Leadership Team

Gina Chapman is the President and CEO of CARGO Therapeutics. She brings over 30 years of biopharma executive, operational, and commercial experience with a track record of success shaping strategy, building strong teams, raising capital, and driving results.

Before joining CARGO, Gina served as SVP and Business Unit Head at Genentech, a member of Roche Group. During Gina’s 15 years at Genentech, she oversaw the development and execution of business unit and therapeutic area strategies including accountability for P&Ls across Oncology, Neurology, Immunology, Ophthalmology, Respiratory and Rare Diseases. She influenced global pipeline and development decisions and led or oversaw launch planning and execution in the U.S. for several novel, life-changing new medicines. Gina began her biopharma career with Syntex Laboratories, then joined Gilead Sciences during its rapid growth from clinical stage start-up to commercial enterprise where she led the launch of their first commercial medicine.

Anup Radhakrishnan joined CARGO Therapeutics as CFO in August 2022 and was appointed COO in November 2024. He brings over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical sector providing strategic financial leadership across both R&D and commercial stage organizations.

Most recently, Anup served as Chief Financial Officer at Dascena, where he was responsible for pre-IPO readiness, capital formation and scaling the Finance, Information Technology and Procurement organizations, ultimately leading the company through a successful acquisition. Prior to Dascena, Anup was CFO for the Genentech Patient Foundation and Head of Finance for the U.S. Breast and Skin cancer franchises. During his 11 year career at Genentech, he gained broad financial responsibility across the U.S. commercial organization supporting products in various therapeutic areas and lifecycle stages, Managed Care and Government Affairs. He was actively involved in business development assessments and partnerships which helped shape the future of the commercial portfolio. Before Genentech, Anup held R&D Finance roles of increasing responsibility at Elan Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Perrigo), CV Therapeutics (acquired by Gilead) and University of California San Francisco (UCSF).   

Prior to joining CARGO, Dr. Laport served as Vice President of Clinical Development, Global  Head of NHL/CLL Franchise, at Genentech/Roche where she was responsible for strategic development of late-stage pipeline for NHL/CLL. During her time in this role, she played a critical role in the development and acceleration of pivotal trials and directed successful BLA filings and rest of world regulatory filings for NME (new molecular entity) first-in-class CD20xCD3 bispecific antibodies Lunsumio® (mosunetuzumab) and Columvi® (glofitamab) for indolent and aggressive B-cell lymphomas. Previously, Dr. Laport was Chief Medical Officer at Tempest Therapeutics, where she directed the clinical development of small molecules that combine both tumor-targeted and immune-mediated mechanisms, including several IND submissions. Prior to Tempest, she was Vice President of Clinical Development at Corvus Pharmaceuticals, where she led the clinical development of small molecules and antibodies targeting the adenosine pathway to treat advanced solid tumors. Before Corvus, Dr. Laport was a professor of medicine in the Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (BMT) at Stanford University School of Medicine where her research focused on adoptive immunotherapies for malignant diseases. She also served as Director of Clinical Research in the BMT Division and as an associate director of the Stanford Cancer Institute. Prior to Stanford, Dr. Laport was an assistant professor in hematology/oncology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Laport served on the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee, was national chair of the NIH-sponsored BMT Clinical Trials Network that directs multicenter clinical trials and has co-authored over 80 publications. 

Dr. Laport received her MD from the University of Texas-Houston and a BA from Baylor University. She completed her internal medicine residency and fellowship in hematology/oncology at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Shishir Gadam joined CARGO Therapeutics as CTO in January 2022. He is a seasoned biotechnology leader with over 25 years of experience and brings a wealth of CMC experience across vaccines, biologics and cell therapy modalities. Shishir is passionate about building strong technical teams and accelerating development and commercialization of new products and technology.

Most recently, Shishir was Vice President of Global Cell Therapy Manufacturing Science and Technology at BMS (acquired Celgene, which acquired Juno Therapeutics, his previous company). He played an instrumental role in the global licensure and launch of the CAR T-cell products Breyanzi® (lisocabtagene maraleucel) and Abecma® (idecabtagene vicleucel) and built a global technical organization responsible for product life cycle management, commercialization, technology transfers and support of internal and external manufacturing. Prior to BMS, Shishir spent 12 years at Genentech/Roche in various global leadership roles in Biologics Technical Development and Operations focused on CMC life cycle management, manufacturing science, new facility startup, technology transfers and Site Operations. Shishir established technical teams in multiple countries and interacted with global health authorities to support Roche’s Biologics portfolio, including critical new launches of Actemra® (tocilizumab), Perjeta® (pertuzumab), Ocrevus® (ocrelizumab) and Tecentriq® (atezolizumab). Prior to Genentech, he was at Merck and Company’s Vaccine/Bioprocess Technical Development Organization and played a key role in the development and approval of critical vaccines including Gardasil® (Human Papillomavirus Quadrivalent Vaccine, Recombinant).

Shishir earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a Masters in Chemical Engineering from West Virginia University and a BS in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Chemical Technology in India. In 2017, he was inducted to the AIMBE College of Fellows for his outstanding contributions in developing, scaling up, designing and starting up manufacturing processes and factories, along with defining the product technology lifecycle strategy for multiple products.

Dr. Michael Ports joined CARGO as Chief Scientific Officer in August 2023.  He brings extensive scientific leadership expertise to his role at CARGO with multi-company cell therapy drug development experience spanning early discovery initiatives through late-stage development. 

Prior to joining CARGO, Michael was the Vice President and Head of Cell Therapy Discovery at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, overseeing the strategy and management of teams to advance both autologous and allogeneic cell therapy development candidates. Before joining Janssen, Michael held roles of increasing responsibility at Juno Therapeutics (acquired by Celgene Corporation) and Celgene (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb) where he served as head of late-stage research. In this role, he led pre-clinical efforts that enabled two investigational new drug (IND) applications in multiple myeloma for the anti-BCMA CAR T, JCARH125, and five IND/IND amendments and documentation for a BLA filing in support of the anti-CD19 CAR T, Breyanzi®. Breyanzi® is a CAR T-cell therapy approved in the U.S. and the European Union to treat certain types of lymphoma including large B cell lymphoma (LBCL). Michael began his industry career at Gilead Sciences where he explored the use of Zydelig® and other small molecules as immuno-oncology agents for use in solid tumors. 

Michael was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. He received his PhD in Cancer Biology from the University of Arizona and his BS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from University of California, Santa Barbara. 

Kari Leetch joined CARGO as Chief People Officer (CPO) in July 2023.   

Kari is a seasoned people leader with 25 years of experience building and scaling strong and effective teams and organizations from early stage through commercialization. Prior to joining CARGO, Kari was Senior Vice President, Human Resources at ChemoCentryx, Inc. where she scaled the company through commercialization and was instrumental in its acquisition by Amgen. Prior to ChemoCentryx, Inc., she held leadership roles at Risk Management Solutions, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Cepheid where she developed and delivered the organizational and people strategies to support growing global footprints. 

Kari earned a BS in Business Administration from the University of San Diego.  

Halley Gilbert joined CARGO Therapeutics as Chief Legal Officer in September of 2023. She brings to the role over 20 years of biotechnology industry management and operations expertise, including launching new medicines and managing the private to public company transformation.

Most recently, Halley served as the Chief Legal Officer of NeoGenomics, Inc., a premier cancer diagnostic, pharma services and informatics company. Prior to NeoGenomics, she served as Chief Operating Officer of Adagio Therapeutics, Inc., (now Invivyd, Inc.), a company focused on developing broadly neutralizing antibodies for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 and future coronavirus outbreaks. In just over one year as an operating company, her contributions supported the seamless transition of Adagio to public company status, significant financings, advancing the pipeline and building the team. Previously, Halley spent 12 years in various roles of increasing scope and responsibility at Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc., including Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Administrative Officer with oversight of corporate and business development, legal, compliance and government affairs. Prior to joining Ironwood, she was Vice President, Deputy General Counsel at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and participated in the launch of Cubist’s blockbuster antibiotic.  Halley also served as a corporate counsel at Genzyme Corp., prior to its acquisition by Sanofi. She began her career at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, where she specialized in mergers and acquisitions and securities law. Halley currently serves on the boards of directors of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc., CytomX Therapeutics, Inc. and Vaxcyte, Inc.  

Halley holds a BA from Tufts University and a JD from Northwestern University School of Law.