Kathleen A. Denis is a consultant specializing in the management of intellectual assets in the life sciences, working with academic and industry clients to manage intellectual property portfolios, evaluate new technologies, market and license technologies and start new technology-based businesses. Dr. Denis is active in numerous professional organizations and speaks frequently about early stage technology evaluation, formation of start-up companies, conflict of interest and other issues of academic technology transfer. She currently serves on the boards of the AUTM Foundation, ELabNYC, and Militia Hill Ventures.

Dr. Denis was the Founding Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at The Rockefeller University, a premier biomedical research institution located in New York City, where she spent almost 18 years managing the intellectual property of their elite researchers. She is a Past President of the Licensing Executives Society USA/Canada (LES), and has served on the boards of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association. She is a Certified Licensing Professional, a former Chair of the Board of Governors of Certified Licensing Professionals, Inc. and a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP).

From 1995 through 1998 Dr. Denis was Vice President, Technology Development at Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation. She was a Director at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Technology Transfer from 1991 to 1995, where she managed a large portfolio of biotechnology and pharmaceutical related technologies. Previously, she was an investigator at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA for eight years, and a Senior Scientist at Specialty Laboratories, Inc. She has over thirty scientific publications.

Dr. Denis holds a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Human Genetics from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and an undergraduate degree in genetics from Cornell University.

Veronique Riethuisen, a native of Belgium, has more than 25 years of deal making experience across the healthcare spectrum from the pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostics, medical devices, e-health and academics. She has closed an array of early and late stage deals, both on the buy-side and the sell-side. She's also successfully managed many deal teams both in the US and internationally.

Veronique is currently Vice President of R&D BD at Takeda, responsible with her team for establishing partnerships to support GI and Regenerative Medicine as well as overseeing all out-bound transactions for Takeda's R&D assets. Veronique also represents Takeda on Portal Instruments’ Board of Directors.

Prior to Takeda, Veronique led the CNS and Biosimilars business development activities at Teva where she successfully landed their US partnership with Celltrion. Prior to Teva, Veronique was for almost 10 years part of the WW BD group at Pfizer Inc. where she focused on late stage partnering opportunities mainly in cardiovascular/metabolic diseases, primary care and mobile health. She also served as a board observer representing Pfizer on Aviir and iCardiac's Board of Directors. Prior to Pfizer, Veronique was at Bristol-Myers Squibb where she primarily managed the global alliance with Medarex for ipilimumab. Prior to BMS, Veronique headed business development efforts for two startups in the field of proteomic biomarkers and pharmacogenomics services.

Veronique's career started at Monsanto where for 10 years she held a variety of M&A, Business Development and project management roles in Europe and in the US., in biologics and life science businesses.

Veronique received her Bachelor and Master degrees in Applied Economics from the University of Brussels (ULB), Belgium.

At Red Sky, Pauline Jen Ryan serves clients by taking on interim C-level roles (CEO, CBO, COO) or acting as an advisor on general corporate and business development matters. Her particular expertise is with small- to mid-size biotech companies, including startups and companies leveraging “virtual” operating models. Pauline has served as virtual CBO for several oncology companies. Most recently, Pauline served as interim co-CEO of Harbour Antibodies where she led the management of consultants/employees, started a US subsidiary and completed numerous business development transactions.

In addition to her work at Red Sky, Pauline is currently CEO of Verik Bio, a biotech startup pioneering T cell-based immunotherapy for solid tumor cancers. Prior to joining Red Sky Partners, Pauline helped lead investor Healthcare Ventures raise a $45M Series A round to launch Proteostasis Therapeutics. In addition to setting intellectual property and business development strategy, she was responsible for establishing and growing all business operations functions such as finance, human resources and communications from launch to 50 employees. Previously, Pauline was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Operations at ImmunoGen, where secured the corporate partnership with Genentech that created Kadcyla® for breast cancer. She headed corporate strategic planning, business development and alliance management during her tenure there and was also responsible for human resources, manufacturing, and program management during growth and transition stages. She was responsible for raising over $150M in corporate partnerships and was also instrumental in completing a $125M secondary offering.

Pauline is a member of The Boston Club and also volunteers as a Trustee of the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, currently serving as Chair. She was previously a member of the Board of Directors for Lumio, a startup incubating at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT, and also for Solmap Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Forma Therapeutics). Pauline was also a founding member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Business Development Advisory Committee and launched the BIO Business Development Fundamentals Course in 2003.

Pauline has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in Psychology from Northwestern University.

John advises healthcare and life sciences companies on M&A, licensing and financial strategy. He also speaks frequently on topics in valuation, deal term benchmarking, and exit strategy. WaveEdge Capital is a healthcare investment bank advising companies across the healthcare space. Prior to forming WaveEdge, John was a Managing Director at Woodside Capital Partners, a boutique investment bank and co-led the Healthcare Group. For the prior 12 years, he advised both Fortune 100 and VC-backed healthcare companies on transaction strategy and valuation at Strategic Decisions Group (SDG), a global management consulting firm, and Keelin Reeds Partners, a life sciences and healthcare management consulting firm. While at Keelin Reeds, John led a partnership and M&A deal term benchmarking effort and has extensive experience in applying that data to yield market-value deal terms for dozens of assets, using the results to provide ongoing support during deal negotiations. Prior to consulting, John was an attorney with Weil, Gotshal and Manges LLP where he focused on M&A and corporate finance. John holds a JD from Stanford Law School, where he was an Associate Editor of the Law Review, and a BA, magna cum laude, from Brown University, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Kate Skrable has over 20+ years in business development and alliance management.  Kate approaches alliance management with dedication, leadership, and advocacy.  She has been with Genentech Partnering for over 6 years.  During her tenure she has managed dozens of research, development, and commercial partnerships and collaborations.  Prior to joining Genentech Partnering, Kate worked in a variety of licensing, alliance management, and mergers/acquisitions roles at Valeant, Perlegen, and Connetics.

Kate holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, a MS in Physiology from University of Arizona, and BS from Loyola Marymount University.  She is also a member of ASAP (Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals).

Wyatt helps lead Health Advances’ Biopharma practice and focuses on commercial growth and business development strategies for therapeutics and their convergence with med tech in Digital Health and Drug Delivery work.

Immediately prior to joining Health Advances, Wyatt worked at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) where he advised global biopharma and medtech clients and led teams in growth and product launch strategies, M&A integration, and organizational optimization. He previously worked at Biogen as the Head of New Product Commercialization, developing clinical and commercial strategies for pipeline programs in neurology, immunology and oncology, while supporting corporate and business development activities. Earlier, at Boston Scientific Corporation, Wyatt created and led a new function to achieve market access with US commercial health plans, supporting launches across their portfolio and business units.

Wyatt earned his BS degree in Economics & Policy Analysis and an MPAdegree, including a certificate from the Sloan Graduate Program in Health Services Management, at Cornell University.

Robert Silverman, J.D., Ph.D. has served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel to Concert pharmaceuticals since December 2010 and prior to that was our Vice President and General Counsel from January 2007 to December 2010. Prior to joining Concert, he served in various legal related roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a pharmaceutical company and Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a pharmaceutical company.   Dr. Silverman began his legal career at FMC Corporation, a chemical manufacturing company, where he was previously a research chemist.  

Dr. Silverman received his J.D. from Rutgers-Camden Law School.  He did postdoctoral research in organic chemistry at Stanford University after receiving a Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico and a B.A.. from Lehigh University.

Patricia Sinatra has over 20 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry and has held various roles of increasing responsibility in both the commercialization and licensing of novel technologies used to treat human disease. She has worked with over 30 different companies in the Biopharma space, and has experience working with many first in class-based technologies and products. Pat has "hands-on" launch experience of novel therapeutics as well as strategic marketing and new product planning. She has developed and managed marketing campaigns, market research and developed strategies for many products. Pat also has more than 15 years of experience in the licensing function, and has negotiated or made pivotal contributions for over 15 transactions with big pharrma, biopharma and academic institutions. These include co-dev, technology licensing, and in-licensing type deals in addition to negotiating and amending agreements that were revenue driving. She has managed more than 10 revenue generating alliances. Since 2007, Pat has also instructed and organized the annual 3-day compehensive Business Development Fundamentals Course offered through the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Licensing Executives Society (LES). Pat graduated from the State University of New York where she holds a B.S. in biology with minor emphasis in chemistry and studio art, and pursued post-graduate studies in the department of microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She is also a dual citizen of the United States and Italy.

Kenneth Weber, Ph.D., focuses his practice on patent prosecution, particularly in the areas of molecular genetics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, plant science, medical devices and microbial genetics. He regularly assists clients in patent portfolio management, due diligence reviews, validity/infringement opinions and licensing.

Dr. Weber's clients include public and private corporations across the United States. Representative corporate clients include Aqua Bounty Technologies; Avanir, Inc.; Biosensors International; and Corcept Therapeutics, Cepheid, Inc., Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. and Sutro Biopharma based in California. Ken is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Washington and holds a PhD in Plant Pathology.

Kathleen A. Denis, Ph.D. is the Associate Vice President of Technology Transfer at The Rockefeller University, a premier biomedical research institution located in New York City. Managing the intellectual assets of the University, she works with their elite group of researchers to establish partnerships with industry in order to develop and commercialize technologies for the public good. Formerly a consultant specializing in the management of intellectual assets in the life sciences, she worked with academic and industry clients to manage intellectual property portfolios, evaluate new technologies, market and license technologies and start new technology-based businesses.

Dr. Denis is active in numerous professional organizations and speaks frequently about early stage technology evaluation, formation of start-up companies, conflict of interest and other issues of academic technology transfer. She is a Past President of the Licensing Executives Society USA/Canada (LES), and has served on the Board of Directors of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Association.

From 1995 through 1998 Dr. Denis was Vice President, Technology Development at Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation. She managed the intellectual property and research assets of the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University, as well as Allegheny General Hospital and Allegheny Singer Research Institute. Responsibilities of this position included the evaluation and marketing of technologies, building collaborative relationships with the biomedical and biopharmaceutical communities and promotion of economic development in Pennsylvania.

Dr. Denis was a Director at the University of Pennsylvania Center for Technology Transfer from 1991 to 1995, where she managed a large portfolio of biotechnology and pharmaceutical related technologies. Previously, she was an investigator at the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA for eight years, and a Senior Scientist at Specialty Laboratories, Inc. She has over thirty scientific publications.

Dr. Denis holds a Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Human Genetics from University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and an undergraduate degree in genetics from Cornell University.

Philippe Nore is an experienced executive specialized in clinical diagnostics, genomics and life science tools. He currently is CEO and co-founder of MiNDERA, an early stage clinical diagnostics company. Before founding MiNDERA, Philippe Nore was Senior International Business Leader at Roche Diagnostics. He was responsible for the development and commercialization of the Ventana Digital Pathology products (hardware, software, algorithms to score assays) in the cancer diagnostics market, including global P&L responsibility. During his tenure at Roche he has successfully launched several FDA-approved products.

Prior to that, he was a Senior Engagement Manager at L.E.K. Consulting where he worked with CEOs of small and midsize biotech and life sciences companies. Earlier, he worked at Life Technologies where he headed Strategic Planning and Business Development for the DNA Sequencing business Unit and led the Next-Generation Sequencing taskforce. He also spent 7 years at Bain & Company where he consulted for Fortune 500 companies.

Philippe has negotiated numerous licensing and acquisition transactions in his career and has deep expertise in strategic and financial valuation of biotech assets.

Philippe holds a MSc. in chemistry from ESPCI (Paris) and an MBA from the Wharton School where he graduated as a Palmer Scholar.

At Red Sky, Pauline Jen Ryan serves clients by taking on interim C-level roles (CEO, CBO, COO) or acting as an advisor on general corporate and business development matters. Her particular expertise is with small- to mid-size biotech companies, including startups and companies leveraging “virtual” operating models. Pauline has served as virtual CBO for several oncology companies. Most recently, Pauline served as interim co-CEO of Harbour Antibodies where she led the management of consultants/employees, started a US subsidiary and completed numerous business development transactions.

In addition to her work at Red Sky, Pauline is currently CEO of Verik Bio, a biotech startup pioneering T cell-based immunotherapy for solid tumor cancers. Prior to joining Red Sky Partners, Pauline helped lead investor Healthcare Ventures raise a $45M Series A round to launch Proteostasis Therapeutics. In addition to setting intellectual property and business development strategy, she was responsible for establishing and growing all business operations functions such as finance, human resources and communications from launch to 50 employees. Previously, Pauline was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development & Operations at ImmunoGen, where secured the corporate partnership with Genentech that created Kadcyla® for breast cancer. She headed corporate strategic planning, business development and alliance management during her tenure there and was also responsible for human resources, manufacturing, and program management during growth and transition stages. She was responsible for raising over $150M in corporate partnerships and was also instrumental in completing a $125M secondary offering.

Pauline is a member of The Boston Club and also volunteers as a Trustee of the Advanced Math and Science Academy Charter School, currently serving as Chair. She was previously a member of the Board of Directors for Lumio, a startup incubating at the Martin Trust Center for Entrepreneurship at MIT, and also for Solmap Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Forma Therapeutics). Pauline was also a founding member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s Business Development Advisory Committee and launched the BIO Business Development Fundamentals Course in 2003.

Pauline has an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and a BA in Psychology from Northwestern University.

Kate Skrable has over 20+ years in business development and alliance management.  Kate approaches alliance management with dedication, leadership, and advocacy.  She has been with Genentech Partnering for over 6 years.  During her tenure she has managed dozens of research, development, and commercial partnerships and collaborations.  Prior to joining Genentech Partnering, Kate worked in a variety of licensing, alliance management, and mergers/acquisitions roles at Valeant, Perlegen, and Connetics.

Kate holds an MBA from Santa Clara University, a MS in Physiology from University of Arizona, and BS from Loyola Marymount University.  She is also a member of ASAP (Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals).

John Selig is a Managing Partner and co-founder of WaveEdge Capital LLC, a healthcare investment bank advising companies on M&A, licensing and finance strategy. He was formerly Managing Director and co-head of the Life Sciences Group at Woodside Capital Partners.

Prior to joining Woodside, he was a Partner at Keelin Reeds Partners, a life sciences management consulting firm, where he advised dozens of VC-backed and small cap biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies on M&A and licensing strategies, portfolio management, valuation and strategic direction. While at KR, John led a partnership deal term benchmarking effort and has extensive experience in applying that data to yield market-value deal terms for dozens of assets, using the results to inform product strategy and to provide ongoing support during deal negotiations. John also combined his expertise in valuation, deal term benchmarking and decision analysis with his background in law to help companies make optimal decisions in litigation and settlement.

Previously, John was a senior consultant with Strategic Decisions Group, a global management consulting firm, where he advised numerous Fortune 500 companies in life sciences and other industries on valuation, business strategy and M&A. Prior to consulting, John was an attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP where he focused on M&A and corporate finance.

John holds a JD from Stanford Law School and a BA from Brown University.

Kyle E. Murphy is the Managing Director and Founder of KMG Japan. Kyle has lived in Japan for a significant portion of his adult life. His business has involved working with Japanese and Asian Life Science and healthcare businesses for over 30 years. Kyle speaks Japanese and built a strong network of contacts in both the healthcare industry and government administration. He has represented over 100 clients and successfully structured numerous alliances between Japanese, Asian and foreign companies. Prior to founding KMG Japan, Kyle served as the First Commercial Secretary in the US Embassy in Tokyo where he managed all trade negotiations and activities related to bringing US companies into the Japanese healthcare market. Kyle began his career in the healthcare industry with business development and marketing positions at Schering-Plough in Osaka, Japan and SmithKline in the US.

Ms Sinatra has directed and instructed the BIO BD Fundamentals course since 2007.  She is also Chair of the Next Generation Biotherapeutics Educational Session for the 2018 BIO meeting.  She possesses more than 20 years of biopharmaceuticals industry experience where her expertise blends licensing, alliance management with a foundation in strategic marketing, corporate and technology positioning and market research. She has negotiated a variety of deal structures with big pharma, biotech and academia. She is currently Managing Director of Vector Strategic Advisors LLC. Previously, she held senior business development, marketing, and strategy positions for Telomere Diagnostics, Sutro Biopharma (previously Fundamental Applied Biology), Dynavax Technologies, Abgenix (Amgen), Matrix (Novartis), SEQUUS/ALZA (JNJ), FCB Healthcare and Smithkline Beecham (GSK). She is also an advisor for the UCSF Start Up 101 and the California Life Science Institute’s FAST programs.

Earlier in her career she was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Dallas and taught a continuing education module for physicians and nurses for the Department of Health in Dallas, TX.   Ms. Sinatra  received her undergraduate degree from the State University of New York and conducted PhD studies in Microbiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. She has also conducted extensive continuing education courses in marketing, finance and accounting at UC Berkeley. 

Kenneth Weber, Ph.D., focuses his practice on patent prosecution, particularly in the areas of molecular genetics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, plant science, medical devices and microbial genetics. He regularly assists clients in patent portfolio management, due diligence reviews, validity/infringement opinions and licensing.

Dr. Weber's clients include public and private corporations across the United States. Representative corporate clients include Aqua Bounty Technologies; Avanir, Inc.; Biosensors International; and Corcept Therapeutics, Cepheid, Inc., Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. and Sutro Biopharma based in California. Ken is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Intellectual Property Law Association. He received his J.D. degree from the University of Washington and holds a PhD in Plant Pathology.