Leadership Team

Sheldon is an accomplished leader in the cardiovascular space and brings over 25 years of experience to Esperion. Most recently, he was chief commercial officer at Portola Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Portola, Sheldon was senior vice president and head of the cardiovascular franchise for Sanofi, where he led U.S. business operations and product launches in more than 20 countries. Previously, he served as vice president and global brand leader for the cardiovascular division of Merck where he took on roles of increasing responsibility within the cardiovascular and thrombosis franchises for more than 25 years, and led marketing for the launch of ezetimibe.

Sheldon holds a Master of Business Administration from Monmouth University, and a Bachelor of Applied Science from Drexel University. He also completed the leadership program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Glenn Brame joined Esperion as Chief Technical Operations Officer in February 2023. Glenn brings over 30 years of extensive global experience in manufacturing, quality, and supply chain operations, including two multi-year technical and quality operations leadership assignments in Switzerland. One to lead the start-up and approval of a new biologic manufacturing facility in Neuchatel Switzerland and the other to lead global product quality for Roche in Basel Switzerland.

Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Technical Operations at Zymergen where he led the synthetic biologic company’s manufacturing of advanced materials. Prior to Zymergen, Glenn was the Chief Technical Operations Officer for Portola pharmaceuticals during the successful approval and launch of Andexxa. Before Portola, he was Vice President of Supplier and Contract Manufacturing Excellence for Genentech, where he was responsible for the global transformation of quality, manufacturing, technical services and supply chain operations for both biologics and small molecule products.

During his tenure at Genentech, Glenn also served as Vice President of Global Product Quality and helped lead the successful start-up of two new biologic manufacturing sites in Oregon and Singapore. Previously, Mr. Brame was Senior Vice President of Technical Development and Operations, leading a team of 1,200 professionals for Chiron Corporation and, upon its acquisition, Novartis.

Glenn holds a Master of Business Administration from Delta State University and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Dr. JoAnne Micale Foody is a distinguished healthcare thought leader and a respected leading clinical expert, particularly in the cardiovascular industry, with more than 25 years of experience. She has diverse and extensive experience in discovery, diligence, early and late-stage clinical research, medical affairs, and project leadership.

As Chief Medical Officer for Esperion, JoAnne is responsible for Clinical Development, Clinical Operations, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacokinetics, BioAnalytics, Research and Development, Pharmacovigilance/Drug Safety, International Development, Medical Affairs and Advocacy.

JoAnne joined Esperion after six years with Johnson & Johnson, where she served in roles of increasing responsibility within Janssen Pharmaceuticals. Most recently she served as vice president and head of data sciences for cardiovascular, metabolism pulmonary hypertension and retinal therapeutic areas, where she was responsible for Janssen’s data science strategy and execution. Previously, she served as Janssen’s vice president and compound development team leader for the Xarelto™ program, working closely across the Janssen buyer alliance to execute on this multi-billion-dollar compound. Prior to that, JoAnne led cardiovascular medical affairs for Janssen.

JoAnne began her corporate career at Merck Research Labs, where she served as global director scientific affairs of cardiovascular and metabolism, formulating franchise strategy and leading compound candidate selection through proof of concept to clinical practice. During this time, she led multiple project teams including not only supporting ezetimibe, but also provided leadership and strategic direction on small molecules targeting atherosclerosis, heart failure, hypertension, and pulmonary hypertension.

JoAnne spent over two decades in academic cardiology and is a known international expert in preventive cardiology, having served as an assistant professor at Yale and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. She has published extensively with over 200 peer reviewed articles, guidelines, multiple chapters and authoritative textbooks in preventive cardiology, including the highly acclaimed leading cardiovascular disease textbook Preventive Cardiology: Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease.

JoAnne is a board-certified cardiologist, a Fellow of the American Heart Association, and a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

JoAnne earned a Medical Doctorate at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Mr. Looker began his legal career as a corporate lawyer at Goodwin Procter LLP and joins Esperion most recently from Trillium Therapeutics, where he served on the executive team as the company’s first general counsel, managing all of the company’s legal matters, including corporate governance and SEC compliance, risk management and intellectual property asset protection, until the company’s acquisition by Pfizer Inc. in November 2021. Prior to Trillium Therapeutics, he served as Vice President, Head of U.S. Legal and Global Business Operations for MorphoSys US Inc., a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company where he provided guidance on multiple business initiatives, including sales and marketing activities, business development, corporate structure, the enforcement environment and risk mitigation strategies. Prior to MorphoSys, Mr. Looker held legal roles of increasing responsibility at EMD Serono, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Merck KGaA Darmstadt, Germany.

Mr. Looker received his B.S. degree in finance and management information systems from Boston College and his J.D. from Boston College Law School.

Betty Jean (BJ), Swartz joined Esperion as Vice President of Market Access, HEOR & Policy in February 2021 and was named Chief Strategy Officer in March 2022 and Chief Business Officer in September 2023. She is responsible for the oversight of the organization's vision, innovative capabilities, and corporate strategy in addition to driving Global/US Market Access initiatives, development of the value proposition via Health Economics Outcomes Research and synthesizing with Government Affairs/Policy initiatives. BJ will be spearheading the organization’s strategic planning processes while creating brand cohesion, message alignment and also driving key innovation efforts while leveraging the organization’s product data and value proposition to provide insights in shaping corporate branding.

BJ has 30 years of pharma/biotech experience, spending the first half of her career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where she held various commercial leadership roles leading up to the Vice President of Healthcare Systems. Post Wyeth, BJ has led both Global/US Market Access and Government Affairs across various companies, from small pre-IPO, midsize to large biotech companies including Auxilium, Kaleo, Celgene, Portola, and, most recently, Agios. She also founded her own boutique market access consulting firm.

BJ holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of North Carolina Charlotte in English with a minor in Nursing from Bryn Mawr School of Nursing.  She also holds a Master of Organizational Leadership from Cabrini University and attended Celgene’s Executive Program at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. 

Eric Warren joined Esperion as Vice President, US Sales and Marketing in January 2021 and became Chief Commercial Officer in March 2022.  He has extensive marketing and sales leadership experience, with 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Over that time, Eric has developed a breadth of clinical and commercial expertise, focusing primarily on cardio-metabolic and acute care medicine.

Prior to joining Esperion, Eric was Vice President, Head of Sales and Marketing at Nabriva Therapeutics, and also held Vice President roles at Sanofi. In all of these roles, Eric made it his mission to unify sales and marketing teams to enable rapid patient adoption. Eric also spent several years at Merck & Co. in various sales and marketing leadership roles.

Eric holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy and is a licensed pharmacist in New York State.