Leadership
Mani Mohindru, PhD
Interim Chief Executive Officer
Mani Mohindru has served as interim Chief Executive Officer since January 2026 and been a director since 2021. She was most recently the CEO of Novasanta, an oncology focused biotech company, and a Director on the Board of CytomX, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTMX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. Dr. Mohindru previously worked in executive roles at several additional biotechnology companies, having served as Chief Executive Officer of CereXis, Inc., Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Cara Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CARA), and Chief Strategy Officer at Curis, Inc (Nasdaq: CRIS). Prior to her leadership roles in the biotechnology industry, Dr. Mohindru spent several years as an equity research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at UBS, Credit Suisse and ThinkEquity. She also co-founded a privately held biotechnology company and was a healthcare industry consultant. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of SAB Biotherapeutics, a clinical-stage private biopharmaceutical company.
On the non-profit side, Dr. Mohindru is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the Chemistry of Life Processes Institute of Northwestern University and a member of the Scientific Investment Advisory Committee of the Gates Center of Regenerative Medicine at the University of Colorado. Dr. Mohindru received her Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Northwestern University and her master’s in biotechnology and BS in Human Biology (Hons) from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, India.
Roger Sidhu, MD
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Sidhu is an accomplished and seasoned drug developer who joins Cardiff Oncology with over 20 years of oncology leadership and clinical experience. Dr. Sidhu has advanced therapeutics across multiple modalities, and from Phase 1 to Phase 3 clinical development and through commercial launch. Dr. Sidhu was most recently Acting CEO and Chief Medical Officer at Treadwell Therapeutics, a privately held biotechnology company where he was responsible for advancing a portfolio of small molecules for the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. Prior to that role, Dr. Sidhu has held the role of VP of Clinical Development at Kite, a Gilead Company, Chief Medical Officer at Cell Design Labs, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Roivant Sciences, and Chief Medical Officer at Eterna Therapeutics (now Ernexa).
Dr. Sidhu spent nearly 10 years at Amgen in roles of increasing responsibility in the Hematology/Oncology therapeutic area where he advanced multiple therapeutic candidates. In metastatic colorectal cancer, he led multiple phase 3 clinical trials of panitumumab (Vectibix®) in monotherapy and in combination with chemotherapy leading to approvals in the U.S. and globally. Dr. Sidhu was also a leader in advancing the science of RAS biology and therapeutics in metastatic colorectal cancer, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Sidhu is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in both internal medicine and medical oncology. He earned his medical degree from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta.
Tod Smeal, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer
Dr. Smeal has served as Chief Scientific Officer since January 2022. Previously he was CSO at Hexagon Bio (2020-2021), CSO of Cancer Biology at Eli Lilly and Company (2015-2020), Director at the Oncology Research Unit of Pfizer (2003-2015), and Senior Group Leader at the SUGEN site of Pharmacia and Upjohn and SUGEN (1998-2003). When Pfizer closed the SUGEN site in 2003, Dr. Smeal continued his oncology research efforts on targeted therapies and their resistance mechanisms with Pfizer at their San Diego oncology research site. Subsequently in 2015, Dr. Smeal joined Eli Lilly where he led their oncology research efforts at Lilly Research Labs in Indianapolis. During his over 20 years in industry working on targeted therapies, Dr. Smeal has played key leadership roles in delivering about 20 FHD/NMEs and several FDA approved or soon to be approved drugs (e.g., Lorbrena, Xalkori, Vizimpro and Nirogacestat). Dr. Smeal’s work in developing cancer therapies has been focused on intracellular signaling, kinases, drug pharmacology, and targeted therapies and their resistance mechanisms. He has over 45 publications which includes high impact publications in Cell, Nature, New England Journal of Medicine, Cancer Cell and Cancer Discovery.
From 1994 to 1998, Dr. Smeal was a post-doctoral fellow of the American Cancer Society and a senior post-doctoral fellow of the MIT-Merck fellowship program. Dr. Smeal holds a B.S. in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego.
Brigitte Lindsay
Chief Accounting Officer
Brigitte Lindsay has served as Chief Accounting Officer since January 2026. She has been with the Company for more than 14 years and was most recently the Senior Vice President of Finance. Ms. Lindsay brings extensive biotech experience to the company having previously served as Controller for AviaraDx both before and after acquisition by bioMérieux. Prior to AviaraDx, she was Manager of Financial Reporting and Analysis at publicly traded Carl Zeiss Meditec which is majority owned by the global bioscience optics leader Carl Zeiss AG. Ms. Lindsay has held progressively increasing finance and accounting positions at other leading companies including Philips-Respironics. She adds a global finance perspective having worked for multinational corporations and in both the US and Germany.
Ms. Lindsay received her Diplom Betriebswirt from the Verwaltungs und Wirtsschafts Akademie in Munich, Germany.