Martin Tolar

Dr. Tolar serves as Founder President & CEO of Alzheon. Prior to founding Alzheon in June 2013, Dr. Tolar held executive positions in several life sciences companies, where he has successfully established and grew new companies, business areas and product opportunities. Dr. Tolar served as President & CEO of Knome, Inc., where he led the development of human genome interpretation systems and services for academic, pharmaceutical and clinical clients, as President & CEO at NormOxys, Inc., where he built the business for novel cancer therapeutics, and as Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Business Officer at CoMentis, Inc., where he developed the first clinical-stage beta secretase inhibitor platform for Alzheimer’s disease and negotiated a collaboration with a potential value of $1.1 billion with Astellas Pharma in 2008. Dr. Tolar held a variety of clinical development and business leadership positions at Pfizer, where he was instrumental in a wide range of business transactions, including acquisition of Rinat Neuroscience for $500 million in 2006, and directed programs through all stages of clinical development and FDA approval including NDA filings.

During his academic career, Dr. Tolar served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Yale University School of Medicine, where he focused on movement disorders. Dr. Tolar trained in Neurology at the Boston Medical Center, received a Ph.D. in Neuroscience for his work on the role of apolipoprotein E in Alzheimer’s disease, and published many scientific publications in the area of neuroscience and neurodegenerative disorders. Dr. Tolar received his M.D. from Charles University in Prague, where, as a medical student, he helped organize and lead the Velvet Revolution that toppled the communist regime in the former Czechoslovakia in November 1989.

Dr. Tolar serves on business and scientific boards including the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, the Alzheimer Foundation and Advance Healthcare Management Institute.

Dr. Tolar was recognized as one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in the world of drug development and manufacture by The Medicine Maker Magazine’s Power Lists for 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. In October 2021, Dr. Tolar received the “Czech Laurels Award” given by the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic in recognition of numerous clinical, scientific, and business projects in the Czech Republic built by Alzheon. The Czech Chamber of Commerce is the largest and the most representative business association in the Czech Republic.

Dr. Tolar is qualified to serve on the board of directors because of his scientific expertise and extensive experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.