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Jeffrey Brewer
Founder and CEO, Bigfoot Biomedical
Jeffrey Brewer, Founder and CEO , founded two successful technology startups CitySearch and Overture / GoTo.com that later became publicly traded companies, where he served as CEO and raised over $90M in private investment and over $350M in an IPO and follow-on equity offerings. For the past thirteen years, since his son’s Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) diagnosis at age seven, Jeffrey has been a thought leader and influencer across the T1D community. As a volunteer, donor, and International Board Member of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), he launched the JDRF Artificial Pancreas Project in 2005, and later served as CEO of JDRF. In the role of CEO, Jeffrey forged financial partnerships with industry to drive research and development of insulin delivery and glucose monitoring technologies. He further spearheaded US regulatory reform in the area of automated insulin delivery, and elevated the organization’s strategic priorities to include health care policy, reimbursement, and access to technology for people with T1D.
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Esteban G. Burchard, MD, MPH
Professor, Department of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences and Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Dr. Burchard is a physician-scientist with formal training and expertise in pulmonary medicine, epidemiology, molecular genetics, genetic and clinical research. He has led a large research program focusing on minority children and gene-environment interactions for asthma since 2001. Dr. Burchard serves as an advisor to the National Academy of Sciences on gene-environment interactions. Dr. Burchard has been named to the Expert Panel for President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative. He initiated and now directs four independent asthma studies in minority children. He has assembled a collaborative team of co-investigators on these projects with specific expertise in genetics, social and environmental epidemiology. Dr. Burchard’s team is taking a comprehensive approach to studying asthma in minority children by focusing on genetic, social and environmental risk factors. His laboratory recently completed the largest genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and trans-ethnic mapping of asthma in minority children. Dr. Burchard and his team recently published the largest air pollution and genome-wide study of asthma in minority children. Dr. Burchard’s research has been seminal in elucidating the pathogenesis of asthma and asthma related traits in minority populations.
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John D. Carroll
Editor-in-Chief, FierceBiotech
John D. Carroll is a biotech analyst with 36 years of experience in journalism that’s taken him all over the world--and back again. Appointed editor of FierceBiotech in 2003, he has covered everything from city hall in Kansas City, KS, to biotech in London. He contributed stories from Central America and Ireland to the Dallas Morning News and Time and wrote for the Houston Press and a medley of other publications. He spent six years as editor and then publisher of the Dallas Business Journal, was publisher of Texas Business for a brief stint and early in his career was part of a big team of reporters and editors at the Kansas City Star & Times that investigated the deadly 1981 disaster at a local Hyatt Regency. The newspapers won a 1982 Pulitzer for their collective work. Carroll lives in Vermont and travels frequently. He can be reached at john@fiercemarkets.com. Follow @JohnCFierce on Twitter.
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John Chambers
Vice-Chairman and Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, ROTH Capital Partners
John Chambers is the Vice-Chairman and Head of Healthcare Investment Banking group at ROTH Capital Partners. Mr. Chambers joined ROTH in December 2009. Mr. Chambers was formerly the head of Merriman Curhan Ford’s Heath Care and investment banking team. Prior to joining Merriman, he was co-head of investment banking at Rodman & Renshaw. Mr. Chambers has also held senior-level health care and biotechnology banking positions at SG Cowen, Lehman Brothers, UBS and Salomon Smith Barney. Mr. Chambers has executed a significant number of banking transactions, strategic transactions and restructurings across all health care sectors.
Chambers earned his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and his B.S. in mechanical engineering from Union College. He is based in the New York office.
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Margarita Chavez
Director, Venture & Early Stage Collaborations, AbbVie Biotech Ventures
Margarita Chavez has over 15 Years of dealmaking experience. She has been in her current role since June 2010 (then Abbott Biotech Ventures), leading early-stage transactions and investments and managing portfolio companies in the US and Europe. Before joining AbbVie Ventures, Ms. Chavez was a Director in Abbott’s Global Pharmaceutical Licensing & Acquisitions Division. Prior to that, Margarita was Senior Counsel in Abbott’s Legal Division. Before joining Abbott, Margarita practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley with the firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, advising startups, venture funds and investment banks in financings, M&As and IPOs. Santa Clara University JD 1997; BS 1994
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Noah Craft, MD, PhD, DTM&H
Co-Founder & CEO, Science 37, Inc.
Dr. Noah Craft, MD, PhD, DTM&H, is the co-founder and CEO of Science 37 and a physician-scientist-entrepreneur. Science 37 transforms the clinical research process, accelerating biomedical discovery and reducing clinical trial costs using a mobile research platform to create ‘metasites’ with broad geographic reach. Science 37 shifts the center for research from traditional institutional investigative sites to the patient’s home and local healthcare system. We use patient-centered technology to simplify the process of participating in trials and connect patients safely and securely to the world’s best scientists, no matter where they live. Dr. Craft was formerly the Chief Scientific Officer and is a now a senior advisor at Direct Dermatology, a national leader in teledermatology offering expert diagnosis and treatment to patients and primary care physicians. Dr. Craft has been a Principal Investigator at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute for the last 10 years and maintains a translational research laboratory there, working on the skin microbiome and on innovative clinical trials in dermatology, oncology, infectious disease, and immunology. Dr. Craft also serves as a senior strategic advisor to VisualDx, a clinical decision support tool, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at the UCLA School of Medicine. He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed articles. Dr. Craft received a B.S. from Brown University and completed medical school, dermatology residency, graduate school, and post-doctoral research at UCLA, and advanced training at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He lives in Venice, California.
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Steve Edelson
Senior Editor, Finance, BioCentury Publications Inc.
Steve serves as a Senior Editor, Finance, for BioCentury. He has been a writer and editor for BioCentury since 1998, including as Executive Editor of BioCentury Innovations and Editor of BioCentury Extra and as Senior Writer responsible for financial markets coverage. Steve has an M.S. in biotechnology from Northwestern University, where he also received a B.A. in biochemistry.
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Lindy Fishburne
Executive Director, Breakout Labs; SVP for Investments, Thiel Foundation
Lindy Fishburne is the Executive Director of Breakout Labs and serves as the Senior Vice President for Investments at the Thiel Foundation based in San Francisco. She joined the foundation in 2007 after a career in management consulting, advising Fortune 500 companies on profitable growth strategies. Lindy has a deep understanding of what it takes to make it through the early days in business, having managed two start-up companies through rapid growth and eventual sale. She created Breakout Labs' novel, revolving fund model to accelerate innovation and redefine how early-stage companies are funded, and the role philanthropy can play. In the last 3 years, Breakout Labs has supported 22 companies across advanced technology fields and the portfolio has gone on to raise 5x in follow-on capital.
She has an AB from Duke University and MBA from University of Texas at Austin.
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Louis J. DeGennaro, PhD
President & CEO, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)
Louis J. DeGennaro, Ph.D., was named president and chief executive officer of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in September 2014 and now leads the operations of this $300 million cancer patient advocacy agency with headquarters in White Plains, New York.
A critical member of the LLS executive leadership team, he joined LLS in 2005 and was named chief mission officer in 2009, with responsibility for leadership of LLS’s mission functions of research, patient access, education, public policy and advocacy. Dr. DeGennaro is recognized as the key architect of LLS’s cures and access agenda to help save lives of blood cancer patients as well as the LLS Therapy Acceleration Program® - a venture philanthropy endeavor that defined the role of nonprofit organizations in supporting drug discovery and development with the biotechnology industry.
Dr. DeGennaro has more than 25 years of research, drug development and executive management experience in academic and private sector settings. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at San Francisco and did his post-doctoral research at the Yale University School of Medicine. His previous academic appointments include research group leader, Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany and associate professor of neurology and cell biology, University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. DeGennaro's private-sector positions include senior director of molecular genetics at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Princeton, NJ, and executive vice president for research and development, SynX Pharma, Inc. in Toronto, Canada.
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Tony Gibney
Managing Director, Leerink Partners LLC
Tony Gibney is a Managing Director at Leerink Partners in New York, where he has led the Firm’s East Coast biopharmaceuticals investment banking franchise since joining the Firm in mid-2009. In addition to having primary coverage responsibilities for East Coast biopharma companies, Tony also manages several relationships with larger European pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining Leerink, Tony led the East Coast biotechnology and branded specialty pharmaceutical effort for the majority of his 10-year tenure at Merrill Lynch. Prior to Merrill, Tony was an analyst and associate in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Lehman Brothers from 1993 to 1999. Tony has executed over 100 M&A transactions, bookrun financings and other structured transactions over his 19-year, life sciences-focused investment banking career. Tony graduated with distinction from Yale University in 1993 with a B.A. in history and economics.
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Brenden Gingrich, PhD
Partner, Knobbe Martens
Dr. Gingrich’s practice focuses on the protection of intellectual property for the biotechnology and medical device industries. His expertise includes the preparation and prosecution of patent applications, counseling on patent strategy, and intellectual property due diligence for both large and small businesses, as well as individual inventors. Dr. Gingrich currently represents clients with technology in the fields of antisense therapy, molecular biology and genetics, pharmaceuticals, DNA sequencing, blood purification, microfluid processing, and surgical fasteners.
During his doctoral studies, Dr. Gingrich studied the molecular basis of complex social behavior in rodents. Prior to receiving his Ph.D., his undergraduate thesis focused on the study of artificial protein channels created using molecular biological techniques.
Dr. Gingrich joined the firm in 2003 and became a partner in 2008.
Clerk Experience: Law clerk to the Honorable Patrick E. Higginbotham, Circuit Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2002-2003
Education:
• University of Virginia School of Law (J.D. 2002), Editorial Board of Virginia Law Review, Order of the Coif
• Emory University (Ph.D., Neuroscience 1999)
• University of Delaware (B.S. Chemistry 1993), cum laude
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Mark A. Goldsmith, MD, PhD
Founding President, CEO, and Board Director, REVOLUTION Medicines
Mark grew up around academic medical centers and knew early on that he would devote his professional life to medical science on behalf of patients. After studying biology and science in human affairs at Princeton University, he pursued a dual career in clinical medicine and scientific research through the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). After postgraduate training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and UCSF, Mark joined the faculty of the UCSF School of Medicine, led a dynamic research laboratory within the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology focused on the pathogenesis of and discovery of new treatments for life-threatening viral diseases, and taught and practiced medicine at the San Francisco General Hospital/UCSF. He co-authored 85 scientific publications and is co-inventor on multiple issued patents and applications. He also served as assistant director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology and was consultant and collaborator to a variety of small and large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Mark has also been active in business since childhood, negotiating his first significant technology deal while a graduate student. After a productive career in academia, he was recruited to the private sector, where he served in senior management roles in private and public biotechnology companies, including Genencor International and Constellation Pharmaceuticals, where he drove the development of an industry-leading strategic alliance with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Prior to REVOLUTION Medicines, he served as chief executive officer of four companies spanning early discovery through full development. He also served as senior executive-in-residence at Prospect Venture Partners. In 2012, Mark joined Third Rock Ventures full-time to lead its West Coast operations and design, launch and build new biotech companies. As partner, he led the collaboration with David Pompliano, Marty Burke and others that gave rise to REVOLUTION Medicines. In 2015, Mark transitioned into a part-time venture partner position at Third Rock ventures so that he could focus on building and leading REVOLUTION Medicines as its full-time CEO.
Mark holds an A.B. from Princeton University and an M.D. and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from UCSF. In addition to his role at REVOLUTION Medicines, he serves as chairman of the board for Constellation Pharmaceuticals and Nurix, and a board director for Igenica Biotherapeutics.
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Asthika Goonewardene
Biotechnology Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence
Asthika Goonewardene is the senior biotechnology analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, a unique research platform that provides context on industries, companies, and government policy, available on the Bloomberg Professional Service at BI <GO>. Mr. Goonewardene leads coverage of the global biotech. Prior to this role, Mr. Goonewardene was based in Europe, covering the large cap pharmaceutical and generics sector.
Mr. Goonewardene has more than a decade of experience in research and analysis within the pharmaceuticals industry, working at firms such as Johnson & Johnson, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Piper Jaffray. Prior to joining Bloomberg in 2011, Mr. Goonewardene worked as a senior consultant at Datamonitor, advising pharmaceutical companies on lifecycle management strategies and assessing market opportunities for both blockbuster and specialty drugs.
In his roles at Bloomberg Intelligence, Mr. Goonewardene has lead a series of seminars, webinars and panel discussion on topics such as advances in immuno-oncology, deal-making, biosimilars, pricing and reimbursement, emerging market strategies, and tax inversion in the pharmaceutical sector.
Mr. Goonewardene holds a BS in Biotechnology and an MBA in Marketing, Technology Management from Rochester Institute of Technology.
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Brian Hagerty
Senior Director, Capital Markets, New York Stock Exchange
Brian Hagerty has spent the past 7 years working on Wall Street in Equity Capital Markets and Risk Management. Before joining the New York Stock Exchange, Brian spent 5 years in Equity Capital Markets at J.P. Morgan where he was responsible for the Healthcare sector, spending time both in New York City and San Francisco. Before his time in Equity Capital Markets, Brian spent two years focused on Conflict and Risk Management, where he collaborated with cross-functional teams across both domestic and international markets to lead the analysis of high risk transactions including M&A advisories, hostile take-overs, debt/equity linked offerings, derivative transactions and other products. Prior to joining J.P. Morgan, Brian was a Senior Financial Analyst at BAE Systems Inc, where he oversaw the financial planning behind BAE’s largest production program.
During his time in Equity Capital Markets at J.P. Morgan, Brian executed over 40 Initial Public Offerings, 200 follow-on offerings, and a number of successful private financings. These included landmark transactions for HCA, Quest Diagnostics, Thermo Fisher, Premier, Perrigo, SXC Health Solutions, Invitae, Juno Therapeutics and Ultragenyx.
Brian graduated with a BS in Business Economics from Brown University and holds his series 63 and 79 Licenses. Brian lives in Connecticut with his fiancé.
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Jeanne Haggerty
Senior Vice President, Federal Government Relations, BIO
Haggerty joined BIO in September 2006 as Director for Federal Government Relations. She was named Vice President in September 2014 and Senior Vice President in August 2015.
Prior to joining BIO, Haggerty served as a Professional Staff Member for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. She also worked for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on the Senate Aging Committee, for the Senate Finance Committee and in government relations at Epstein, Becker and Green.
Haggerty graduated from the University of Vermont.
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Paul J. Hastings
Chairman & CEO, OncoMed Pharmaceuticals
Mr. Hastings is the Chairman and CEO of OncoMed Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining OncoMed in 2006, Mr. Hastings was President and Chief Executive Officer of QLT, Inc. Previous to that, Mr. Hastings served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Axys Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Celera Corporation in 2001. From 1999 to 2001, Mr. Hastings served as the President of Chiron BioPharmaceuticals, a division of Chiron Corporation. Prior to that, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of LXR Biotechnology. Mr. Hastings also held a series of management positions of increasing responsibility at Genzyme Corporation, including serving as President of Genzyme Therapeutics Europe as well as President, Genzyme Therapeutics. Mr. Hastings also served as Vice President, Marketing and Sales and General Manager, Europe for Synergen, Inc., and previously held a series of marketing and sales management positions with Hoffmann-La Roche.
Mr. Hastings was recently Chairman of the Board of Proteolix (sold to Onyx Pharmaceuticals in 2010), and served on the boards of ViaCell (sold to Perkin-Elmer in 2007). He is currently on the boards of Pacira Pharmaceuticals and Relypsa and serves as Chairman of the Emerging Companies Section of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, and was Chairman of the Bay Area Biosciences Association (BayBio).
Mr. Hastings received a Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy from the University of Rhode Island.
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James Healy, MD, PhD
General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
Jim Healy, MD, PhD, has over 20 years of experience in biomedical research, development and finance. Dr. Healy joined Sofinnova in 2000 as a General Partner, and specializes in funding private and publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies. Jim has financed and served on the board of ten companies which received drug approvals from either the FDA or EMA. He was an early investor and board member of ten companies which subsequently completed initial public offerings and ten companies that have been acquired as private or public companies. He invests throughout the US and Europe. Jim presently serves on the board of directors of Amarin (AMRN), Ascendis, Auris (EARS), Coherus (CHRS), Natera, NuCana and other private companies.
Jim graduated with a BA in Molecular Biology and a BA in Scandinavian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley where he graduated with Honors and received a Departmental Citation. Jim received his MD and PhD in Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine through the NIH Medical Scientist Training Program. He was a Beckman Scholar, received a Novartis Bursary Award and performed neuroscience research at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Jim has authored or co-authored thirteen peer reviewed articles and invited reviews, including three papers published in Nature. He lived in Denmark, speaks Danish, and enjoys skiing.
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Matthew Holt
Co-Founder, Health 2.0
Matthew Holt has spent 20 years in health care as a researcher, forecaster, and strategist. He learned from some of the best in forecasting, policy and survey organizations, like Institute for the Future and Harris Interactive. But these days he’s best known as the author of The Health Care Blog and as Co-Chairman of Health 2.0, which since 2007 has been the leading organization showcasing new health technologies in its conferences, market research, competitions, and tech pilots. For that he’s been mostly self-taught.
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Nathan Hubbard
Vice President Transactions, Oncology and Diagnostics, Eli Lilly and Company
Nathan Hubbard is the Vice President of Oncology and Diagnostics Business Development Transactions, for Eli Lilly and Company. He joined Lilly 14 years ago and has had a broad set of roles, including 6 years of oncology-specific experience. From 2012-2014, he ran the oncology business unit for Eli Lilly Canada. Previously, he had oncology sales and marketing leadership positions in China and San Francisco. Prior to this he was a Director of Mergers and Acquisitions in Eli Lilly’s Corporate Finance and Investment Banking (CFIB) Group, where he was responsible for executing the company’s oncology M&A strategy. Upon returning from business school, he was a Consultant in Lilly Finance’s Six Sigma organization. While completing his MBA, Nathan interned at Genentech where he worked on Herceptin marketing.
As a Senior Neuroscience Sales Representative, he launched multiple products and line extensions for the Lilly Neuroscience division. Prior to entering the Lilly sales organization, he served as the Lilly, USA Brand CFO for Prozac. Nathan received an MBA in General Management from Stanford University, and holds a BA in Economics from DePauw University.
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Charlotte Hubbert, PhD
Program Investment Officer, Venture Investing at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Charlotte Hubbert is a Program Investment Officer with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation focused on Venture Investing for innovative and technologies that support foundation initiatives in Global Health.
Prior to joining the Gates Foundation, Charlotte was a Vice-President at H.I.G. BioVentures focusing on investment opportunities in the life sciences, including therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices at all stages of development. Charlotte started her career in early stage biotech at Accelerator Corporation, an investment vehicle focused on identifying, evaluating, financing and managing emerging therapeutic technologies. During her tenure, Charlotte was involved in the strategic development and management of five companies, including Oncofactor, Groove Biopharma, Acylin Therapeutics, Xori and Pharmselex. Charlotte currently serves on the board of directors of Synlogic, Inc.
Charlotte earned a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology from Duke University. She did her post-doctoral work in stem cells and regenerative medicine at the Institute for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Washington. Charlotte is a member of the Kauffman Society of Fellows (Class 14).
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Stephen T. Isaacs
Chairman, President, and CEO, Aduro Biotech
Stephen T. Isaacs has served as the Chairman, Director, President and Chief Executive Officer since 2008. Prior to Aduro, Mr. Isaacs founded Cerus Corporation, a biomedical products company commercializing the Intercept Blood Systems, in 1991. He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Cerus from 1991 to 2004. Prior to Cerus, Mr. Isaacs founded and served as Chief Executive Officer and President of HRIS Associates and HRI Research, both biotechnology companies focusing on research and development. He held a non-teaching faculty position in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley from 1978 to 1986. Mr. Isaacs has published over 20 peer-reviewed scientific articles and is an inventor on over 40 issued patents. Mr. Isaacs holds a B.A. degree in Biochemistry from University of California Berkeley, and had graduate training in organic chemistry in the Ph.D. program in the Department of Chemistry at Berkeley.
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Jeff Jonker
President, NGM Biopharmaceuticals
Prior to joining NGM in 2014, Mr. Jonker was the Senior Vice President, Corporate and Business Development at Theravance Biopharma (NASDAQ: TBPH) and held that same role at Theravance, Inc. (NASDAQ: THRX) prior to the spin-out of TBPH. He previously served as the Chief Business Officer of Satori Pharmaceuticals, the Vice President of Business Development and Corporate Strategy for Gloucester Pharmaceuticals prior to its acquisition by Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) and leadership positions in the business development and legal groups at Genentech. Prior to Genentech, he was an associate in the Technology Transactions Group at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, representing clients in the life science and high tech industries. Mr. Jonker holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, an M.LITT. from the University of St. Andrews and a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College.
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Nina Kjellson
General Partner, Canaan Partners
Nina Kjellson joined Canaan’s healthcare team in September 2015 from InterWest Partners where she had been investing in healthcare start-ups since 2002. She focuses primarily on investments in biopharmaceuticals and digital health. Nina is co-founder and co-chair of ConsumerMed.org<http://consumermed.org>, a forum to address the convergence of health care and consumer innovation and serves as a mentor to Blueprint Health, a digital health incubator and Springboard Life Sciences, an accelerator for healthcare companies driven by women entrepreneurs. Investment themes include innovative therapeutics for serious and underserved conditions, IT-enabled transformation of healthcare delivery and patient/consumer engagement.
Current investments include Cidara (CDTX), Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, Lycera, Ocera (OCRX), Paratek (PRTK), and WellTok.
Previous investments include Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva), Alt12 (acquired by Honest Company), Trius Therapeutics (TSRX; acquired by Cubist), CNS Therapeutics (acquired by Covidien), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck), and Aspreva (ASPV; acquired by Galenica)
Prior to InterWest, Nina was an investment manager at Bay City Capital, a life sciences merchant bank, and a research associate at Oracle Partners, a health care-focused hedge fund. Nina began her career conducting health policy and survey research with the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Nina received a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University (1997).
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Elizabeth Krutoholow
Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence
Elizabeth Krutoholow is an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, a unique research platform that provides context on industries, companies, and government policy, available on the Bloomberg Professional Service at Bloomberg Intelligence. Ms. Krutoholow specializes in specialty pharma and biotech companies.
Prior to joining the Bloomberg Intelligence team, Ms. Krutoholow was an editor of the Healthcare Finance Brief at Bloomberg. She has covered healthcare for the past seven years, previously with BioPharm Insight (part of the Financial Times Group). She has been awarded several fellowships from the National Press Foundation.
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Avi Kulkarni, PhD
Managing Director and Senior Vice President, Quintiles Advisory Services
Dr. Kulkarni is a San Francisco based west-coast leader of Quintiles Advisory Services business. He has extensive experience in drug and diagnostics discovery and development, portfolio management, mergers and acquisitions, and commercialization processes. His clients include leading global biopharmaceutical companies.
Prior to Quintiles, Avi was a Partner at Booz & Co., where he was the leader of the life sciences R&D business. He has been at the forefront of the transformation of the world’s leading Rx and Dx companies as they develop precision or personalized medicine capabilities and diversify into new businesses and markets.
Avi has deep roots in the biotechnology start-up community. He was a member of Sand Hill Angels till 2011. He has raised over $100MM for his start-up companies. He was CEO of Lumen Therapeutics (CV drugs), COO of Aviir (diagnostic tests for cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance) and CFO and head of Business Development of CareDx (XDx - AlloMap Cardiac gene expression testing).
Avi held management positions at Chiron Corporation where he developed cancer therapeutic roll-up strategies as director of corporate development and, as head of business development for the Blood Testing Division, commercialized HIV and HCV tests. As a scientist at American Cyanamid in the early 90s he developed formulations, process transmittals and master batch records for a variety of beta-lactam and growth factor therapeutics, and wrote FDA and international monographs.
Avi obtained his MBA degree from Stanford University, Ph.D. and MS degrees in Pharmaceutics from Temple University, and BS degree in Pharmacy from the University of Bombay.
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Olivier Leclerc
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Olivier Leclerc is a Senior Partner in the Los Angeles Office of McKinsey & Company. He serves pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical products clients on strategic and operational improvement issues. His clients range from multi-billion-dollar corporations to pre-IPO biotech companies. Olivier leads the Global Digital initiative for McKinsey Pharmaceuticals and Medical Products practice. He also leads McKinsey Oncology Service Line in the US and has deep expertise in specialty pharmaceuticals, as well as pricing/contracting across healthcare sectors.
Prior to joining McKinsey, Olivier worked in Hong Kong and China for 3 years in sales and marketing for two consumer product companies. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, a B.A. in business and economics from HEC in France, a Maitrise (J.D. equivalent) in French Law from the University of Paris, and a D.E.C.F. (French Degree in Finance and Accounting).
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Olivier Lesueur
Managing Director, BIONEST Partners
Olivier is a Managing Director at Bionest Partners, a global consulting firm focused on Pharma, Biotech, Medical Device, Diagnostics and Investors, that helps clients navigate complex product development and commercialization challenges in order to drive growth, create value and gain competitive advantage.
Olivier is based in the New York office and shares his activity between the US and Europe. His areas of medical expertise include oncology, vaccines, respiratory, inflammation/autoimmune, and the central nervous system.
Olivier joined Bionest in 2004 and moved to the New York office in 2008 to develop US operations. He collaborates with teams from large pharma, leading biotech companies, and private equity funds. His specific project experience includes portfolio/franchise strategy development and implementation, support to drug development decision-making, life-cycle management strategy, corporate development strategy, competitive product positioning and companion diagnostic strategy.
His skills lie in working with cross-functional franchise or product teams in order to foster alignment on decision-making related to development or commercial challenges. Olivier collaborates with his clients to identify compelling competitive differentiation, in order to maximize value proposition for key customers.
Olivier earned an MS in Management from EM-Lyon Business School and an MS in Molecular Biology from Polytech Clermont-Ferrand.
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William Lis
CEO, Portola Pharmaceuticals
Mr. Lis joined Portola in 2008 and was appointed chief executive officer in May 2010. During this time, Portola has advanced several novel compounds into clinical development, successfully raised over $600 million in private and public financings – including an initial public offering in 2013, and executed multiple partnerships for its programs. Portola’s two wholly-owned thrombosis programs, betrixaban and andexanet alfa, are in late-stage clinical trials, and its wholly-owned oncology agent, cerdulatinib, is in a Phase 2 trial in hematologic cancers. Prior to serving as CEO, he served as chief operating officer and chief business officer. He has over 20 years of experience in biopharmaceutical commercialization, corporate development and management. Mr. Lis previously held positions at Scios, Inc. (a Johnson & Johnson Company) from 2004 to 2007 where he last served as vice president, business and commercial operations. He led successful in-licensing and commercial launch operations for Xarelto® (rivaroxaban). Prior to joining Scios, he was director of marketing and new products for Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (previously COR Therapeutics, Inc.), which included the launch of Integrilin® (eptifibatide). At Rhone-Poulenc Rorer, he was involved in the U.S. sales launch and commercialization of several products, including Lovenox® (enoxaparin). Mr. Lis holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland.
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Andrew May, DPhil
Chief Scientific Officer, Caribou Biosciences
Andy May leads the research and development team at Caribou Biosciences and has a background developing technologies and bringing innovative products from concept to commercialization. Before joining Caribou, Andy led development teams in sequencing, single-cell genomics and structural proteomics at Fluidigm Corporation. His group pioneered efforts in single-cell RNA-seq, high-throughput HLA typing and analysis of cell-free DNA to track tumor progression. Previously, he held scientific and leadership positions at Thios Pharmaceuticals and Signature Biosciences and was a Wellcome Trust International Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford University. Andy is an inventor on many patents and patent applications and has authored articles in leading journals describing developments in structural biology, microfluidics, clinical sequencing, single-cell genomics and CRISPR technologies. He received a B.A. in Chemistry and a D.Phil. in Molecular Biophysics, both from the University of Oxford.
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Michael V. McConnell, MD, MSEE
Professor of Medicine, Director of Cardiovascular Health Innovation and PI of the MyHeart Counts mHealth research study, Stanford School of Medicine
Michael V. McConnell, MD, MSEE, Professor of Medicine, Director of Cardiovascular Health Innovation and PI of the MyHeart Counts mHealth research study, Stanford School of Medicine
Dr. McConnell is Director of Cardiovascular Health Innovation and PI of the MyHeart Counts mHealth research study. He also directs the Cardiovascular MRI Program and co-directs the Preventive Cardiology Clinic in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine. His research studies novel MRI and molecular imaging techniques, from mouse to man, to evaluate coronary artery and vascular diseases, including the characterization of atherosclerotic plaque and vascular inflammation. He directs the NIH-funded Multi-Disciplinary Training Program in Cardiovascular Imaging at Stanford (CVIS). Dr. McConnell also leads the efforts of Stanford Cardiovascular Health to integrate mobile health technologies to improve the care of patients with or at risk for cardiovascular disease. He actively collaborates with scientists in Electrical Engineering, Bioengineering, Vascular Biology, Radiology, Cardiac/Vascular Surgery, Chemistry, and Psychology.
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Matt Noble
Senior Director, Product Management, Medidata Solutions
As senior director of product management, Matt is the lead for Patient Cloud, Medidata's mobile platform for capturing patient-reported data. A strategic member of the site engagement solution team, Matt plays a key role in propelling Medidata's mHealth-powered clinical trials and patient-centric research--unifying mobile tools and wearable devices with cloud-based technologies to help transform customers' research programs.
Prior to joining Medidata in 2013, Matt spent six years at Goldman Sachs where he held roles of increasing responsibility in the finance division. While with the firm, he spearheaded forward-thinking functional initiatives and designed flexible, best-in-class technology solutions to keep the division ahead of the constantly-evolving financial regulatory landscape.
Matt received his BS from Villanova University.
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Oleg Nodelman
Founder and Managing Director, EcoR1 Capital
Oleg Nodelman is the Founder and Managing Director of EcoR1 Capital LLC, a biotech-focused investment advisory firm. With 15 years of experience in investing and consulting, Mr. Nodelman has expertise in all aspects of investment management and deep roots in the biotech and scientific communities. Before founding EcoR1, Mr. Nodelman was a Portfolio Manager at BVF Partners, one of biotech’s first dedicated hedge funds. During his 11 years with BVF, Mr. Nodelman’s responsibilities spanned the entire investment process, from opportunity generation and due diligence to portfolio management and trading. Mr. Nodelman began his career in strategic consulting and organizational management at Mercer Management Consulting (now Oliver Wyman), where he worked with senior management from companies in a variety of industries to develop and implement long-term strategy and build shareholder value. Mr. Nodelman is active in the biotech community and a member of the President’s Council at the Gladstone Institute and has served on the advisory committee of the Biotech Industry Organization. He has a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service with a concentration in Science and Technology from Georgetown University.
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Jonathan Norris
Managing Director, Silicon Valley Bank
Jon Norris is a managing director for SVB's Healthcare practice. Norris oversees business development efforts for banking and lending opportunities as well as spearheading strategic relationships with many healthcare venture capital firms. He also helps SVB Capital through sourcing and advising on direct equity co-investment and limited partnership allocations.
In addition, he has authored numerous thought leadership pieces examining the flow of capital into healthcare, including detailed analysis of venture-backed M&A and IPOs. Norris has more than thirteen years of banking experience working with life science companies and venture capital firms.
Prior to joining SVB Capital, Norris was a founding member and senior vice president of Square 1 Bank, an early stage technology bank, where he was responsible for sourcing deals and managing regional and national venture capital relationships. Norris also served more than six years at Imperial Bank (subsequently acquired by Comerica Bank), most recently as senior vice president and group manager of the Northern California Life Science Practice. Prior to banking, Norris was a practicing litigation attorney, specializing in employment defense and toxic tort litigation.
Norris earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of California, Riverside and a juris doctorate from Santa Clara University.
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Michael J. O'Donnell
Partner, Morrison & Foerster
Michael O'Donnell is a partner in the Palo Alto office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, specializing in corporate and securities law. He has more than 30 years of experience providing general corporate representation to biopharmaceutical and other life sciences companies. He offers particular expertise in venture capital financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, technology licensing, and corporate spin-out transactions. He represents numerous public and private biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, and instrumentation companies.
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Dinesh V. Patel, PhD
President & CEO, Protagonist Therapeutics
Dinesh Patel has 30 years of executive, entrepreneurial, and scientific experience spanning big pharma, biotech, and the biopharmaceutical industry. He was previously (2006-08) the President & CEO OF Arête Therapeutics, a privately held company with $51 million in VC funding and a focus on first-in-class drugs for metabolic syndrome. Prior to that, he was the President, CEO & Co-founder (2003-05) of Miikana Therapeutics, an oncology based company that was acquired by Entremed (renamed CASI Pharmaceuticals: CASI) in 2005. One of Miikana’s asset ENMD2076 has received orphan drug designation and is being pursued for treatment of multiple cancers. Dr. Patel was a co-founder of the anti-infective Company Versicor (later renamed Vicuron) wherein he held positions of increasing responsibility (1996-2003) leading to Senior VP of Drug Discovery & Licensing, and was an active participant in various rounds of private financing including the IPO road show in 2000. Vicuron was acquired by Pfizer in 2005 for $1.9 billion. The Vicuron team generated numerous INDs during its long term collaborations with Pharmacia and Novartis, and independently filed two NDAs—Anidulafungin (Eraxis) is now a marketed anti-fungal drug, and Dalbavancin (Dalvance) was licensed by Durata therapeutics (acquired by Actavis, now renamed Allergan) and has been approved for ABSSS infections. Prior to Vicuron, Dr. Patel was a director of chemistry at the combinatorial chemistry company Affymax (1993-96) which was acquired by GSK for $533 million in 1995. He started his career as a medicinal chemist at Bristol-Myers Squibb in 1985. Dr. Patel received his Ph.D. in chemistry from Rutgers University, New Jersey and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has more than 100 patents and publications to his credit.
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Sara Radcliffe, MPH
President & CEO, California Life Sciences Association
Sara Radcliffe was appointed the president and chief executive officer of the California Life Science Association in December 2014. She formerly served as the Executive Vice President for Health at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). Previously, Sara served as Senior Director, Biologics & Biotechnology at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). She also served in the Alliance and Technology Group at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals as a Research and Development Policy Analyst, working on evaluation and communication of the promise, ethics, and impact of rapidly-developing technologies in DNA Research. In addition she worked for the Core Services Committee of the New Zealand Ministry of Health. Sara holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of Arts in Philosophy from the Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College.
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Matthew Rossiter
Partner, Fenwick & West
Matthew Rossiter represents startup companies, established public companies and venture capital investors, with particular focus on the healthcare and enterprise software industries. He advises clients on a variety of corporate and intellectual property transactions, including the formation of startup ventures, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, and complex commercial and intellectual property transactions.
Matt seeks to provide clients with practical, thoughtful advice to help solve their business and legal issues, and assists clients in structuring, negotiating and closing business transactions quickly and effectively. His practice also includes providing day‐to‐day counseling to companies and boards of directors on a wide range of other corporate matters.
Matt is the lead researcher and co‐author of Fenwick & West’s Life Sciences Financing Survey, a biannual report that analyzes the valuations and terms of venture financings for the U.S. life science companies, as well as trends in life science financing, VC fundraising, M&A and IPO activity.
In addition, Matt served as an interim in-house legal counsel for Virgin America during the startup phase of its operations. Matt is a frequent lecturer at Stanford Law School and Wharton Business School.
Matt received his undergraduate education at DePauw University, graduating with a B.A., cum laude, in economics. He attended law school at Duke University, graduating with a J.D., magna cum laude. Matt was a member of the Duke Law Journal, was named recipient of the Faculty Award in Business Organization and Finance, and was inducted into the Order of the Coif upon graduation.
Matt is a member of the State Bar of California.
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Camille Samuels
Partner, Venrock
Cami Samuels joined Venrock in 2014 and focuses on healthcare with an emphasis on biotech and consumer health. Prior to Venrock, Cami was a Managing Director at Versant Ventures for a decade where she led investments in Achaogen (AKAO), Kythera (KYTH), Novacardia (acquired by Merck), and ParAllele (acquired by Affymetrix), among others. She was also a board observer at several companies including Genomic Health (GHDX), Fluidigm (FLDM), and Syrrx (acquired by Takeda).
Before Versant, she was responsible for business development at Tularik, Inc. (acquired by Amgen) where she in-licensed two of the company’s clinical-stage products and led Tularik’s Technology Acquisition Group. Before Tularik, Cami worked in corporate development at Genzyme and Millennium Predictive Medicine, and was a management consultant to healthcare and biotech companies at LEK Consulting.
Cami earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. In 2002, The Aspen Institute named Camille a Henry Crown Fellow.
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Matthew Scholz
CEO, Immusoft
Matthew Scholz is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Immusoft, a biotech start-up firm that is developing a breakthrough technology that will turn a patient’s B cells into miniature drug factories. Longer term, this technology has the potential to transform the landscape of biomedicine.
With a background in computer security, Matthew’s initial concept for Immusoft’s core technology was based on using high speed cryptographic hardware to develop novel proteins to fight pathogens. In 2008, Matthew began conducting independent research in immunology and gene therapy and seeking input from some of the world’s top scientists. By 2009, he dramatically evolved the initial concept after conceiving how a research system developed by Nobel Laureate and former President of Caltech, David Baltimore, could be modified for a practical application: programming resting B cells to secrete therapeutic proteins. Matthew negotiated an exclusive license to the system, then developed and patented a way to improve its efficiency nearly seven-fold, thus making it clinically viable. This modified system is the core of Immusoft’s technology platform.
Along the way, Matthew has recruited a world-class team of scientists and biotech business experts to build Immusoft’s core technology and shape and drive the company. Immusoft’s extensive list of advisors includes experts in immunology, cell therapy, gene therapy, preclinical and clinical development, and CEOs of successful biotech companies. Matthew has also led Immusoft’s highly successful fundraising efforts. In March 2012, Immusoft was among the first to be awarded the Thiel Foundation’s Breakout Labs grant. The start-up has also received a grant from the National Institutes of Health and funds from private investors. In addition, Matthew has secured several valuable collaborations, including nearly $100k of work at no charge from academic labs during the company’s proof of concept stage.
With Immusoft as his third venture, Matthew has 13 years of experience connecting real-world needs with cutting-edge technical solutions. Prior projects include mobile application development and GPS-based fleet logistics (a start-up that he sold in 2009). He holds a degree in computer science from the University of Washington and is a frequent speaker at the University of Washington School of Business. Matthew also serves as mentor for the Thiel Fellowship, a program that awards $100k grants to some of the brightest scientific minds in the world who are under age 20.
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Pamela Sklar, MD, PhD
Chief, Division of Psychiatric Genomics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Pamela Sklar MD, PhD is a world-renowned neuroscientist, human geneticist, and clinical psychiatrist who has advanced the medical community’s understanding of the role of genetic variants in mental illness. Her groundbreaking research, which focuses on rare and common DNA and RNA variation and utilizes the newest high-throughput genomic technology, has made integral contributions to the understanding of gene and structural variants that increase the risk of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Much of the current focus of her work is on defining the functional role of genetic risk variation through multiple genomic strategies. As Founding Chief of the Division of Psychiatric Genomics at the Icahn School of Medicine Mount Sinai in New York City, Dr. Sklar is drawing upon her experience in developing programs in genetics and translational research in the areas of next-generation sequencing, stem cell biology, proof-of-concept drug trials, and large-scale sample collections. Her team—comprised of experts in statistical genetics, stem cell biology, neurocognition, and imaging— is pioneering ways to translate genetic insights into the clinical practice of psychiatry.
Dr. Sklar, who is also Professor of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, and Genetics and Genomic Sciences, has long been at the forefront of collaborative genetic studies of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia through her leadership positions in the International Schizophrenia Consortium; the International Cohort Collection for Bipolar Disorder, the Psychiatric Genome Consortium, and more recently the CommonMind Consortium and the PsychENCODE project. Before joining Mount Sinai in 2011, Dr. Sklar was a founding member of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School. She served as the Center’s Director of Genetics from 2007 to 2011. Dr. Sklar earned her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from Johns Hopkins Medical School.
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Hannes Thor Smárason
Co-Founder and COO, WuXi NextCODE
Hannes Thor Smárason is a prolific entrepreneur, investor, and advisor.
Mr. Smárason co-founded WuXi NextCODE along with Dr. Jeff Gulcher. He has been a longtime advisor to deCODE Genetics and its venture investors Polaris Venture Partners and ARCH Venture Partners and contributed to the strategy that culminated in the $415 million sale of deCODE Genetics to Amgen. Mr. Smárason previously served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Business and Finance at the company (1997-2004) during which time deCODE Genetics achieved worldwide recognition as the global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome. During his tenure Mr. Smárason led the first IPO by an Icelandic company in the U.S., structured and negotiated alliances with pharmaceutical companies, and led the strategic acquisition of a drug discovery company. Prior to joining deCODE Genetics he was a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving Fortune 100 clients in the finance, healthcare, and hospitality sectors. Mr. Smárason has served on boards across a variety of sectors related to investment and advisory activity and is active across a range of charitable organizations. He received his master's degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he also earned his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
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Jeffrey Smith, PhD
Vice President, Investment Banking, H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC
Dr. Jeffery Smith is a Vice President, Investment Banking at HCW. Prior to joining HCW, Dr. Smith earned his doctorate in Cancer Biology from the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences investigating the role of Rho GTPases in cytoskeletal remodeling during breast cancer proliferation and metastasis. Previously, Dr. Smith was a laboratory manager and senior researcher studying insulin signaling and glucose transporters in mouse models of Type 2 Diabetes. Dr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Chemistry from the University of Iowa.
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David Thomas, CFA
Senior Director, Industry Research and Policy Analysis, BIO
David is currently Senior Director of Industry Research and Analysis at BIO in Washington, DC. In this role, he is responsible for financial statistics and analysis of the biotechnology sector and contributes to BIO’s policy activities as well as programming for BIO’s investor conferences. Prior to joining BIO, he was a research scientist at the J. Craig Venter Institute working on the “synthetic cell” team led by Nobel Laureate Hamilton Smith. Before his role in synthetic biology, David worked as a scientist in drug discovery at Amgen, Millennium, and Novartis. His scientific expertise is in protein engineering, enzymology, and synthetic biology. David has earned the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and holds a master’s degree in biochemistry.
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Ben Thorner
VP Business Development & Licensing, Head of North American Innovation Hubs, Merck Research Laboratories
Ben is Vice President, BD&L and Head of North American Innovation Hubs at Merck Research Laboratories. As such, Ben leads the Boston Innovation Hub and the West Coast Innovation Hub, each of which is a full business development organization, tasked with bringing new molecules, technologies and collaborations into Merck, especially in the New England and West Coast Regions. The Innovation Hubs work closely with academic centers, biotech and pharma companies.
Prior to joining Merck, Ben was Head of Transactions in Strategic Alliances at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR). In this role, Ben led a group of professional negotiators to value and structure deals and to drive cross-functional deal teams to close deals between NIBR (Novartis’ organization responsible for Research and Early Development) and potential partners. These deals ranged from research collaborations, to licensing deals to IP acquisitions and the like. NIBR’s partners include biotechnology companies and academic partners.
Prior to joining Novartis, Ben led the execution of numerous deals as Executive Director of Licensing at Amgen. Ben also held other roles at Amgen, including Senior Counsel in Amgen’s legal department, where he drafted and negotiated key licensing and related deals.
Before moving in-house, Ben worked as an attorney in private practice at the law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP, spending several years in the firm’s offices in New York City and in the Boulder/Denver area of Colorado. Ben also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judge Randall R. Rader on the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington DC.
Ben holds a Masters Degree in Biology and a JD from the University of Virginia and an undergraduate degree in Government & Politics from George Mason University.
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Geeta Vemuri, PhD
Managing Partner, Baxalta Ventures
Dr. Vemuri manages Baxalta’s venture investment group, a $200M pool of capital. Prior to running Baxalta Ventures, she was responsible for running Baxter’s Venture group since 2012 – until the spin-off of Baxter’s bioscience business in July 2015 as Baxalta Incorporated. Prior to that, she spent 8-1/2 years at Quaker Partners, an East Coast based venture capital group focused on life science investments with $700M under management.
Her select current board member and board observation responsibilities include; Aptinyx, Opsona Therapeutics, True North Therapeutics, Vitesse Biologics and SyntImmune Inc. Select prior board member and observation responsibilities include; Cempra, Inc (CEMP), Covagen (acq by Jansen), Naurex (acq by Allergan), Ocular Therapeutix (OCUL) & Protez Pharmaceuticals (acq by Novartis).
She has a PhD in biochemistry from Indian Institute of Sciences, and M.B.A. in finance from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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Tyler Wish, PhD
Co-Founder and CEO, Sequence Bio
Tyler Wish is Sequence Bio’s CEO and cofounder. As a trained epidemiologist, Tyler has a strong background in large-scale population-based research, human genetics and drug discovery. Prior to Sequence, he was the Founder & President of Research Avenue Inc., a niche contract research company that provided outsourced development services to healthcare and the life-science companies. Tyler holds a BSc (Chemistry) from the University of Victoria and a PhD (Medicine) from Memorial University of Newfoundland. Sequence Bio is a privately held company, based in Newfoundland and Labrador, that has recently entered into an large-scale precision medicine agreement with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Jeffrey Wolf
Founder and CEO, Heat Biologics
Jeffrey Wolf is the founder and CEO of Heat Biologics. He was formerly the founder and managing director at Seed-One Ventures, a firm focused on the systematic formation and management of new biomedical companies based upon novel research breakthroughs.
Throughout his career Mr. Wolf has created life science startup companies and actively supported the growth of these companies. Mr. Wolf’s start-ups include Avigen (co-founder and director), a NASDAQ-listed gene therapy company; TyRx Pharma (co-founder and Chairman) which was focused on the development of novel bio-compatible polymers and recently sold to Medtronic; EluSys Therapeutics (founder and CEO), focused on the development of novel antibodies against infectious diseases and GenerationOne (founder and CEO), focused on mobile-based healthcare solutions.
Mr. Wolf received his M.B.A. from Stanford Business School, his J.D. from New York University School of Law and his B.A. from the University of Chicago, where he graduated with honors in Economics.
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David Woodhouse, PhD
Chief Financial Officer, NGM Biopharmaceuticals
David is the Chief Financial Officer at NGM Biopharmaceuticals, a privately held biopharmaceutical company committed to the discovery and development of transformational biologics for the treatment of a broad spectrum of serious diseases, including cardio-metabolic diseases, hepatic diseases and cancer. David joined NGM in March 2015 from Goldman Sachs where he was a managing director and co-head of U.S. biotechnology investment banking. As a member of Goldman's healthcare investment banking group for nearly 13 years in both the New York and San Francisco offices, David's responsibilities included corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions advice for the biotechnology, specialty pharma and diagnostics industries. In this capacity, he advised on several billion in equity and equity-linked financings as well as over $90 billion in M&A transactions.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, David worked in various business development and research roles at Dynavax and Amgen. David graduated, with highest honors, from UC Santa Barbara, with a B.A. in Pharmacology. He also earned a Ph.D. in Molecular Pharmacology from Stanford University School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
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Ilan Zipkin, PhD
Senior Investment Director, Takeda Ventures
Dr. Zipkin is Senior Investment Director at Takeda Ventures, Inc., having been involved in biotechnology and pharmaceutical venture capital since 2000. He was previously a Partner at the institutional venture firms Prospect Venture Partners and MPM Capital, where he focused on investments in therapeutics companies as well as platform technologies. In addition to serving on the Board of several private and public biotechnology companies, Dr. Zipkin served as the CEO of Chimeros, Inc., a protein-based system for the development of multivalent biologic therapeutics. Prior to his venture capital experience, Dr. Zipkin was the Science Editor of BioCentury Publications Inc., a biotechnology news and analysis publication. He received a Ph.D. in cell biology and biochemistry from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from U.C. Berkeley.
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