Best Startup
At Best Startup US we track over 1,000,000 US startups and over 3 million people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United States based President operating in the Biotechnology space. If you think a President is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.us.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Emily Reuter
Vice President of Strategy and Operations of Color
Emily Reuter is the Vice President of Strategy and Operations at Color.
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About Color: Color is a population health technology company that enables the delivery of advanced healthcare through clinical genetics.
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Joyce Tung
Vice President, Research of 23andMe
Joyce Tung joined 23andMe in 2007. She has contributed to several of 23andMe’s research publications, and currently develops and manages research projects. she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in the lab of Dr. Renee Reijo Pera. At the University of California, San Francisco she focused on the genetics of egg and sperm development and human fertility. Joyce Tung returned to Stanford University for postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Gregory Barsh, where she studied the genetics of human and mouse pigmentation.
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About 23andMe: 23andMe is a DNA testing technology company that enables its users to access their ancestry, genealogy, and inherited traits.
Ron Alfa
Senior Vice President, Translational Discovery of Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Ron Alfa is Vice President, Discovery and Product at Recursion Pharmaceuticals where he manages scientific product development and external alliances across Recursion’s AI-enabled discovery platform. Ron Alfa’s scientific contributions prior to Recursion span Neurosciences, Metabolism, and Genetics.
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About Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Recursion Pharmaceuticals is a digital biology company, developing a drug discovery platform and pipeline with machine learning.
Mark Mallon
Executive Vice President, Global Product and Portfolio Strategy, Medical Affairs and Corp. Affairs of AstraZeneca
Mark Mallon is responsible for the growth and performance of AstraZeneca’s International region, which predominantly includes AstraZeneca’s commercial businesses in Asia Pacific, Russia, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa. Most recently, Mark served as Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific where he was accountable for the growth and performance of the AstraZeneca business in 14 markets. While in this role Mark has also served as President of AstraZeneca China, responsible for the company’s overall operations in China and Hong Kong. Previously, Mark led the marketing, sales and commercial operations for AstraZeneca K. K. (Japan). Since joining AstraZeneca in 1994, Mark has held a number of additional leadership roles, Including Marketing Company President of the AstraZeneca Italian subsidiary company and Vice President of Marketing and Sales Operations of AstraZeneca’s US business. While in the US, Mark also was a Board Member for the Christiana Care Network, one of the the largest healthcare networks on the East Coast. Mark received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the Wharton School of Business. He is based in Shanghai.
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About AstraZeneca, NeoGenomics: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Sean Bohen
Executive Vice-President, Global Medicines Development and Chief Medical Officer of AstraZeneca
Sean was appointed Executive Vice-President, GMD in September 2015 and leads our global late-stage development organisation for both small molecules and biologics. He is also the Company’s Chief Medical Officer and is responsible for patient safety across the entire AstraZeneca and MedImmune portfolio. He joined AstraZeneca from Genentech, where he held a number of senior leadership roles across various therapy areas and was most recently Senior Vice President of Early Development. Before joining Genentech, Sean was a Clinical Instructor in Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine, a research associate at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a postdoctoral fellow at the National Cancer Institute. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and later earned his doctorate in biochemistry and his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco.
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About AstraZeneca: AstraZeneca is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets prescription medicines.
Thomas Joyce
President & CEO of Danaher
Thomas Joyce is President and Chief Executive Officer of Danaher Corporation, a position he assumed in September 2014. Thomas is responsible for the company’s strategic vision and leads the development and growth of Danaher’s global science and technology portfolio. Thomas has more than 20 years of Danaher leadership experience. Prior to his appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer, he served as Executive Vice President of Danaher Corporation, responsible for Danaher’s Water Quality platform and Life Sciences & Diagnostics segment. In this role, Thomas increased Danaher’s Water Quality revenue by over $1.5 billion and led the company’s major acquisitions of Beckman Coulter and AB SCIEX. Throughout his tenure, Thomas has also played a key role in developing and evolving the Danaher Business System, Danaher’s common operating philosophy. Thomas began his Danaher career in 1989 as a Project Manager in the Danaher Tool Group, and later transitioned into a manufacturing role. In 1995, Thomas became President of Delta Consolidated Industries. Following this assignment, he became President of Hach Company, the world leader in analytical instrumentation for drinking water and wastewater applications in 2001. In 2002, Thomas became a Group Executive and Corporate Officer with Danaher Corporation, which led to his transition to Executive Vice President in 2006. Prior to joining Danaher, Thomas worked as a management consultant at Anderson Consulting, where he worked with a large number of manufacturing businesses to implement lean tools and optimize transactional processes. Thomas was born and raised on the north shore of Chicago and earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the College of the Holy Cross in 1982. He and his wife, Claire, live in Washington, D.C. and have four children.
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About Danaher: Danaher is a global science and technology innovator committed to helping their customers solve complex challenges and improve quality.
William H. King, IV
Senior Vice President, Strategic Development of Danaher
Mr. King is the Senior Vice President, Strategic Development for Danaher Corporation. Mr. King and his team drive market development, deal sourcing and commercial diligence at Danaher, thus co-owning the M&A process at Danaher with Mr. Daniel Raskas and the Corporate Development team. In addition, he and his team hold responsibility for the strategic planning process, tools and training. Mr. King joined Danaher in 1998 and has held positions as Managing Director of the Special Purpose Systems Motion Control Group, as well as Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Motion Control Group. Prior to joining Danaher, he held positions of increasing responsibility in live production and logistics for Perdue, Inc. Mr. King has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Economics from University of Maryland.
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About Danaher: Danaher is a global science and technology innovator committed to helping their customers solve complex challenges and improve quality.
Brenton Saunders
Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Allergan
Brent Saunders is Chief Executive Officer and President of Allergan plc (formerly Actavis plc). Brenton previously served as Chief Executive Officer and President of Forest Laboratories and had served as a Member of the Board of Directors at Forest since 2011. Brenton has significant healthcare industry expertise and a proven track-record leading business transformations and integrations. Prior to Forest, Brenton was Chief Executive Officer of Bausch + Lomb, a leading global eye health company, serving in this capacity from March 2010 until August 2013. Brenton also held a number of leadership positions at Schering-Plough, including the position of president of Global Consumer Health Care and was named head of integration for the company’s merger with Merck & Co. and for Schering-Plough’s acquisition of Organon BioSciences. Before joining Schering-Plough, Brenton was a Partner and Head of Compliance Business Advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Prior to that, Brenton was Chief Risk Officer at Coventry Health Care and Senior Vice President, Compliance, Legal and Regulatory at Home Care Corporation of America. Brenton began his career as Chief Compliance Officer for the Thomas Jefferson University Health System. Brenton serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Pittsburgh. Brenton is also the former Chairman of the New York chapter of the American Heart Association. Brenton is a Member of the Business Council and PhRMA. Brenton earned his MBA from Temple University School of Business, his J.D. from Temple University School of Law and his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
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About Allergan, Cisco: Allergan is a global pharmaceutical company.
Raymond H. Diradoorian
Executive Vice President of Allergan
Mr. Diradoorian has been Executive Vice President, Global Technical Operations since February 2006. From April 2005 to February 2006, Mr. Diradoorian served as Senior Vice President, Global Technical Operations. Since February 2001, Mr. Diradoorian served as Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology. Mr. Diradoorian joined Allergan in July 1981. Prior to joining Allergan, Mr. Diradoorian held positions at American Hospital Supply and with the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. Mr. Diradoorian received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine and a Master of Science degree in Technology Management from Pepperdine University.
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About Allergan: Allergan is a global pharmaceutical company.
Stephen Barat
Associate Vice President, Non-Clinical Development of Allergan
Stephen Barat is currently the Executive Director of Non-clinical and Translational Sciences – Safety Assessment and Bioanalysis for Allergan. He has 20 years of experience in global drug development and registration, with a specific interest in drug device combinations, the interface of safety assessment and CMC requirements, and extensive experience in the safety assessment of impurities. Dr. Barat is a member of the PQRI – PDP working group and toxicology sub-team as well as the USP Expert Panel for Biocompatability of Packaging Materials.
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About Allergan, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson: Allergan is a global pharmaceutical company.
Ronald Hutton
Vice President, Treasurer of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
James Stark
Vice President, Corporate Controller of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Mike Crowley
Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Operations of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Timothy Ernst
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary of Bio-Rad Laboratories
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About Bio-Rad Laboratories: Bio-Rad Laboratories has played a leading role in the advancement of scientific discovery for over 50 years by providing a broad range of
Junfeng Luo
Co-Founder & Vice President, R&D – NuProbe, China of NuProbe
Junfeng Luo is a Co-Founder and Vice President of R&D at NuProbe, China.
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About NuProbe: An early stage molecular diagnostics company.
RJ Fitch
Vice President Operations & General Manager of WuXi AppTec
Innovative senior management leader Raymond J. “RJ” Fitch possesses more than two decades of experience in the biotech and global healthcare industries. As the Vice President of Operations & General Manager for WuXi AppTec Advanced Therapies, Mr. Fitch leverages his knowledge of site operations and supply chain functions to oversee logistics operations, biological testing services, engineering, and other operations at the company’s Philadelphia location. RJ Fitch is responsible for three facilities within the Philadelphia site. Mr. Fitch began his career more than 20 years ago, graduating from Philadelphia University with a bachelor of science in biology. After working for Merck & Company, he joined Sanofi Pasteur as a director of vaccine aseptic filling & formulation. He stayed with the company for seven years, rising through the ranks to become the senior director of influenza viral manufacturing. Mr. Fitch later served as the associate vice president at Genzyme, a Sanofi company, and vice president of Sanofi Pasteur in Toronto, Canada. During his time with Sanofi Pasteur, RJ Fitch returned to school to earn an executive MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business.
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About WuXi AppTec: WuXi AppTec provides a broad portfolio of R&D and manufacturing services that enable companies in the pharmaceutical.
Ros Deegan
President and Chief Business Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics
Ros Deegan, MBA, is president and chief business officer of Bicycle Therapeutics Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Bicycle Therapeutics. Prior to joining Bicycle, Ros most recently served on the senior leadership team at Trevena, Inc. as senior vice president, business development and operations, and previously held the role of head of finance and operations. While at Trevena, she was responsible for start-up operations, negotiating a significant option and license agreement with Forest Laboratories, Inc., and leading finance and human resources through to the company’s first S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During her tenure, the company moved three programmes into the clinic, and raised over $200 million in private and public financings. Prior to joining Trevena, Ros served as director of business development at GSK in the U.S., leading transactions for the virtual immuno-inflammation group. Prior to that, she served as the director of operations for the Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) and as marketing manager for GSK’s U.K. launch of Bonviva for post-menopausal osteoporosis and in business development. Ros holds a first-class degree from Cambridge University and received her MBA with distinction from INSEAD.
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About Bicycle Therapeutics, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), OMass Technologies: Bicycle Therapeutics is developing a technology for the creation of new generation biotherapeutics.
John Melo
Director, President & Chief Executive Officer of Amyris
John Melo has 30 years of combined experience as an entrepreneur and thought leader in developing and growing technology companies and as a senior executive in the Oil & Gas industry. As President and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Melo has led Amyris through successful technology development, industrial start up, product development and commercialization and a series of funding rounds, including the initial public offering. Before joining Amyris in 2007, Mr. Melo served in various senior executive positions at BP Plc (formerly British Petroleum) most recently as President of U.S. fuels operations where he successfully led a business transformation and significantly improved the financial performance. During his tenure at BP, Mr. Melo also served as Chief Information Officer of the refining and marketing segment; Senior Advisor for e-business strategy to Lord Browne, BP group chief executive; and Director of global brand development. In this last role, he helped develop the “Helios” re-branding effort. Before joining BP, Mr. Melo was with Ernst & Young. Mr. Melo currently serves on the board of directors of Renmatix Inc., serves on the board of directors of BayBio, serves on the Bio Industrial and Environmental section governing board, is a member of the Council for the Portuguese Diaspora and is a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). He was formerly an appointed member to the U.S. section of the U.S.-Brazil CEO Forum. When not working on the mission of making sustainable chemistry mainstream or championing the eradication of malaria, John enjoys skiing, reading and time with his family on the island of Pico in the Azores, his childhood home.
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About Amyris: Amyris Biotechnologies specializes in creating renewable products focusing on fuels and chemicals.
Chris Mirabelli
President & CEO of Leap Therapeutics
Dr. Mirabelli has served as the Chairman of our Board of Directors since 2016 and has also served as our President and Chief Executive Officer since our inception in 2011. Dr. Mirabelli has been a managing director of HealthCare Ventures LLC since 2000. From December 1999 to May 2000, Dr. Mirabelli served as president of pharmaceutical research and development and member of the board of directors of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., following its merger with LeukoSite Inc., where Dr. Mirabelli had been serving as president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors since 1993. He was a co-founder of Ionis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: IONS), where he held several positions including senior vice president of research, from 1989 until 1993. Dr. Mirabelli started his career at SmithKline and French Laboratories (now part of GlaxoSmithKline Plc) R&D Division. He is a member of the board of advisors of the Blavatnik Biomedical Accelerator Fund at Harvard Medical School and the Boston Biomedical Innovation Center. Dr. Mirabelli is a member of the Board of Trustees of Guilford College. He received his Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from Baylor College of Medicine and a B.S. degree in biology from State University of New York at Fredonia.
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About Leap Therapeutics: Leap Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company.
Donald Monkhouse
President of Aprecia Pharmaceuticals
Donald Monkhouse is the president and chief scientist at [Aprecia Pharmaceuticals](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/aprecia-pharmaceuticals), a U.S.-based company that develops and manufactures precision drug delivery systems and products.
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About Aprecia Pharmaceuticals: Aprecia Pharmaceuticals develops precision drug delivery systems and products.
Paul Chang
President, CEO/CSO and Lead Founder of ARase Therapeutics
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About ARase Therapeutics: Arase Therapeutics is a science-focused oncology company developing therapies that modulate cancer-relevant cell signaling pathways.
Chad Clark
President of Precision for Medicine
Chad Clark is the President at Precision for Medicine.
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About Precision for Medicine, Precision Medicine Group: Precision for Medicine is a specialized scientific services company helping life science innovators develop medical products.
Jared Kohler
Sr. Vice President, Project Management & Data Science Operations & Precision for Medicine of Precision for Medicine
Jared Kohler is the Sr. Vice President, Project Management & Data Science Operations, Precision for Medicine at Precision for Medicine.
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About Precision for Medicine, Quartz Bio: Precision for Medicine is a specialized scientific services company helping life science innovators develop medical products.
Merry Lee
Vice President, Medical Device Regulatory Strategy of Precision for Medicine
Merry Lee Bain is the Vice President, Medical Device Regulatory Strategy at Precision for Medicine.
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About Precision for Medicine: Precision for Medicine is a specialized scientific services company helping life science innovators develop medical products.
Earl May
Vice President of Lead Discovery of Civetta Therapeutics
Earl May is the Vice President of Lead Discovery at Civetta Therapeutics. He is a former Senior Director Biophysics at Warp Drive Bio, Inc. Mr. May graduated from the University of Maryland Baltimore County with a BA in Biochemistry and received an MPhil and Ph.D.in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University.
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About Civetta Therapeutics: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
Andrew Cook
Vice President and Head of Chemistry of Civetta Therapeutics
Andrew Cook is the Vice President and Head of Chemistry at Civetta Therapeutics. He was an Associate Director and Director of Medicinal Chemistry at H3 Biomedicine. Mr. Cook graduated from Imperial College London with a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry and earned a BS in Chemistry at the University of Nottingham.
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About Civetta Therapeutics: Civetta Therapeutics is a cancer therapeutics company to advance new medicines through small molecule targeting of beta-propeller domains.
Rachel E. Haurwitz
Co-founder, President & CEO of Caribou Biosciences
Rachel is a co-founder of Caribou Biosciences and has been President and CEO since its inception. She has a research background in CRISPR-Cas biology, and is also a co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics. Rachel is an inventor on several patents and patent applications covering multiple CRISPR-derived technologies, and she has co-authored scientific papers in high impact journals characterizing CRISPR-Cas systems. In 2014, she was named by Forbes Magazine to the “30 Under 30” list in Science and Healthcare, and in 2016, Fortune Magazine named her to the “40 Under 40” list of the most influential young people in business. Rachel earned an A.B. in Biological Sciences from Harvard College, and received a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Chris Fuller
Vice President of Informatics of Caribou Biosciences
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About Caribou Biosciences: Caribou Biosciences is a biotechnology company that develops CRISPR technologies and allogenic cell therapies for oncology.
Alex Aravanis
Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Craig Ciesla
Vice President Advanced Engineering of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Richard Klausner
Senior Vice President & Chief Medical Officer of Illumina
Richard Klausner joined Illumina in September 2013 as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer. Richard is responsible for Illumina’s strategies for advancing genomics into clinical medicine and public health. He is also part of Illumina’s executive management team, which is responsible for directing all aspects of company strategy, planning and operations. Richard is a Scientific Advisor at Cyterix Pharmaceuticals Inc. He co-founded Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. (Alternative name is Predicant Biosciences Inc.) in 2002. He serves as the Managing Partner at The Column Group LLC. He served as the Chairman of the Strategic Development and Scientific Advisory Council at Sanofi from March 1, 2011 to January 2013. Richard serves as the Chairman of the National Science Education Standards Projects of the National Academy of Science, overseeing the first comprehensive process to provide a vision of scientific literacy in the American educational system and the criteria required to achieve it. He served as Co-Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board and Scientific Advisor at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He served as an Executive Director for Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Richard served as the President at the American Society of Clinical Investigation. He served as an Advisor to the President of the Academies for counter-terrorism, and a Liaison to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. From 1979 to 1981, he worked at NIH in National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Laboratory of Mathematical Biology. He served as a Director of Pathwork Diagnostics, Inc. and Immune Design Corp. He served as Director of 3-V Biosciences, Inc. He served as a Director of NCI from August 1, 1995 to 2001. He serves as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Immune Design Corp., Constellation Pharmaceuticals and Audax Health Solutions. Richard served as a Distinguished Scientific and Strategic Advisor of Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Richard currently sits on the board of Juno Therapeutics. He is also the Chief Strategy Advisor for USAID. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as a Member of Scientific Advisory Board at Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Igenica, Inc. and T2 Biosystems, Inc. Rick holds an M.D. from Duke Medical School.
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About Audax Health Solutions, Illumina, Pathwork Diagnostics: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Jay Flatley
President & CEO of Illumina
Jay was appointed President and CEO of Illumina in 1999 and oversaw the company’s expansion into the whole genome sequencing area with the acquisition of Solexa in 2006, and more recently into diagnostics and consumer sequencing. Under his leadership, Illumina has been named multiple times to the Deloitte & Touche Fast 50 and Fast 500 lists, as well as to the Forbes 25 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies (2007, 2009 and 2010), the Fortune 100 Fastest-Growing Companies (2010 and 2011) lists, and recognition by MIT Technology Review as the World’s Smartest Company in 2014. Previously, Jay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Molecular Dynamics. As a co-founder and member of the board of directors for Molecular Dynamics he led the company to its initial public offering in 1993. He helped Molecular Dynamics develop and launch over 15 major instrumentation systems, including the first capillary-based DNA sequencer. Currently, he is an Advisory Board member for UC San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center, and a member of the Board of Directors at Coherent, Denali, and Illumina, Inc. Jay received a B.A. in economics from Claremont McKenna College and a B.S. and M.S. (summa cum laude) in industrial engineering from Stanford University.
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
James Godsey
TitleVice President, Assay Development Dates Employed of Illumina
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About Illumina: Illumina is an innovative technology and revolutionary assays aiming the analyze genetic variation and function.
Sabrina Chiasson
Vice President of Polaris Partners
Sabrina joined Battery in 2015 as an associate. She focuses on later-stage software investments, including growth equity, buyouts, rollups, carve-outs and take-privates. Before coming to Battery, Sabrina was an associate at H.I.G. Growth Partners, a private equity firm focused on recapitalizations of lower-middle market, growth oriented businesses. There, she sourced, evaluated and executed investments in the consumer, healthcare and technology sectors. She also previously spent time at Westwind Investors, a private investment firm focused on growth-equity investments and buyouts. Sabrina received a B.A. in biology and economics from Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth, Sabrina was captain of the varsity Alpine ski team.
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About Polaris Partners: Polaris Partners invests in healthcare and technology companies across all stages from founding to profitable growth.
Erik Holmlin
President, CEO of Bionano Genomics
Erik Holmlin has two decades of experience in the life science and health care industries. His expertise spans technology development and commercialization, global marketing, commercial operations, venture financing, mergers & acquisitions and intellectual property. Recently, he served as president and CEO of GenVault Corporation, a life science company bring innovative solutions to biosample management. He merged GenVault with IntegenX, Inc. in January of 2011. He also served as an entrepreneur in residence (EIR) at Domain Associates, LLC, a leading dedicated life science venture-capital firm. Prior to these roles, Erik was chief commercial officer at Exiqon A/S, where he was responsible for global sales, marketing, and clinical affairs for two businesses: Oncology Services in a CLIA lab and Consumables Business in Life Sciences Research. In 2001 Mr. Holmlin led the formation of GeneOhm Sciences, Inc., for which, over a span of 5 years, he was director of chemistry, senior technology director, vice president of technology and business development, and vice president of marketing.
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About Bionano Genomics: BioNano Genomics develops nanoscale imaging and analytic platforms designed to analyze DNA and other genome-related peptides and proteins.
Miguel Ilzarbe
Vice President, Executive Operations of Flagship Pioneering
Miguel Ilzarbe joined Flagship Ventures in 2015 as the Vice President of Executive Operations. In this role, he acts as a Sr. Advisor to Flagship’s CEO focused on strategic development of the firm, operational leadership of VentureLabs and support of new initiatives across the firm. Miguel was previously the Chief of Staff and the Director of Operations and Management, within the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT’s Directors Office, supporting Eric Lander. He administratively spearheaded a large international multidisciplinary effort at the Broad titled SIGMA (Slim Initiative in Genomic Medicine for the Americas). SIGMA, a $134M dollar collaboration with the Carlos Slim Health Institute aims to understand the genetic basis of Diabetes, Cancer and Kidney disease with a focus on Latin American populations. Prior to the Chief of Staff role, Miguel served as the assistant director of the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Program at the Broad. In this capacity he was responsible for project management and administrative issues within the program. He came to the Broad from the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, where he was responsible for all subcontracting and financial activities of the center, as well as leading a team that had fiduciary responsibility over all of Dana-Farber’s core facilities. Before his career in research administration, Miguel spent two years as a lab supervisor of Dana-Farber’s DNA sequencing facility, four years at the sequencing facility at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and four years in military intelligence. Miguel holds a bachelor’s degree in Diagnostic Genetic Sciences from the University of Connecticut and an MBA in Technology Management from the University of Phoenix. He also completed Electronic Warfare Coursework in the United States Navy.
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About Flagship Pioneering: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Dick Farrahar
Senior Vice President, Executive Operations of Flagship Pioneering
Dick Farrahar joined Flagship Ventures in 1999 as Senior Vice President, Executive Operations. Dick has over 30 years of experience overseeing operations, human resources, organizational development, team building, and workforce strategy. Before joining Flagship, Dick was Vice President of Applera Corporation, where he was responsible for the integration of PerSeptive Biosystems with Applera Corporation following the merger of the two companies in 1998. In addition, Dick guided the process of combining PerSeptive Biosystems, Applied Biosystems, Tropix and Molecular Informatics into a new $1 billion Applied Biosystems division of Applera. He had previously served as Senior Vice President, Executive Operations for PerSeptive Biosystems. Earlier Dick had a long career with Digital Equipment Corporation in both human resources and operations, and for the last several years of his tenure was a member of DEC’s Executive Committee reporting to the CEO.
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About Applera Corporation, Flagship Pioneering, PerSeptive Biosystems: Flagship Pioneering is a venture capital firm that invests in life sciences and healthcare companies.
Simba Gill
President & CEO of Evelo Biosciences
Simba Gill, PhD is an entrepreneur, investor and CEO who believes passionately that science and globalization will dramatically improve life in the 21st century. Dr. Gill is currently the CEO of Evelo, Sr. Partner at Flagship Ventures, and Executive Chair of Blackfynn. Dr. Gill founded or had lead roles in moksha8, Epirus, Maxygen, Verdia, Avidia, Codexis, Systemix and Valentis, four of these companies have been taken public and three were acquired through strategic trade sales. Exit valuations were between $400M – $6B. Dr. Gill has also led, built and launched several commercial businesses/products generating annual revenues of between $150M-$2B. Dr. Gill has founded and/or had lead roles in pioneering companies in the fields of antibodies, stem cells, directed molecular evolution, immunodiagnostics and the cancer microbiome. He has also been an investor, advisor, founder and CEO of several emerging market life science companies. Dr. Gill was a Partner at TPG, focused on investments in Life Sciences and Emerging Markets. Early in his career, Dr. Gill was co-head of Worldwide Marketing for Recormon. He also led corporate and market development and strategy from inception to commercialization of the Elecsys system, which became one of the world’s most widely used immunodiagnostic platforms. Dr. Gill served on the Board of Directors of the Tuberculosis Alliance, The Djerassi Resident Artists Program and the International Advisory Board of INSEAD. Dr. Gill was also the founder of Dispatches, an in-depth written and photojournalism periodical focused on key global issues. Dr. Gill has an MBA from INSEAD and carried out his PhD with focus on developing humanized antibodies to treat cancer. This work was done at King’s College, London in collaboration with the LMB at Cambridge and Celltech.
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About Epiva, Evelo Biosciences, moksha8 Pharmaceuticals, TPG Growth: Evelo Biosciences is dedicated to improving the lives of patients globally through the development of monoclonal microbials.
Daniel Grau
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of Sojournix
Grau co-founded and has served as Chief Executive Officer and Director at Sojournix since 2016. An experienced biotech entrepreneur and operating executive, Mr. Grau led the deal to acquire SJX-653 and has driven the rapid growth and financing of the company from startup to clinical-stage pharmaceutical business. Prior to Sojournix, Mr. Grau served as President at Heptares Therapeutics (acquired 2015), Chief Executive Officer at Cortria (acquired 2010), and Chief Operating Officer at CombinatoRx (IPO 2005). Mr. Grau currently serves as an advisor to HotSpot Therapeutics and previously served as a member of the Product Advisory Board at Concert Pharmaceuticals and as an advisor to Nimbus Therapeutics. Earlier in his career, Mr. Grau worked with multi-national pharma companies as a management consultant focused on corporate and business franchise strategy, M&A, and new product launches. Mr. Grau earned his M.Phil., M.A., and M.A.R. degrees from Yale University, where he was awarded a Mellon Fellowship, the Day Graduate Prize, and a Bass Fellowship, and a B.A. with High Honors from Davidson College, where he held a Dana Honor Scholarship, a Montgomery Scholarship, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
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About Cortria Corporation, Heptares Therapeutics, Sojournix: Sojournix is a biotechnology company developing innovative medicines for women’s health and endocrine disorders.
Richard Compton
Vice President of Commercial Operations of Oxford Nanopore Technologies
Rich joined Oxford Nanopore from Illumina where he played a key role as Vice President and General Manager of the EMEA Region. Metrichor was founded to provide real-time, integrated analysis solutions based on nanopore sensing technology to the Clinical and Applied markets. Prior to Illumina, Rich gained twelve years of experience helping commercial & research customers successfully integrate and deploy enterprise scale software solutions in both research and quality/regulated environments as Vice President & General Manager EMEA of Dassault Systèmes Biovia unit.
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About Oxford Nanopore Technologies: Oxford Nanopore Technologies develops nanopore-based electronic systems for analyzing single molecules, including DNA, RNA, and proteins.
Zhen Li
Founder, President & CEO of ADARx Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Li is a co-founder of ADARx and a successful executive with more than two decades of diverse experience in research and development in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Prior to ADARx, Dr. Li served as Senior VP at Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals where she led the discovery and non-clinical development of Arrowhead’s delivery platform and multiple product candidates that are now in clinical studies. Previously, Dr. Li was a director at Merck, leading a team dedicated to siRNA development. Dr. Li received her Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University, and her B.S. from Peking University.
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About ADARx Pharmaceuticals: ADARx Pharmaceuticals is a genetic medicine company focusing on the base editing of mRNA transcripts.
Jonathan Montagu
President & Chief Executive Officer of HotSpot Therapeutics
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About Atlas Venture, HotSpot Therapeutics: HotSpot Therapeutics is a developer of a therapy platform designed to discover medicines and provide proper treatment.
Michael Dabrowski
President of Synthego
Founder & President at Synthego
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About Synthego: Synthego is a genome engineering company that enables access to CRISPR to accelerate life science research and development.
Jason Coloma
President, Chief Mazer; Director of Maze Therapeutics
Dr. Jason Coloma is the CEO of Maze Therapeutics. Prior to his appointment to CEO, he was Maze’s interim chief operating officer and a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures, where he was instrumental in the founding and launch of the company. As a venture partner at Third Rock, Jason focused on new company creation, and held interim chief business officer roles at portfolio companies insitro and Celsius Therapeutics. Prior to Third Rock, Jason was senior vice president and chief business officer at Corvus Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he held a number of roles at Roche, including vice president & global therapeutic area head of oncology and cancer immunotherapy partnering. Before joining Roche, Jason was a consultant in the life sciences practice at L.E.K. Consulting. He also worked in finance at Amgen and in research at the University of California, San Francisco and Cytokinetics. Jason holds a Ph.D. and M.P.H. at the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a B.S. in biology from the University of San Francisco.
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About Maze Therapeutics: Maze Therapeutics is an operator of a biotechnology firm used to focus on translating genetic insights into new medicines.
David Wurzer
Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of Connecticut Innovations
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About Connecticut Innovations: Connecticut Innovations provides strategic capital and operational insight to to companies in high-tech industries
Karin Lawrence
Senior Vice President of Connecticut Innovations
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About Connecticut Innovations: Connecticut Innovations provides strategic capital and operational insight to to companies in high-tech industries
Lauren Carmody
Vice President of Marketing & Communications of Connecticut Innovations
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About Connecticut Innovations: Connecticut Innovations provides strategic capital and operational insight to to companies in high-tech industries
Lauren Carmody
Vice President of Marketing & Communications of Connecticut Innovations
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About Connecticut Innovations: Connecticut Innovations provides strategic capital and operational insight to to companies in high-tech industries
Kim D. Blickenstaff
President and Chief Executive Officer of Tandem Diabetes Care
Kim joined Tandem in August 2007, bringing more than 30 years of healthcare experience in finance, marketing management, sales and strategic planning. Prior to joining Tandem, he was Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Biosite Incorporated, a medical diagnostic company that was acquired by Inverness Medical Innovations for $1.8 billion in June 2007. Prior to founding Biosite, he held various finance, operations, research management, sales management, strategic planning and marketing positions with Hybritech Incorporated and Baxter Healthcare. Kim has been active in the medical device and diagnostics industry over the last 12 years, serving on the board of directors for innovative, young healthcare companies such as SenoRx and MediVation Incorporated. He holds a Masters of Business Administration from Loyola University Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
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About Tandem Diabetes Care: Tandem Diabetes Care develops medical devices for the treatment of diabetes offering diabetic insulin pumps for adults and children.
Tricia Moriarty
Vice President of Finance and Administration of Excel Venture Management
Ms. Moriarty is the Vice President of Finance and Administration for Excel Venture Management bringing with her 10 years of private equity experience. In this capacity she oversees the operational, financial and administrative aspects of the firm including financial reporting, human resources, facilities and investor relations. Prior to Excel Venture, Tricia was Director of Finance and Administration for CB Health Ventures (CBHV) where she worked in a similar capacity managing venture funds with $150 million of capital under management. Prior to CBHV, she was a Manager in the Global Income Unit at State Street Corporation where she managed daily operations and client service for clients in the Asia Pacific region. Ms. Moriarty has a BS in Business Administration from Northeastern University where she graduated with honors.
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About CB Health Ventures, Excel Venture Management: Excel Venture Management builds companies that apply transformative life science technologies to solve problems in healthcare and beyond.
Mickey Kertesz
President, CPO & Co-Founder of Karius
Kertesz co-founded Karius in 2014 to bring the pathogen detection technology he and colleagues developed at Stanford closer to the bedside. Prior to that, he was the CEO and co-founder of Moleculo, a long-reads DNA sequencing company, which was acquired by Illumina in late 2012. Dr. Kertesz earned an MS in computer science from Tel Aviv University and a PhD in computational biology from the Weizmann Institute of Science. He went on to complete his postdoctoral work in bioengineering at Stanford University, where he developed novel methods for investigating the genetic diversity of human viruses.
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About Karius: Karius provides genomic insights for infectious diseases to enable clinicians to make life-saving treatment decisions.
Clay Larsen
President and CEO, Co-Founder of Vesselon
Mr. Larsen co-founded Vesselon in 2012 and brings over thirty years of executive management, marketing, sales, clinical innovation and engineering/project management in the healthcare industry. Mr. Larsen was a senior executive with FUJIFILM Medical Systems, where he was largely responsible for building the company’s first healthcare software division from the ground up. Mr. Larsen recruited the original senior architects and was instrumental in the development, marketing, commercial release and field support of Fuji’s Synapse® Picture Archive and Communication System (PACS). In a move to Silicon Valley in 1988, Mr. Larsen served in several senior roles at Acuson Corporation culminating as Vice President of New Market Development. Acuson was one of the leading ultrasound technology companies that was later acquired by Siemens. Early in his career he specialized in Sales and Marketing Management of Ultrasound and Nuclear Medicine for Picker International. Mr. Larsen holds a B.S. in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University.
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About Vesselon: Vesselon is a medical device company developing novel therapeutic Immuno-Oncology complexes.
Karen Ling
Senior Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer of Forest Laboratories
Prior to joining Actavis, Ms. Ling served as Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer for Forest Laboratories, Inc. Ms. Ling joined Forest in January 2014 from Merck & Co., Inc., where she served as Senior Vice President, Human Resources, for the company’s Global Human Health and Consumer Care businesses worldwide. Prior to that role at Merck, she was Vice President, Compensation and Benefits. Before Merck, Ms. Ling was Group Vice President, Global Compensation & Benefits at Schering-Plough. She also spent 14 years at Wyeth in various positions of responsibility in human resources as well as in Wyeth Pharmaceutical’s Labor and Employment Department. Prior to joining Wyeth, Ms. Ling practiced corporate law with Goldstein and Manello, P.C. in Boston. Ms. Ling holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law.
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About Allergan, Forest Laboratories: Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: FRX) is a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company with a long track record of building partnerships.
Marco Taglietti
Executive Vice President of Forest Laboratories
Dr. Taglietti is Executive Vice President, Drug Development and Research, and Chief Medical Officer of Forest Laboratories, Inc. He continues to be President of the Forest Research Institute. He previously served as Senior Vice President—Research and Development of the Company and President, Forest Research Institute, Inc. from December 2010 to December 2013. Prior thereto, Dr. Taglietti served as Vice President—Research and Development from December 2008 to December 2010. Dr. Taglietti joined Forest in August 2007 as Executive Vice President—Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer of Forest Research Institute, Inc. Prior to joining Forest, Dr. Taglietti was Senior Vice President and Head of Global Research and Development at Stiefel Laboratories for three years. Prior to that, Dr. Taglietti was at Schering-Plough Corporation for twelve years in positions of increasing responsibility including Vice President—Worldwide Clinical Research for Anti-Infectives, Oncology, CNS, Endocrinology and Dermatology. Dr. Taglietti received his medical degree and board certifications from the University of Pavia in Italy.
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About Forest Laboratories, SCYNEXIS: Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: FRX) is a U.S.-based pharmaceutical company with a long track record of building partnerships.
Steve Miller
Vice President, Translational Medicine of Blueprint Medicines
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About Blueprint Medicines: Blueprint Medicines engages in the discovery and development of highly selective kinase inhibitors for genomically defined cancer subsets.
Martin G. Reese
Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer & President of Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia)
Martin Reese is an internationally recognized expert and entrepreneur in Genomics and Bioinformatics. Prior to founding Omicia, Martin Reese served as Vice President of Discovery Informatics for ValiGen. Prior to this, Martin Reese co-founded Neomorphic, where he served as President and Chief Scientific Officer. The human genome annotation software that Martin Reese developed at Neomorphic, provided the foundation for the successful commercialization of microarrays by Affymetrix. During his career Martin Reese has been actively involved in community-wide assessments of genome annotation. He organized the state-of-the-art Genome Annotation Assessment Project and was a member of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project, which provided the essential proof-of-concept platform for “shotgun” sequencing technology. At the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories Martin Reese developed gene-finding algorithms for the Human Genome Project. He holds a Masters degree in Medical Informatics from the University of Heidelberg and a Ph.D. in Genetics jointly from the University of Hohenheim, Germany and the University of California, Berkeley.
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About Fabric Genomics (formerly Omicia): Global healthcare platform for genomics-driven precision medicine. Fabric’ proven AI algorithms power genomic insights.
Hamid Rategh
Vice President Engineering of Genapsys
Hamid is VP Engineering at GenapSys, joining back in 2012. Hamid has had a successful career developing a wide range of products, from RFICs to adaptive equalizers for optical communication and Mixed-Signal Memory interface products. Prior to joining GenapSys, Hamid was Senior Director of Engineering at Inphi, who acquired his team and product from Scintera Networks. Hamid also cofounded and served as VP of Engineering of Tavanza which was later acquired by Celeritek in 2002 and subsequently by Anadigics in 2003. Hamid holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MS in Biomedical Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology.
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About Genapsys: Transform the human condition by building a scalable, affordable genomic sequencing ecosystem that will support research and diagnostics
Chris Robinson
Vice President Recruiting of Third Rock Ventures
Chris Robinson joined Third Rock Ventures in 2010. Chris has more than 15 years of research and development-focused recruiting experience in life sciences and high technology. During his executive search career, Chris has focused on senior level executive searches within R&D organizations of both public and private biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Chris was the co-founder of Pivotal Search, a boutique life sciences executive search and recruiting consulting practice where he led business development and executed searches. Previous to founding Pivotal, Chris was also one of the founding members of a life sciences R&D practice at another national search firm. Before moving to the life sciences industry Chris was the recruiting manager for a venture-backed technology start-up, Taqua Systems, where he helped them grow from 20 people to 300 people in three locations. Chris holds a BS in Physiology from the University of Massachusetts, was honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps and he is a Desert Storm veteran.
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About Third Rock Ventures: Third Rock Ventures invests in transformational life science companies that show high growth potential
Jacqualyn Fouse
President and Chief Operating Officer of Celgene
Dr. Fouse serves as President and Chief Operating Officer. She assumed that role on March 1, 2016. In February 2016, Dr. Fouse was elected to the Board of Directors. Previously she was President, Global Hematology and Oncology since July 2014. Dr. Fouse joined the Company in September 2010 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and became Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in February 2012. Before Celgene, Dr. Fouse served as Chief Financial Officer of Bunge Limited, a leading global agribusiness and food company (Bunge), starting in July 2007. Before Bunge, Dr. Fouse was at Alcon Laboratories serving as Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Head of Corporate Strategy at Alcon Laboratories between 2002 and 2007. Dr. Fouse was the Chief Financial Officer at Swissair Group from 2001 to 2002. Dr. Fouse held a variety of senior finance positions at Nestlé S.A. from 1993 to 2001, including serving as Group Treasurer of Nestlé from 1999 to 2001. Dr. Fouse also worked in finance at Alcon from 1986 to 1993 and held several positions, including Manager Corporate Investments and Domestic Finance. Earlier in her career, she worked at Celanese Chemical and LTV Aerospace and Defense. Dr. Fouse earned a B.A. and an M.A. in Economics and a Ph.D. in Finance from the University of Texas at Arlington. Dr. Fouse also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Dick’s Sporting Goods (chairperson of the audit committee) and Perrigo Company (member of the audit committee), both NYSE-listed companies.
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About Celgene: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Robert M. Hershberg
Executive Vice President, Head of Business Development and Global Alliances of Celgene
Robert Hershberg (M.D., Ph.D.) Chief Executive Officer at VentiRX Pharmaceuticals.Dr. Robert Hershberg is a founder of VentiRx Pharmaceuticals and serves as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. VentiRx Pharmaceuticals is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company committed to the development and commercialization of novel medicines for the treatment of cancer. The Company’s initial focus is developing novel small molecule product candidates targeting Toll-like receptor 8 (TLR8) for oncology and allergy. Prior to VentiRx, Dr. Hershberg served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Dendreon Corporation, developing immunotherapy approaches for cancer. In this capacity, Dr. Hershberg led the Clinical, Regulatory, and Biometrics groups, focusing on the development of Provenge™ in metastatic prostate cancer. Prior to joining Dendreon, Dr. Hershberg was the Vice President of Medical Genetics at Corixa Corporation (subsequently acquired by GSK). He led a research group focused on innate immunity and inflammatory disease, with a particular emphasis on Toll-like receptors (TLRs), and was an active member of the clinical development team for various products. Prior to joining Corixa, Dr. Hershberg was an Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts.He completed his Undergraduate Degree in Molecular Biology and M.D. at UCLA, and his Ph.D. in Biology at the Salk Institute.Dr. Hershberg is clinically-boarded in Medical Genetics, and holds current clinical and research faculty positions at the University of Washington School of Medicine.
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About Celgene, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Gerald Masoudi
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Celgene
Mr. Masoudi serves as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Mr. Masoudi joined Celgene in April 2015 from Covington & Burling LLP, a leading international law firm, where he was a partner and served as co-chair of the Food and Drug practice group. At Covington, he advised multinational companies and trade associations on significant litigation, enforcement, regulatory and public policy matters. Before joining Covington, Mr. Masoudi served as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Before joining the FDA as Chief Counsel, Mr. Masoudi served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for international, policy and appellate matters in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Before his government service, Mr. Masoudi was a trial and litigation partner with the law firm Kirkland & Ellis. Immediately following his graduation from law school, he clerked for Judge Frank H. Easterbrook of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Mr. Masoudi received his J.D. from The University of Chicago Law School, graduating with high honors and serving on the editorial board of the Law Review. He received his B.A. in economics from Amherst College, Phi Beta Kappa.
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About Celgene: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Kristen Hege
Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology/Oncology of Celgene
Kristen Hege has served as a member of our board of directors since October 2018. Kristen Hege is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology and an attending physician at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She has held a clinical faculty appointment at UCSF since 1997 in the adult hematology and bone marrow transplant program. Kristen Hege has been board-certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology. Kristen Hege received her B.A. summa cum laude from Dartmouth, M.D. from UCSF and completed a medical residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and a fellowship in hematology and oncology at UCSF. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer, and Mersana Therapeutics and the Strategic Advisory Group for the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. In 2015, FierceBiotech recognized her as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma. Kristen Hege currently serves as Corporate Vice President, Translational Development, Hematology and Oncology and San Francisco site head at Celgene where she is responsible for translational and early clinical development for all hematology and oncology products including small molecules, biologics and cell therapies. Prior to joining Celgene, she served as acting Chief Medical Officer at Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Theraclone Sciences and Cellerant Therapeutics. Kristen Hege began her career at Cell Genesys Inc. where she spent 14 years in various roles of increasing responsibility, ultimately leading the Clinical Research and Development organization.
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About Celgene: Celgene discovers, develops and commercializes innovative therapies to treat cancer and immune-inflammatory-related diseases.
Greg Gosch
Co-Founder, President, & CEO of ChromaCode
Greg has over 20 years of management experience in the molecular diagnostics and nucleic acids research fields. He spent 9 years at Luminex, when the company grew revenues from $30 million to over $200 million. He held multiple roles including VP of Sales and Marketing, where he was responsible for global commercial operations, and VP/GM of Biosciences, where was responsible for developing novel instrument and assay products for gene expression, microRNA, newborn screening and Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to Luminex, Greg served in various commercial leadership roles at Nanogen, Chiron Diagnostics and Bio-Rad. He has a bachelors degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from the University of Colorado and dual masters degrees in business and healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota.
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About ChromaCode: ChromaCode is a molecular diagnostics company focusing on bioinformatics.
Michael Scott Mann
President of Endonovo Therapeutics
Michael Scott Mann has over 30 years experience in merger and acquisitions and operational management. In 2008 Mr. Mann acquired the assets of Hanover Asset Management, now Endonovo Therapeutics, Inc,. and led the company to become listed on the OTCBB in 2012. From January 2003 to April, 2011, Mr. Mann was the Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Debt Settlement, Inc. (USDS), a Frankfurt listed company, where he implemented a growth by acquisition strategy successfully acquiring numerous companies. From January 2002 to July 2003, Mr. Mann was the Chief Executive Officer of Shared Vision Capital, a boutique investment banking firm that assisted emerging companies with early seed capital and bridge loans. Earlier still, from October 1998 to December 2001, Mr. Mann was the Vice President of Investor Relations for JuriSearch.com, an online legal research platform. During his tenure with JuriSearch.com, Mr. Mann was directly responsible for funding the company’s growth and development. In addition, Mr. Mann founded Universal Pacific Communications, a privately owned telecommunications company. Under his leadership as President, Universal Pacific developed a fiber optic disaster recovery telecommunications network, designed for and successfully marketed to Fortune 1000 companies.
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About Endonovo Therapeutics: Endonovo Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing off-the-shelf regenerative products.
Shannon Richey
Vice President & General Manager, Asterand Bioscience Detroit Operations of BioIVT
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About Asterand, BioIVT: BioIVT is a worldwide provider of biological and in vitro products to pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations
Fred Aslan
President & CEO of Artiva Biotherapeutics
Born and raised in Brazil, Fred Aslan is the founder of Adavium Medical (previously known as ADVANCE Medical). He is also affiliated with Venrock, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm he joined in 2006. While a full-time investor at Venrock prior to founding Adavium, Fred Aslan was a co-founder and board member of Receptos Pharmaceuticals, a NASDAQ-listed biotech company, which was subsequently acquired by Celgene for more than $8 billion. He also led Venrock’s investment in Zeltiq, a NASDAQ-listed medical device company that was valued at more than $1 billion. Prior to Venrock, he was Director of Business Development and led Investor Relations at CuraGen, a NASDAQ-listed oncology-focused biotech company, and was a strategy consultant with Boston Consulting Group (BCG). He was named the “2014 Business Professional of the Year” by the Brazilian government, recognizing the achievements of Brazilian professionals living outside of Brazil. He is also a board member of Femasys, a US-based women’s health medical device company, and BayBrazil, a Silicon Valley-based not-for-profit organization promoting ties between Silicon Valley and Brazil. Fred Aslan received a B.S. in Biology from Duke University, an M.D. from Yale and an M.B.A. from Harvard.
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About Adavium, Artiva Biotherapeutics: Artiva Biotherapeutics is a biotech company focused on developing and commercializing allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell therapies.
Agatha Martindale
Vice President and Global Finance of Rakuten Medical
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About BUILTBYGIRLS, Rakuten Medical, Rakuten Medical: Rakuten Medical is a biotechnology company that develops therapies to treat cancer.
Timothy Warbington
President and CEO of Creative Medical Technology Holdings
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About Creative Medical Technology Holdings: Creative Medical Technology Holdings is a biotechnology company focused on Immunology, Urology, Neurology, and Orthopedics.
Hira Thapliyal
Founder, President & CEO of Aneumed
Hira Thapliyal is the founder, president & CEO of AneuMed, Inc.AneuMed is an early stage company engaged in developing devices for the treatment of various ailments affecting the human cardiovascular system. Prior to that, Dr. Thapliyal was the co-founder, president & CEO of VytronUS, Inc., a development stage company working on products for treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. Currently, VytronUS is conducting human clinical trials for its products. Before that, Hira was the co-founder, president & CEO of Tescient, Inc. Tescient was focused in developing products aimed at tissue regeneration and wound healing in human body. Tescient prototype products did not perform well in early animal tests, so Dr. Thapliyal closed Tescient and returned 60% of the invested capital back to the investors. Prior to Tescient, Dr. Thapliyal co-founded ArthroCare Corp (NASDAQ: “ARTC”) in 1993, and served its president & CEO and took the company public in 1996. ArthroCare was recently acquired by Smith & Nephew for $1.7 billion. ArthroCare markets products in the field of arthroscopy, ENT, spine, skin, and wound healing. Before ArthroCare, Hira served as the president of MicroBionics, a company developing products for continuous measurements of blood parameters in critically ill patients. Before MicroBionics, Hira co-founded and served as the president of CardioVascular Imaging Systems (NASDAQ: “CVIS”) which developed and marketed an ultrasound based imaging system, Intravascular Ultrasound (‘IVUS’), for the human blood vessels. CVIS went public and was later acquired by Boston Scientific (“BSX”). Prior to that, Hira served as the Vice President of Devices for Vascular Interventions (DVI) which developed and marketed products for removal of plaque form inside on the diseased arteries. DVI was acquired by Eli Lilly in 1989. Prior to DVI, Dr. Thapliyal held engineering and management positions at Oximetrix, Inc., Amdahl, and Corning. Dr. Thapliyal holds a BSEE degree from Washington State University, a MSEE from University of Idaho, and a PhD degree in Materials Science & Engineering from Cornell University. Hira has received numerous awards, and currently serves as an advisor to the Stanford-India Biodesign Program at Stanford University. Dr. Thapliyal also served as a judge for the Entrepreneur of the Year award at Earnst & Young. Dr. Thapliyal currently holds over 193 issued US and International patents for various medical devices.
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About Aneumed, VytronUS: Aneumed is a biotechnology company based in California, United States.
John Bloomhall
President and Chief Executive Officer of Diamond V
John C. Bloomhall serves as Chief Executive Officer and President of Diamond V Mills Inc. John Bloomhall has been with Diamond V Mills since 1988. He was employed by IBM throughout The United States from 1976 to 1988. He graduated from The University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY in 1976.
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About Diamond V: Diamond V is a global, research-focused, technology-driven company that develops and manufactures natural products to improve nutrition.
Rajiv Malik
President & Executive Director of Viatris
Rajiv Malik serves as the president of Viatris and on the company’s board of directors. Originally from India, Malik received a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Technology from Punjab University and has 60+ process patents to his credit. Throughout his career, Malik has served in senior leadership roles as head of global regulatory affairs and head of pharma research for Ranbaxy, head of global development and registrations for Sandoz, and CEO of Matrix Laboratories Limited. During his time in this last role, Mylan acquired a controlling stake in Matrix, leading Malik on a path to handle even greater leadership responsibilities at Mylan. Since joining Mylan, Malik held roles including executive vice president, chief operating officer, and head of global technical operations. Malik was integral in developing the strategies for the company’s acquisitions such as Meda , Agila Specialties, and Merck KGaA’s generics business. Importantly, he was also intimately involved in the execution and integration of these and other acquisitions. As the president of Viatris, Rajiv’s responsibilities include overseeing day to day operations, commercial development, medical, IT, quality functions, R&D and the company’s commercial business units. He is especially suited for these varied roles given his unique leadership profile combining a global perspective on healthcare challenges as well as vast experience in scientific, commercial, and financial operations.
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About Viatris: Viatris is a global pharmaceutical company formed in 2020 through the combination of Mylan and Upjohn, a legacy division of Pfizer.
Lisa Wyman
Vice President Quality of Acceleron Pharma
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About Acceleron Pharma: Acceleron is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in developing, manufacturing and commercializing novel biotherapeutics.
Harry Gruber
CEO, Co-Founder & President of Tocagen
Harry E. Gruber, M.D., one of the pioneers in gene therapy, co-founded Tocagen and led the company as chief executive officer before assuming the role of president, research and development in November 2016 and president, science and innovation in October 2017. He has been a member of the board of directors since August 2007. Dr. Gruber served as our chief executive officer from August 2007 to November 2016 and served as chairman of our board of directors from August 2007 to October 2014. Dr. Gruber is a co-founder of Tocagen and has been the co-founder and/or co-inventor of key technology for the following publicly held companies: Viagene Inc., a gene therapy company acquired by Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Gensia Inc., a biopharmaceutical company acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries, Ltd.; INTERVU Inc., a technology company acquired by Akamai Technologies, Inc.; Kintera, Inc., a technology company acquired by Blackbaud. He is the author of more than 100 original scientific articles and an inventor on more than 100 issued and pending patents. Dr. Gruber holds a medical degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and trained in Internal Medicine, Biochemical Genetics and Rheumatology/Immunology at the University of California, San Diego, where he subsequently joined the medical school faculty until founding Gensia Inc.
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About Tocagen: Tocagen is a biopharmaceutical company developing gene therapy products for the treatment of cancer.
Hyam Levitsky
Executive Vice President Research, Chief Scientific Officer of Juno Therapeutics
Hyam (“Hy”) Levitsky is our Executive Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and joined Juno in May 2015. Prior to joining Juno, Hyam Levitsky held the position of Head of Cancer Immunology Experimental Medicine at Roche Pharma Research and Development in Basel, Switzerland. Prior to that, Levitsky served as a Professor of Oncology, Medicine and Urology at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and was also an active staff member in Oncology and Medicine at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Hyam Levitsky received a B.S. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and an M.D. from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He trained in Medical Oncology as a Senior Clinical Fellow at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center, rising to full Professor in 2001, and taught in the School of Medicine until 2011. His areas of expertise include Oncology, Immunology, Hematologic Malignances / Bone Marrow Transplantation (serving as Scientific Director of the George Santos Bone Marrow Transplant Program), Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and Pathobiology. Hyam Levitsky is also a founding Executive Committee member of the Cancer Immunotherapy Consortium of the Cancer Research Institute. He was a Stohlman Scholar of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of America (LLS) and a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI). He was a founding member of MIATA (Minimal Information About T cell Assays), advises the FDA on cancer immunotherapy issues and serves on the External Scientific Advisory Board of the Pasteur Institute’s Center for Human Immunology, has consulted on a number of industry scientific advisory boards and contributes and provides editorial support to several prestigious cancer, immunology, scientific and medical publications. Hyam Levitsky holds several patents.
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About Century Therapeutics, Juno Therapeutics: Juno Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company, develops immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer.
Nick Davis
Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Theonys
Nick Davis is the Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Theonys — a therapeutics company developing new small-molecule medicines to selectively stop the translation of disease-causing proteins in cancer, chronic inflammation and other serious human diseases.
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About Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Theonys: Theonys is harnessing the power of tRNA to pioneer an entirely new class of genomic medicines.
Corey McCann
President and Chief Executive Officer of Pear Therapeutics
Corey M McCann M.D., Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Pear Therapeutics, a company developing prescription digital therapeutics and drug/software combinations for treatment of severe medical conditions. Previously, he was an investor with MPM Capital, where he evaluated new healthcare investment opportunities, managed relationships with strategic partners, and oversaw strategy and execution at portfolio companies. Prior to MPM, he was an Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company, where he advised pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotechnology companies on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of life science technologies. He led McKinsey’s central nervous system (CNS) expertise group, advising clients across the healthcare value chain. Corey has previous investment experience with RiverVest Venture Partners, where he performed diligence on early stage investments, and at NeuroInsights, where he evaluated brain related technologies. Corey is also a co-founder, advisor, or Board Director at AgNovos Healthcare, Alcyone Lifesciences, Dragonfly Sciences, Edumedics, Resolute Bio, Selexys Pharmaceuticals, and Zillion Health. Dr. McCann trained as a physician-scientist via the Medical Scientist Training Program. For his PhD, he studied the molecular biology of synapses at Harvard University and at Washington University in St Louis. He was also a post-doctoral researcher at the Massachusetts General Hospital where he developed imaging techniques for the visualization of the brain. Dr. McCann received his M.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. He graduated summa cum laude from The Pennsylvania State University where he was an Evan Pugh Scholar, receiving a B.S. in Biology with minors in neuroscience, biochemistry, and molecular biology.
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Chris Lento
Vice President of Commercialization of Pear Therapeutics
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About Pear Therapeutics: Pear Therapeutics is a software-based digital therapeutics platform designed to treat disease and enhance the efficacy of pharmaceuticals.
Bernard Davitian
Vice President and Managing Director of Sanofi Ventures
Bernard Davitian has extensive experience in the life sciences and biotech industry, marked by a number of successful transactions involving financings and M&A. His track record includes, among others, the successful IPO of Transgene on the NASDAQ and Euronext in 1998 ($100 million raised) and the sale of Fovea Pharmaceuticals to Sanofi in 2009 in a €370 million cash transaction. Bernard joined Sanofi in 2010 as Vice President, Deputy of Global Head, Business Development Corporate Licenses and was promoted to Vice President and Managing Director of SGBV in 2012. Prior to Sanofi, Bernard was EVP & CFO of Fovea Pharmaceuticals, CEO of Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, and EVP & CFO of Transgene. Bernard began his career in the biotech sector by serving in various capacities at Institut Mérieux (now Sanofi Pasteur), including Corporate CFO. In addition to his SGBV-related Boards of Directors responsibilities, which include Immune Design, Proteostasis Therapeutics, Esperance Pharmaceuticals and Kahr Medical, Bernard also represents Sanofi on the Board of Directors of Warp Drive Bio. Bernard holds an MSc in Management from EM Lyon Business School (France). He is also a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds an executive M.B.A. (AMP program) from Wharton Business School.
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About Good Eggs, Sanofi Ventures: Sanofi Ventures operates as the corporate venture capital arm of Sanofi.
William Sibold
Senior Vice President of Sanofi Ventures
Bill Sibold is responsible for Genzyme’s Multiple Sclerosis franchise as the company prepares to launch two products.
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About Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi Genzyme, Sanofi Ventures: Sanofi Ventures operates as the corporate venture capital arm of Sanofi.
Nello Mainolfi
Founder, President & CEO of Kymera Therapeutics
Nello Mainolfi is the Founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer at Kymera Therapeutics.
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About Kymera Therapeutics: Kymera Therapeutics is a biotechnology company that specializes in the field of targeted protein degradation.
Nick Illobre
Vice President Product Strategy, Crossix Analytics of Veeva
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About Veeva: Veeva Systems is a provider of cloud-based business solutions for the global life sciences industry.
Darren Farrugia
Vice President, User Experience & Product Design of Veeva
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About Veeva: Veeva Systems is a provider of cloud-based business solutions for the global life sciences industry.
Greg Verdine
Co-Founder, President & CEO, CSO of LifeMine Therapeutics
Greg Verdine is the Founder of Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute & he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1986.
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About FogPharma, Gloucester Marine Genomics Institute, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, LifeMine Therapeutics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Wave Life Sciences: Discovering powerful new drugs from eukaryotic microbes by combining Genomics with AI and Synthetic Biology.
Ben Hindson
CSO, CO-Founder & President of 10X Genomics
Ben Hindson has served as Chief Scientific Officer and Director of 10x Genomics since its founding in 2012. Prior to 10x Genomics, Hindson was Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Quantalife, a privately-held life sciences company that developed and commercialized a droplet digital PCR platform, until its sale to Bio-Rad in 2011. From 2002 to 2008, he served in various positions of increasing responsibility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in the Chemical and Biological Weapons Non-proliferation Program. He has published extensively in his field and holds many patents for assays and instrumentation. Hindson earned his BSc in Chemistry in 1998 and his PhD in Chemistry in 2001 from Deakin University, Australia.
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About 10X Genomics: 10X Genomics ELV solutions and security systems company that provides an innovative genomics platform.
Tom Heyman
President of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Tom Heyman is President, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), part of Johnson & Johnson Innovation. As head of JJDC, Tom will chair the board of JJDC, which represents the oldest and most reputable corporate venture fund in the life science industry. Tom will continue his position as CEO of Janssen Pharmaceutica NV in Belgium. He has been in this role since November 2008. Tom continues to be responsible for campus leadership in Beerse, Belgium, as well as the development and execution of a long-term organizational and talent strategy. Tom was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors, Janssen Pharmaceutica in March 2012. He is a member of the Board of Directors VOKA, the Flemish Industry Association, Belgium, and a member of the Board of Directors of Innotek. As of April 2012, he is a member of the Board of Directors and the General Assembly of IMEC. Tom started his career with Johnson & Johnson in the Legal Department of Janssen Pharmaceutica NV in 1982, where he held a management position supporting legal and licensing activities. In 1990, Tom became Vice-President of Corporate Development at Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, and was appointed Head of Global Business Development for the Pharmaceutical Group in 1992, a position he held until March 31 2015. In his 25 years in Business Development, Tom and his Group entered into hundreds of transactions for both early and late stage Pharmaceutical products and technologies including IMBRUVUCA®, daratanumab, INVOKANA®, OLYSIO®, XARELTO®, VELCADE®, etc. He was also responsible for acquiring several key companies for J&J including Tibotec, Centocor, Cougar Pharmaceuticals, Aragon Pharmaceuticals, Covagen and Alios Biopharma. Tom has been a member of the Pharmaceuticals Group Operating Committee (GOC) from 1995 to 2015. From June 2007 until July 2009, Tom also served as Head of the CNS/IM Research & Early Development (RED) organization. He was born in the Congo, Africa, and graduated as Master of Law from the K.U. Leuven in Belgium. He continued with post-graduate studies in International Law in Geneva, Switzerland, and post-graduate studies in Business Management at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Asish Xavier
Vice President, Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Asish Xavier is the Vice President of Venture Investments at joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC) in 2004. Asish is based in Silicon Valley, California. Asish previously worked in business development at BioRexis Pharmaceutical, Inc., which was acquired by Pfizer in 2007. While at BioRexis, Asish assisted the company in raising a $30 million second round of financing. Asish has worked in business development at Structural GenomiX, Inc., acquired by Eli Lilly in 2008, and was a project leader at Message Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Asish received a Ph.D. from the University of Houston and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated with honors. Asish received a Bachelor of Technology in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. Asish was also a postdoctoral research Fellow in the Department of Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University.
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About Cue, ESCAPE Bio, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Legend Biotech, Paige, ViaCyte, XWPharma: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Marian Nakada
Vice President, Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Marian Nakada, PhD, Vice President, Venture Investments, joined Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC) in 2013. She is based in Boston, MA. Previously, Dr. Nakada was Vice President of Strategy & Operations and External Innovation for Johnson & Johnson’s Biotechnology CoE, where she helped drive the development and execution of the biotechnology strategy across Janssen R & D. In her role as External Innovation lead, she nurtured many productive partnerships with external partners in the biotech industry and helped build an external innovation network to complement internal research and support the execution of the Janssen R&D Biologics strategy. Dr. Nakada joined Centocor in 1990, as a scientist, performing basic research related to biologics for inflammatory and cardiovascular indications. In 2001, she took on the leadership of the newly formed Oncology Research group at Centocor. In 2007, Dr. Nakada joined the Business Development group where she participated in executing technology licenses for the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceuticals group. In that role, she identified and championed external technology opportunities to ensure that Centocor’s technologies were competitive with the industry. Dr. Nakada has authored 62 peer reviewed publications and 14 book chapters and reviews. She has a BA in Biology from Harvard College and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Pennsylvania.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Women in VC: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Kadir Kadhiresan
Vice President, Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
V. Kadir Kadhiresan, PhD, joined Johnson & Johnson Innovation – JJDC, Inc. (JJDC) in 2007 and focuses on investments in medical devices and digital health. Kadir has more than two decades of operational, investment and business development experience. Based in Boston, Kadir works closely with Johnson & Johnson leadership to identify business needs and has responsibility for sourcing, investing and managing venture investment opportunities. He holds board seats for several JJDC portfolio companies. Some of his investments include Coherex Medical (Acquired by Biosense Webster/JNJ), Spinal Modulation (Acquired by St.Jude/ABT), Novocure (NASDAQ: NVCR), Torax Medical (Acquired by Ethicon/JNJ), Neotract (Acquired by Teleflex) and Inspire Medical Systems (NYSE: INSP). Before joining JJDC, Kadir was head of Business Development at Guidant, Inc., now Boston Scientific, Inc., where he led several transactions to access novel medical device technologies.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Stacy Feld
Vice President, Consumer Venture Investments of Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation
Stacy received a B.A. in sociology, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned her J.D. from Vanderbilt Law School.
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About Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation: Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, a venture capital subsidiary, finances technology companies focused on patient health.
Zhi Hong
Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Brii Biosciences
Zhi Hong, Ph.D., is Co-founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer. Prior to starting Brii Bio, Dr. Hong was Senior Vice President and Head of GlaxoSmithKline’s (GSK) Infectious Diseases Therapy Area Unit. He was widely credited as the key architect of GSK’s comeback and success in HIV & Infectious Diseases medicine discovery and development. Under his leadership, ViiV Healthcare’s (a joint venture between GSK, Pfizer, and Shionogi) HIV business was revitalized with the approval of Tivicay & Triumeq. Dr. Hong was the champion of GSK’s effort in long-acting HIV treatment & prevention therapies. He also built GSK’s efforts to cure HBV and HIV infections. GSK now has one of the most innovative pipelines against infectious diseases. Dr. Hong is a public health advocate who has helped establish multiple public-private partnerships with the U.S./E.U. governments (DTRA, BARDA, NIH & IMI) and philanthropic organizations (Gates Foundation & Wellcome Trust). In the last two years, he helped to create GSK’s Institute for Infectious Diseases and Public Health in Beijing, China. Dr. Hong started Ardea Biosciences (later acquired by AstraZeneca). He also held leadership positions at Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough Research Institute (now Merck). Dr. Hong has more than 25 years of experience in drug discovery and development and has brought more than 30 compounds into development, including many that have been approved and launched. He has served as a board member of Anacor Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer) and ViiV Healthcare, and also chaired the board of Qura Therapeutics.
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About Brii Biosciences: Brii Biosciences is a biotechnology company that commits to bring innovative medicines to China as a way to improve public health.
Tara O’Meara
Vice President, Clinical Development Operations of Bluebird Bio
Tara O’Meara is the Vice President of Clinical Development Operations at bluebird bio. Tara oversees a team responsible for the execution and analysis of bluebird bio’s lentiviral vector based gene therapy development programs. Currently bluebird bio has 4 active programs using ex vivo gene therapy for: cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, transfusion dependent thalassemia, sickle cell disease and multiple myeloma. bluebird’s objective is to develop and bring to market the most advanced products based on the transformative potential of gene therapy as a one-time treatment option for patients with severe genetic and rare diseases and cancer. Prior to joining bluebird, Tara ran multiple clinical trials in 2 other rare diseases, LAL Deficiency and Pompe disease. Tara served as the clinical project manager for the clinical trials that were used as the basis for the regulatory submissions that led to the approval of Myozyme™ in the United States, Europe, and more than 40 additional countries worldwide. Tara has also been responsible for everything from small Phase II trials to very large, global Phase III trials in multiple therapeutic areas, including rare inherited diseases. Tara holds a BS in biology and a minor in women’s studies from Tufts University.
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About Bluebird Bio: Bluebird Bio offers products based on the transformative potential of gene therapy for patients with genetic and orphan diseases.
Leonide Saad
Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of Alkeus Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Saad founded Alkeus Pharmaceuticals with the goal of developing sight-saving, transformative medicines for the most serious and untreatable causes of blindness. Prior to Alkeus, he was partner in a boutique life sciences management and consulting firm in New York City, providing business and strategic guidance to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. He was previously at Proteus Venture Partners, an early stage, California based venture fund focused on stem cells and regenerative medicine. Dr. Saad holds a PhD focused on tissue engineering from MIT, a certificate of Financial Technology from MIT Sloan School of Management, a MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, a BS and MS in Applied Mathematics from University of Paris VI, and is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, with a concentration in organic chemistry and physics.
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About Alkeus Pharmaceuticals: Alkeus Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Boston-based startup focused on treatments for serious ophthalmic conditions.
Robert Ford
President & Chief Executive Officer of Abbott
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Michael Warmuth
Executive Vice President of Abbott
Michael Warmuth is Executive Vice President, Established Pharmaceuticals, focusing on expanding the global market for Abbott’s portfolio of branded generic pharmaceuticals. He was appointed to his current role in November 2012. Most recently, Mr. Warmuth served as Senior Vice President, Established Pharmaceuticals, which previously operated as part of Abbott’s global pharmaceutical business. Mr. Warmuth joined Abbott in 1986 as part of Abbott’s manufacturing professional development program. He served in a variety of management roles including Senior Vice President, Diagnostics, heading Abbott’s global core laboratory Diagnostics business; Vice President and General Manager, Hematology, in Abbott’s Diagnostics business; Vice President, Global Engineering Services; Divisional Vice President of Pharmaceutical Operations; and Divisional Vice President of Corporate Quality Operations. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a master’s degree in business administration from Northwestern University.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Heather Mason
Executive Vice President, Nutritional Products of Abbott
Heather Mason is Executive Vice President, Nutritional Products. She was appointed to her current role in May 2015. Previously, she served as Executive Vice President, Global Commercial Operations, Abbott Nutrition. Ms. Mason joined Abbott in 1990. She held a number of positions in Abbott’s U.S. pharmaceutical business, including oversight of Abbott’s specialty pharmaceuticals, its diabetes/metabolics and oncology franchises, and managed health care. Ms. Mason also served as Vice President, International Marketing, and Vice President, Latin American Operations, in Abbott’s international pharmaceutical business. Immediately prior to assuming her role in Abbott’s Nutrition business in 2014, Ms. Mason served as Senior Vice President, Abbott Diabetes Care. Prior to joining Abbott, Ms. Mason worked for Quaker Oats and FMC Corporation. She is an advisory board member of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association. She earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Corlis Murray
Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance, Regulatory & Engineering Services of Abbott
Corlis Murray is Senior Vice President, Quality Assurance, Regulatory and Engineering Services. She was appointed to her current position in February 2012. Previously, she served as Vice President, Global Engineering Services. Ms. Murray joined Abbott in 1989. Since then, she has held a number of management positions in quality, operations and engineering in Abbott’s Diagnostics and Nutrition businesses. In Abbott Nutrition, she served as Divisional Vice President, Quality Assurance; Divisional Vice President, Manufacturing; and Divisional Vice President, Operations Services. Prior to joining Abbott, Ms. Murray worked at Recognition Equipment and Xerox Corporation. She is a board member of The Clara Abbott Foundation. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
John Capek
Executive Vice President of Abbott
John Capek, Ph.D., is Executive Vice President, Ventures. Dr. Capek was appointed to his current position in June 2015. In this role, he leads Abbott’s venture investment organization as well as new ventures, including Abbott Electrophysiology. Previously, he had served as Executive Vice President, Medical Devices, and Senior Vice President, Abbott Vascular, heading up Abbott’s global vascular business. Before joining Abbott, Dr. Capek served in various management roles at Guidant Corporation, including president, Guidant Vascular Intervention and vice president and general manager of Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions. He also served as vice president and general manager of Guidant Germany and vice president, marketing, Guidant Cardiac Rhythm Management Group. Before joining Guidant, Dr. Capek was manager of New Product Technology at Eli Lilly & Company. He has a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering, a master’s degree in biomedical engineering, a master’s degree in electrical engineering, a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Roger Bird
Senior Vice President, U.S. Nutrition of Abbott
Roger Bird is Abbott’s Senior Vice President, U.S. Nutrition. He was appointed to this role in February 2015. Prior to assuming his current position, Roger served as Divisional Vice President, General Manager for our Nutrition business in China and Hong Kong. Roger came to Abbott in 1983 from the Dial Soap Company, where he worked as a sales representative. He joined Abbott as Trade Sales Manager in our Nutrition organization, and has served in this business throughout his Abbott career, contributing to our company’s success in both the U.S. and Asia. While leading Abbott’s nutrition business in China, he oversaw the successful launch of Similac Eleva and Similac Qinti, two infant formula products that significantly strengthened Abbott’s presence in this important market. Throughout his career, Roger has taken real pride in contributing to the Abbott Nutrition mission of providing high-quality products that help improve the lives of people of all ages, all around the world. In addition to his responsibilities with Abbott. Roger serves on the Board of the Grocery Manufacturers Association. Roger earned his bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Steve Fussell
Executive Vice President, Human Resources of Abbott
Steve Fussell is Executive Vice President, Human Resources. He was appointed in February 2013. Mr. Fussell joined Abbott in 1996, as Divisional Vice President, Compensation and Benefits. He was promoted to Vice President, Compensation and Development in 1999, and to Senior Vice President, Human Resources in 2005. Prior to Abbott, he held human resources leadership positions at Nestlé and Shell. Mr. Fussell is Chairman of the Board and President of the Clara Abbott Foundation and a board member of the Abbott Fund. He is an author and speaker on a wide variety of subjects and has served as a guest lecturer at Cornell and other universities. In 2010, he was named to the HR Honor Roll by Human Resources Executive magazine. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Jean-Yves Pavée
Senior Vice President of Abbott
Jean-Yves Pavée is Senior Vice President, Developed Markets for Abbott’s Established Products Division. He was appointed to his role in July 2013. Previously, he served as Divisional Vice President, EMEA East, and Division Vice President, Pharmaceuticals, Europe South. Mr. Pavee joined Abbott in 1992, after serving as European Sales Manager, France for Aguettant, S.A. Mister Pavée received his undergraduate degree from the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers, France; and his MBA from HEC Paris MBA, Jouy-en-Josas, France.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
Brian Yoor
Senior Vice President Finance & Chief Financial Officer of Abbott
Brian Yoor is Senior Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer. He was appointed to his current position in June 2015. He previously served as Vice President, Investor Relations. Brian joined Abbott in August 1997, and held various financial management positions of increasing responsibility, including Controller positions in the pharmaceutical, nutrition, and diagnostic businesses, before being asked to lead Abbott’s Investor Relations effort in January 2013. Prior to joining Abbott, Brian was a certified public accountant with Arthur Andersen and held financial positions in the consumer industry with the Scotts Company and Newell Rubbermaid. “In Abbott Finance, we are the stewards that enable financial reliability and growth for Abbott, “ Says Brian. “ A strong, growing company is better able to help people around the world live their healthiest lives.” Brian serves on the board of the Clara Abbott Foundation. He is a member of NIRI, the National Investor Relations Institute. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting at the University of Toledo in Ohio.
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About Abbott: Abbott is engaged in pharmaceuticals and manufacturing healthcare products.
