Cynthia Smith

Cynthia Smith has served on Protara’s board of directors since January of 2021. She has more than 20 years of broad leadership experience within the healthcare industry. Most recently she has served as chief commercial officer and a member of the executive team of ZS Pharma (acquired by AstraZeneca), where she led efforts to transition the company from the development stage to a commercial enterprise.

Prior to joining ZS Pharma, Ms. Smith served as vice president, market access and commercial development at Affymax, Inc. Earlier, she held various senior leadership positions in market access, corporate strategy, government relations and external affairs at Merck & Co. Before beginning her career in the biopharmaceutical industry, Ms. Smith served as a healthcare policy analyst in the White House Office of Management and Budget. Ms. Smith earned a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.B.A. from the Wharton School and an M.S. in public policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University.

She currently serves on the Board of Directors at Spero Therapeutics, Dicerna Pharmaceuticals, and Akebia Therapeutics.