Daniel Schmitt, '80, To Ring Wall Street Bell

From The Friendly City to Wall Street, Wheeling native Daniel M. Schmitt knows the path
to success can take many twists and turns.

Schmitt, 62, who is President and Chief Executive Officer of Actuate Therapeutics, Inc. in Chicago, will
join family and members of his company’s team to ring the NASDAQ bell marking the start of trading on
Wall Street at 9:30 a.m. Friday in New York City. The event will mark yet another milestone in Actuate’s
research and clinical trials in the treatment of pancreatic cancer and Ewing sarcoma.

A Wheeling native and product of The Linsly School, Schmitt received his M.B.A and a B.S. in chemistry
from West Virginia University, and has held research positions affiliated with the National Foundation
for Cancer Research and at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

With more than 30 years of industry experience in operations management, new product development
and business development, Schmitt has held senior executive positions in both large pharmaceutical and
small biotechnology companies, including Burrough’s Wellcome, Fujisawa, Searle/Pharmacia, and Ilex
Oncology.

He founded Actuate in 2015, employing a team of top notch experts in the fields of science, chemistry,
quality assurance, finances and clinical operations. Together, this team has been working on the tools
needed to combat the effects of certain cancers and to extend the lives of those afflicted.

According to Actuate’s website, “Actuate’s lead drug, elraglusib (a novel GSK-3 inhibitor), targets
multiple molecular pathways in cancer that are involved in promoting tumor growth and resistance to
conventional cancer drugs such as chemotherapy. Elraglusib is also emerging as a mediator of anti-
tumor immunity through the inhibition of multiple immune checkpoints and the regulation of immune
cell function.”

Schmitt said while a cure for cancer is always on the minds of researchers and scientists, “ as cancer
includes more than 265 different and distinct diseases , the task can be daunting.” Actuate works to
develop drugs specifically targeting pathways driving development of tumor cells while avoiding
harming the good cells. The results have shown very minimal side effects from the drugs developed by
Actuate.

“I like to think my super power is surrounding myself with people who are much smarter than me. This
is a vocation … literally 60 or more hours a week.

“We are in the late mid-stage of clinical trials. We have completed enrollment in mid-stage trials with
286 patients in clinical sites from across the United States, Europe, and Canada. What we are focused on
is increasing the time of overall survival.” One such site is located at WVU Hospital in Morgantown.
Actuate’s headquarters and early financial investors are located in Texas.

During a phone interview this week, Schmitt said his interest in chemistry and pharmaceuticals came
early at the heels of his veterinarian father, the late Dr. Clement Schmitt. “I started working in his clinic
when I was 8 years old. All of us boys had to go to work early in life. Part of of my job was working in the
pharmacy at Dad’s vet clinic,” he said. Dan credits further inspiration to his science instructors at Linsly,
including Noel Schwertfeger and Garth Innocenti, and headmaster Col. Ronald Salvador who served as a
model of respect, responsibility and leadership.

That exposure to pharmacy, surgery and farm calls, and leadership served as the attraction and training
ground for his future career before he headed off to college where he was a chemistry major. During the
late 1980s, his work included new product research into infectious diseases and treatments when AIDs
was making headlines.

Schmitt is married to his college sweetheart, Sharon Bryant Schmitt, who is from Glen Dale. The couple
resides in Chicago with their three children, Andrew, Edward and Anna. His mother is the late Maxine
Schmitt.