Dr De Souza is a leader in the development of therapeutics for treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. He has substantial experience as an executive in the biopharmaceutical industry, having founded companies (Neurocrine Sciences Inc.) and served as President and CEO of several public (Biodel Inc; Synaptic Pharmaceutical) and private (Archemix Corp. and Neuropore Therapies Inc.) biotech companies. Dr. De Souza has raised several hundred million dollars in capital in private and public sectors and has taken companies public (Neurocrine Biosciences IPO) and sold companies (Synaptic sale to Lundbeck) to provide liquidity and build shareholder value. Over Dr. De Souza's career, he has served in a number of high-ranking R&D roles, including SVP and U.S. head of Aventis (1998-2002), co-founder and EVP of R&D at Neurocrine (1992-1998) and Head of CNS at DuPont Merck (1990-1992).
Dr De Souza has served on multiple editorial boards, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Committees and is currently a Director of several public and private companies and currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Catalyst Biosciences (CBIO). He has previously served on the board of directors of several public companies including IDEXX Laboratories (IDXX), Neurocrine Biosciences (NBIX), Palatin Technologies (PTN) and Synaptic Pharmaceuticals (SNAP).