Cynthia Smith

Cynthia Smith most recently served as Chief Commercial Officer and a member of the executive team of ZS Pharma where she helped lead the company from development to commercialization through its acquisition by AstraZeneca in 2016. Prior to joining ZS Pharma, Ms. Smith served as Vice President, Market Access and Commercial Development at Affymax from 2008 to 2013. She also held various senior leadership positions in market access, corporate strategy, government relations and external affairs at Merck from 2000 to 2008. Before transitioning to the biopharmaceutical industry, Ms. Smith served as a healthcare policy analyst in the White House Office of Management and Budget from 1995 to 2000. Ms. Smith currently serves on the boards of Dicerna Pharmaceuticals and Akebia Therapeutics, and previously served on the board of Nivalis Therapeutics from 2016 to 2017. She earned her M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a M.S. in public policy from the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University. Ms. Smith received a B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.