John L. Higgins

John L. Higgins is President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc. Prior to joining Ligand, Mr. Higgins served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President, Finance, Administration and Corporate Development, of Connetics Corporation, a specialty pharmaceutical company acquired by Stiefel Laboratories in December 2006. Before joining Connetics, he was a member of the executive management team at BioCryst Pharmaceuticals. Currently he is a Director on the boards of Techne Corporation, CoMentis and BioCryst, and serves as Chairperson on the BioCryst audit committee. Prior to BioCryst, Mr. Higgins was a member of the health care banking team of Dillon, Read & Co. Inc., an investment banking firm. Mr. Higgins serves as a Director of numerous public and private companies. He graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University with an B.A. in economics.