Richard Heyman is Senior Vice President of Drug Discovery at Kalypsys, Inc. In 1999, he co-founded X-Ceptor Therapeutics, a drug discovery company that focused on the identification of new therapeutic agents targeting nuclear receptors for the treatment of metabolic diseases. He was Chief Scientific Officer and Senior Vice President of Research at X-Ceptor, and on acquisition of that company by Exelixis in 2004, he was appointed Senior Vice President of Metabolic Diseases and site head for the San Diego research site. Prior to founding X-Ceptor, Dr. Heyman held the position of Vice President of Nuclear Receptor Discovery at Ligand Pharmaceuticals and was responsible for multiple-drug- discovery- programs, including the successful discovery and development of Panretin (alitretinoin) and Targretin (bexarotene), retinoids approved for the treatment of cancer. Dr. Heyman has more than a dozen issued patents and has coauthored over 100 scientific publications. He received his BS in Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and his PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota.