Ken Kahtava

Ken Kahtava, Chief Business Officer, joined the FSHD Society staff in January 2022 after working with us as a consultant, focused on business development strategies to support our Therapeutic Accelerator program.  Ken has held senior leadership roles in non-profit/research advocacy and various private industries for more than thirty years. He worked with our CEO, Mark Stone, at the Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) Foundation where he led business development strategy and industry engagement to support therapeutic development from 2007 to 2012, resulting in the first-ever approved drug for ADPKD.  Thereafter, Ken worked as a consultant, providing guidance to the rare disease units of pharmaceutical and biotech organizations to engage non-profit research-focused advocacy organizations to accelerate treatments to patients.  Throughout his career, Ken has also been heavily involved in architecting health IT applications designed to improve patient education, participation in clinical research and healthcare provider engagement.

Passionate about getting approved therapies to patients with unmet medical needs globally, Ken is focused on accelerating treatments to FSHD patients alongside his colleagues at the FSHD Society.