Elios Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative autologous, particle-delivered, dendritic cell cancer vaccines, today announced the appointment of Phillip Johnson as chief financial officer, effective immediately. Mr. Johnson brings more than 25 years of financial and operational leadership experience in both publicly traded and private companies.

"We are delighted to welcome Phil to Elios," said Buddy Long, chief executive officer of Elios Therapeutics. "Phil is a seasoned healthcare and financial executive with a distinguished track record of building commercial opportunities, raising capital and negotiating business development transactions. His range of industry expertise and leadership skills will serve us well as we advance our leading personalized therapeutic cancer vaccine, TLPLDC (tumor lysate, particle-loaded, dendritic cell vaccine), through clinical trials and into commercialization for the prevention of disease recurrence in patients with high-risk melanoma."

"I am thrilled to join Elios Therapeutics at this exciting time in the Company's growth and development," said Phillip Johnson. "Elios has a truly innovative immuno-oncology platform with potential applicability across a broad range of tumor types. I look forward to working with the management team to advance the program and further Elios' mission of developing next-generation immunotherapies that may make a meaningful difference in the lives of patients, caregivers and physicians."

Mr. Johnson joins Elios after having served as an executive and consultant for a number of publicly traded, privately held, private equity and pre-IPO companies, developing strategy and leading efforts to support fundraising, acquisitions, deal structures, growing finance functions, and improving working capital. Over the course of his career, Mr. Johnson has provided companies with more than $850M in debt and equity financing to provide sound financial footing and substantial growth – including the development of corporate environments that have delivered shareholder returns ranging from 50 to 1,700 percent.

Prior to consulting, Mr. Johnson served as chief financial officer for Xeris Pharmaceuticals where he raised $65M in equity capital in Series B and C financings. Prior to Xeris, Mr. Johnson was vice president and corporate controller at ArthroCare Corporation, a publicly traded private equity backed medical device company. During his tenure at ArthoCare, Mr. Johnson helped lead the financial reengineering activities that helped increase the Company's market capital from $100M to $1.7B before it was acquired in May 2014. Earlier in his career, he served in several key finance and leadership roles at Maverick Tube Corporation, SAVI, LLC and Primary Webworks and completed two commissions with Arthur Andersen and KPMG. Mr. Johnson is a certified public accountant and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Accounting from Furman University.