John Smither

John Smither is a Senior Advisor on the Frazier Life Sciences team and has over 25 years of financial experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Before joining Frazier Life Sciences, John served as the Chief Financial Officer of Arcutis Biotherapeutics, Inc. from May 2019 to March 2021 and ad interim from September 2023 to April 2024. At Arcutis, he was responsible for all financial aspects and led Arcutis’ successful initial public offering and four follow-on financings. Prior to Arcutis, John was the Chief Financial Officer at Sienna Biopharmaceutics from January 2016 to April 2017, and again from April 2018 to March 2019.

John also served as the interim CFO at Kite Pharma, a Gilead Company, from November 2017 through April 2018, and was the CFO of Unity Biotechnology from January 2016 to July 2017. As the CFO at Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, he was responsible for all financial activities during early clinical stage development through approval and launch, led private fundraising rounds, prepared Kythera for its successful initial public offering in October 2012, and oversaw its acquisition by Allergan plc. At Amgen Inc., John held several financial positions of increasing responsibility, including Vice President of Finance and Administration for Amgen’s European operations in 28 countries, and served as Executive Director of Corporate Accounting.

John is currently on the Board of NewAmsterdam Pharma (Nasdaq: NAMS) and Genlux Corporation (Nasdaq: GNLX). He has served as a member of the Board of Directors at Applied Molecular Transport Inc., eFFECTOR Therapeutics Inc., Principia Biopharma Inc., and Achaogen, Inc.

John began his career at Ernst & Young, where he was audit partner and held a certification as a Certified Public Accountant (inactive). He holds a B.S. in Accounting, with honors, from California State University at Los Angeles.