Who We Are – Pondera Officers and Directors

William Crain, Esq is the President, CEO, Director and co-founder of Pondera.  Bill attended Princeton University, graduated from Cornell University with a BA in Economics and got his law degree from New York University Law School. As a litigation and managing partner is several law firms, Bill has been lead counsel in complex legal and regulatory litigation as well as responsible for management and financial affairs.

Steven Crain, PhD — Chief Operating Officer, Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer for Nutraceutical Division, Director and co-founder of Pondera. Dr. Steven Crain has worked on the Endorphin Project since 1985 overseeing the clinical research. Steven is a psychotherapist and has been President & CEO of Therapeutic Alliance in State College, PA since he founded the integrative health center in 1980. During that time Steven was instrumental in the development of several Health Maintenance Organizations and Employee Assistance Programs, including the negotiation and operation of the HealthAmerica HMO behavioral health program and Magellan/ValueOptions EAP for Penn State University, providing services for 25,000+ employees and dependents. In addition to his private practice, Steven was Clinical Director (1984-1994) at The Center for Counseling and Psychological Services at Penn State University where he also taught from 1981 to 1994. He earned his BA in Psychology from Oberlin College and his PhD in Clinical Psychology from Duke University where he was awarded USPHS Clinical and Research Fellowships.  Steven has worked closely with his father, Dr. Stanley Crain, in Pondera’s groundbreaking discoveries regarding the critical role of endorphin system imbalances in the development of emotional and physical distress conditions, as well as the development of our scientifically formulated nutraceutical products that restore endorphin balance.  Drs. Steven and Stanley Crain are the principle inventors of our Distress Dysfunction patent, which is the foundation of many of our products.  Steven has conducted extensive clinical research to validate the safety and efficacy of our products, and is developing collaborative research partnerships with several major university medical research centers for this purpose.

Stanley M. Crain, PhD – Chief Scientific Officer of Pondera’s Pharmaceutical Division.  Dr. Stanley Crain’s discoveries related to the bimodal nature of opioid receptors underlie the foundation of our endorphin science.  Stanley is Professor of Neuroscience, now Emeritus, at Albert Einstein School of Medicine where he taught since 1965, and previously at Columbia University. He was Section Head of Abbott Laboratories for four years and Senior Consultant to Pain Therapeutics, Inc for eight years. Stanley has received 14 patents for his work on endorphin-based pain and addiction relievers, published over 143 papers in prestigious peer reviewed scholarly journals, and received numerous prestigious awards and honors for his major contributions to medicine and neuroscience.   Stanley M. Crain C.V. (Patents, Awards and Publications)

Stanley founded the Opioid Antagonist Research Project in 1985 in order to bring together a professional team that could translate his paradigm-changing scientific discoveries regarding the endogenous opioid system into products that could help millions of sufferers of pain, addiction, and stress.  In 1996, this team shifted its focus to the Endorphin Project and went on to found Pondera Pharmaceuticals in 2009.

Stanley graduated from City College NY and immediately went to work on the Manhattan Project as part of the secret team to develop the atomic bomb. After the war he earned his PhD in Biophysics from Columbia University.

Michael Crain, MD — Chief Medical Officer, Director and co-founder of Pondera.  Dr. Michael Crain has been a medical research consultant to the Endorphin Project (formerly the Opioid Antagonist Project) since 1987. His medical practice is in radiology and since 1988 he has been President & CEO, Radiologic Associates Of Middletown Chairman, Department Of Radiology, Middlesex Hospital, CT. Michael graduated Summa Cum Laude from Oberlin College and obtained his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine.