Vice President Marketing
Palvella Therapeutics
Co-Founder
Team Hydro
Board Member Since 2024
Peter is a commercial leader in the biotechnology/pharmaceutical industry where his focus has been on the successful launch and commercialization of new medicines and diagnostic tests in a variety of therapeutic areas including neuroscience, oncology, infectious disease, ophthalmology, and dermatology. He is currently serving as Vice President of Marketing at Palvella Therapeutics. Peter has built and led teams at companies of all sizes, from Fortune 500 to start-up, and has served in various leadership capacities at biotech and diagnositc companies including Roche/Genentech, Vir Biotechnology, Pardes Biosciences, Inflection Medicine, Partner Therapeutics, and in healthcare management consulting at ZS Associates.
Peter has a deep, personal connection to the hydrocephalus cause and community; his sister Kate developed post hemorrhagic hydrocephalus as a preemie and lived with shunted hydrocephalus throughout her life. Despite a (mostly) healthy childhood, Kate experienced complications which ultimately led to her passing in 2010 from a CNS infection after enduring over 150 brain surgeries. Inspired by Kate’s courage and grace, and motivated to see that others need not suffer as she did, Peter founded The Team Hydro Foundation with his family in 2008 where he continues to serve as Board Chair and Executive Director. Team Hydro raises funds and awareness for hydrocephalus research primarily through open water swims, with their banner event being an annual swim from Alcatraz to San Francisco. Team Hydro has raised nearly $2 million for hydrocephalus research and has enabled over $1 million in research grants through the Hydrocephalus Association’s various research initiatives. Peter and his family began working with HA in the early 2000s; his mother Pam previously served on the HA board from 2015-2024, and his brother Dr. Samuel Finlayson sits on HA’s Research Advisory Committee.
Peter completed his graduate and undergraduate studies at Stanford University, where he met his wife Nina; they now live in the Philadelphia suburbs with their four sons James, Samuel, Michael, and Jesse. Peter is a very active member of his community, filling leadership positions in his church congregation and coaching 5-6 different youth sports teams each year. Peter was a two-time national champion on Stanford’s Varsity Water Polo Team and loves spending time outdoors — especially fly fishing!
