Friday, December 5, 2008

The Mover

Frederic Chereau brings big-biotech experience to startup Pervasis Therapeutics

By Amy Castor, Special to Mass High Tech

Big-company background at Genzyme
will help French native guide growth



Although he’s done some big things, Frederic Chereau, the former vice president of Genzyme Cardiovascular, considers himself “a small-company guy.” In fact, it was his entrepreneurial nature that inspired this 15-year biotech veteran’s latest move.

Chereau is the new president and chief executive officer of Pervasis Therapeutics Inc., a Cambridge biotech whose flagship product is a promising clinical-stage drug for treating vascular injury in hemodialysis patients.

But as you can tell by the name — and the accent — Chereau is originally from France. Although his family moved a lot when he was young, he tells people he comes from the coastal city of La Rochelle in western France. He left La Rochelle to pursue a degree in physics at the University of Paris.

“I did not want to be a physicist in a lab, but I knew I wanted to market something with high technology value,” he said. He later returned to La Rochelle to study business at the university there.
While studying in La Rochelle, Chereau spent a lot of time sailing. “Maybe too much time,” he jokes. But the sport taught him important skills for business. He learned that a sea that looks fine now may not be that way in a few hours. “So you always have to be prepared,” he said.

Shortly after Chereau finished school, his father had a heart attack. Interacting closely with the doctors triggered Chereau’s interest in medicine. His father pulled through, and the experience left Chereau with a deep sense that he wanted his work to serve some purpose.

That’s partly why he chose biotech. It was also a good fit for his background in physics. His first job was selling medical devices for French company Hemotech. He stayed there six years. “It was a family-owned company, and I felt at some point my career would not progress anymore,” he said.

Ready to take on more responsibility, he joined Genzyme Corp., which at the time, had only 30 employees in France. He lived in Paris until 2005, when the rapidly growing Genzyme sent him, along with his wife and baby, to head its cardiovascular unit in Cambridge.

But Chereau was starting to yearn for a more entrepreneurial environment. That’s when he heard that startup Pervasis was looking for a captain. “I assessed the technology, and when I met with the board members, I was convinced,” he said. “I applied, and I’ve been lucky enough, they hired me.”

 

Amy Castor is a freelance writer in Amherst.