Dr. J. Joseph Kim was appointed president and CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in June 2009. Dr. Kim cofounded VGX Pharmaceuticals, a synthetic vaccine company, in 2000, to develop intellectual property related to immunotherapeutics licensed from the University of Pennsylvania. He led that company for nine years and acquired Inovio Biomedical in 2009 to form Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Kim was a senior vaccine developer at Merck & Co., where he successfully led efforts in manufacturing and process development for several FDA-approved products for hepatitis, and developmental vaccines and therapeutics for HIV/AIDS. Dr. Kim earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering and economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was a U.S. Senate Honors Scholar. He holds a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and a master's degree in business administration (finance) from the Wharton School. Dr. Kim has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, holds numerous patents and sits on several editorial boards and review panels.