100 million in six quarters by acquiring three companies in the sector. He also served as Chief Financial Officer of ONE Cannabis Group from June 2019 to January 2021 and held various roles at MJardin Group, including Chief Strategy Officer, from August 2018 to January 2019. Prior to Mjardin Group, Mr. Knuettel served as Chief Financial Officer of Aqua Metals in 2018 and held the same position at Marathon Patent Group from 2014 to 2018. During Mr. Knuettel’s career, he has helped raise more than $300 million via venture equity and debt, public equity and debt offerings in the United States and Canada, convertible debt, PIPEs, bridge loans and other instruments. In addition, he has managed more than 15 mergers and acquisition transactions of companies as both buyer and seller and has handled large-scale licensing transactions with fortune 50 companies. Mr. Knuettel also holds numerous board positions at both public and private companies, including 180 Life Sciences (Nasdaq: ATNF) since 2021, ECOM Medical since 2019, and Murphy Canyon Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: MURF) and Relativity Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: RACY) since 2022. Mr. Knuettel received his BA with honors in Economics from Tufts University and holds an MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurial Management from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Eric Lang is the Chief Medical Officer for Chromocell Therapeutics Corporation. Eric is an Anesthesiologist and Pain Management Specialist with over 26 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. During his pharmaceutical career, he has had both broad based drug and device development expertise in a variety of therapeutic areas. Dr. Lang has experience in designing development programs from early translational stages through phase III including the successful filing of several recent INDs and NDAs. He has experience with Regulatory interactions and negotiations with FDA and various European and Asian Authorities.

Dr. Lang began his career with Johnson and Johnson, later worked for Novartis Consumer Health and then lead the clinical development team at Javelin Pharmaceuticals, which was ultimately acquired by Hospira (now Pfizer)in 2010. Following this acquisition, Dr. Lang joined Grunenthal USA as their head of clinical development. After Grunenthal, he joined Covance heading an international team that assisted smaller biotechs in moving their programs through the various phases of pre-clinical and clinical development. Following the acquisition of Covance by LabCorp, Eric transitioned to EnteraBio as Chief Medical Officer until joining Nevakar Inc, initially as Vice President of Clinical Development and later as Chief Medical Officer before joining Chromocell Therapeutics.

In his spare time, Eric is a scuba diving instructor, enjoys travel and wood working.

Dr. Chandler has specialized in Ophthalmology for over 30 years in both academic roles and industry. He has held a leading role in 4 successful ophthalmic drug approvals in the US, Europe and Japan in Glaucoma, Pain, Retinal disease, myopia and dry eye. Dr. Chandler has expertise in ophthalmic trial designs and conduct globally from proof-of-concept to registration and post-approval. He began in genetic engineering at Sangamo and later worked at Santen, ISTA, Bausch and Lomb, Allergan and Vyluma. He earned his Ph.D at Southampton Medical School and completed post-doctoral training at the NIH working on epigenetics.