Coya Therapeutics announced that Wilbur Ross, who held the secretary post from 2017 to 2021, participated in the placement, which consisted of a sale of 4.3 million shares of common stock at $6.06 per share. Ross, whose resume also includes a long career in bankruptcy restructuring, is expected to join Coya's board after the placement closes on or around December 11. Prior to his appointment as secretary, Ross led New York-based WL Ross Holding Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, also called a blank-check company.

The SPAC acquired Nexeo Solutions in 2016 in a $1.58 billion deal, which took The Woodlands-based chemical and plastics distributor public. Nexeo later was acquired by Downers Grove, Illinois-based Univar in a 2019 deal valued at approximately $2 billion. Ross, who became chairman of Nexeo in the 2016 deal, stepped away from his board duties when he was appointed to President Donald Trump's cabinet in 2017.

He was succeeded as Nexeo chairman by Dan Smith, a former Lyondell Chemical Co. chairman, president and CEO. More recently, Ross formed another SPAC, called Ross Acquisition Corp.

II, in 2021. That blank-check company was set to merge with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotechnology company Aprinoia Therapeutics Inc. However, Aprinoia said in August that the two companies had come to a mutual agreement to call off the deal.