Thomas has more than 30 years of experience in research and drug development of novel therapeutics for retinal diseases. His deep experience and success in developing FDA-approved therapies includes serving as Allergan’s vice president of retinal translational medicine and drug development, where he managed the preclinical and early clinical development of therapies for exudative AMD and geographic atrophy (GA). At Alcon, he held the position of retina therapeutic area head, developing therapies for GA and diabetic macular edema. Prior to that, he was Novartis’ clinical lead for the development of treatments for exudative AMD and diabetic macular edema (DME). Thomas began his career in drug development at Wyeth-Ayerst, where he led the discovery program in diabetic neuropathy and retinopathy. He is the founder of Envision Consulting, which evaluates the potential for success of new therapies and provides guidance to small and large pharmaceutical companies as well as academic laboratories focused on developing novel therapies for retinal diseases, including inherited retinal dystrophies, DME, GA, neovascular AMD, macular telangiectasia, retinal fibrosis, and gene therapy. Thomas earned his Ph.D. at the University of California and completed fellowships at the NIH’s National Heart Blood and Lung Institute and National Eye Institute.