Alumni Spotlight: John Maroney, '75

John Maroney graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1975. Currently, he is the CEO of Alessa Therapeutics, a pre-clinical stage company developing implantable drug delivery systems focused on sustained delivery of drugs to solid organ tumors. Arising from the work done in Dr. Pamela Munster’s labs at UC San Francisco, Alessa’s initial focus is on breast and prostate cancer. Maroney has held several leadership positions over his career and has been on a number of boards. Since graduating, he has remained involved with the College of Engineering in various ways. He served on a strategic leadership board, delivered a keynote speech for the opening of the Engineering Inventors display in Kemper Hall and hosted an engineering alumni event.

The most useful thing he learned at UC Davis was how to think through problems and continuously learn. Maroney’s advice to current students or young alumni is to “get hands-on practical experience, learn to lead, enhance your communication skills and seek collaborative team experiences.”