Susan Benton joined the Ocuphire Board in November 2020. She serves as the General Manager and Head of the U.S. for Thea Pharma, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Thea Laboratories, a leading independent ophthalmic pharmaceutical company, since 2019. Ms Benton has extensive experience in building companies and brands with deep expertise in strategy, commercial operations, and business development. Ms. Benton’s career spans more than 30 years in life sciences with over 20 years focused in ophthalmology. From 2015-2019, Susan served in a number of key leadership positions while at Shire and played an instrumental role in the expansion of the ophthalmic pipeline. As the Head of New Products, she led the Ophthalmic Innovation Committee that shaped and executed the growth strategy for the franchise. Before joining Shire, Susan served in a leadership capacity in Global Business Development for Bausch + Lomb Pharmaceuticals where she and the Corporate Development team transacted over 10 deals in 3 years. She was a co-Founder and CCO for an ophthalmic start-up, Sirion Therapeutics, where she launched and oversaw the commercialization of Durezol® and Zirgan® before being sold to Alcon and B+L respectively. Susan began her ophthalmic career at B+L where she assumed leadership roles as the Head of Diversified Products and as the VP of Professional Sales. During her tenure she launched B+L’s first ever branded products, Lotemax® and Alrex®, in addition to Optivar® through a co-promote with Muro Pharmaceutical. She has also served as a strategic consultant for more than a dozen start-up ophthalmic companies. Her experience outside of ophthalmology includes roles as the VP of Consumer and Professional Sales for J&J’s diabetes franchise, LifeScan, and senior manager roles in Sanofi Pasteur’s vaccine business. Ms. Benton serves on the boards of two privately held ophthalmic companies; Tarsius Pharma and Translatum Medicus, Inc. (TMi) since 2019. Susan earned her MBA the University of South Florida and a BS in Biology from Muhlenberg College.