Pliant Therapeutics, Inc. announced the appointment of Steve Krognes to fill the Class III vacancy on the Board. In addition, effective as of the Effective Date, the Board appointed Mr. Krognes to serve as Chairperson of the Audit Committee of the Board (the ?Audit Committee?) upon the recommendation of the Nominating and Governance Committee. Mr. Krognes is a highly accomplished biopharmaceutical executive who brings over 30 years of financial and corporate strategy experience in leading and guiding life science companies across all stages of development.

Most recently, and up until his retirement in 2022, Mr. Krognes served as Chief Financial Officer of Denali Therapeutics, a role he founded, contributing significantly to the company?s strong financial position and growth. Prior to this, Mr. Krognes held the role of Chief Financial Officer at Genentech overseeing the integration of Genentech and Roche Holding AG in the U.S. and Genentech and InterMune. Prior to Genentech, Mr. Krognes served as Global Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Roche.

Early in his career, Mr. Krognes worked in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs, served as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and was aventure capitalist in Scandinavia. In addition to Pliant, Mr. Krognes currently serves on the boards of Denali Therapeutics, Guardant Health and argenx, as well as ClavystBio. Mr. Krognesreceived an M.B A. from Harvard Business School and a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.