Srini Akkaraju, MD, PhD,
General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures

Srini Akkaraju has over 16 years of investment and operational experience in the life sciences sector. He joined Sofinnova in 2013 as a General Partner, and concentrates on biopharmaceuticals investments. Srini’s board memberships have included Piramed (acquired by Roche), Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (EYET), Synageva BioPharma (GEVA), Seattle Genetics (SGEN) and Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT).

Most recently, Srini was a Managing Director at New Leaf Venture Partners. Prior to NLVP, he was a co-founder and Managing Director at Panorama Capital. Before forming Panorama, he served as Partner of J.P. Morgan Partners. Prior to J.P. Morgan Partners, Srini held business and corporate development positions at Genentech. He received B.A. degrees in both Biochemistry and Computer Science from Rice University and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees in Immunology from Stanford University School of Medicine.

Brian Atwood
Managing Director, Versant Ventures

Brian specializes in biotechnology investing at Versant. Previous to co-founding Versant Ventures, he spent four years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and bioinformatics. He also has more than 15 years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry, with an emphasis on therapeutic products, devices, diagnostics, and research instrumentation.

Prior to launching his career in venture capital, Brian was founder, president and CEO of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company. At Glycomed, Brian concentrated on business development and strategic alliances, closing deals with Eli Lilly & Company, Millipore, Genentech and Sankyo, before leading the sale of Glycomed to Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Before Glycomed, he co-founded and served as director of Perkin Elmer/Cetus Instruments, a joint venture for robotics automation and genomics research instruments and products later acquired by Perkin Elmer. Under Brian’s management, the venture developed and launched the GeneAmp® Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) system – the fundamental DNA amplification innovation responsible for fueling the explosive growth of genomics research.

Alexis Borisy
Partner, Third Rock Ventures

Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science-based organizations. Mr. Borisy joined the life sciences venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures in 2009 to focus on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. He co-founded Foundation Medicine and served as the company’s interim CEO, co-founded Blueprint Medicines, and launched and served as interim CEO and currently is Chairman of Warp Drive Bio.

Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Mr. Borisy founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its Chief Executive Officer and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ. He has raised more than $1b in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Trained in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard where he was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, Mr. Borisy was honored as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review Innovator of the Year. He was also chosen as the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and was honored as a Presidential Scholar.

Margarita Chavez
Director, AbbVie Biotech Ventures

Margarita Chavez has over 15 years of deal-making experience, the last three years with AbbVie Biotech Ventures investing in biotech companies across the US and Europe. Margarita joined ABV from Abbott’s Global Pharmaceutical Licensing & Acquisitions, where she worked on a number of strategic transactions since 2007. Margarita was Senior Counsel in the Abbott Legal Division before that. Before joining Abbott, Margarita practiced as a corporate and securities lawyer in Silicon Valley with the firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, where she represented startups, venture funds and investment banks in financings, M&As and IPOs. JD 1997; BS 1994

David Donabedian
Vice President, Venture Investments, AbbVie Biotech Ventures

David Donabedian is Vice President, Venture Investments, at AbbVie Biotech Ventures, Inc. where he is responsible for investment strategy. In this role he oversees the identification, evaluation and execution of equity investments in emerging biotech companies. Prior to joining AbbVie, Dr. Donabedian was Senior Vice President, Locust Walk Partners, where he led strategic transactions and engagement for biotech and pharmaceutical companies. He has over 17 years of experience in the life sciences industry and has held a number of senior leadership roles related to business development, fundraising, strategy and research, including Vice President, Global New Deal Strategy & Development at GlaxoSmithKline’s Centre of Excellence for External Drug Discovery; Vice President of Business Development for Surface Logix; and Senior Manager in Accenture’s Strategic Services Consulting Group. Dr. Donabedian began his career as a research scientist with Dow Chemical and Boston Scientific.He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from St. Anselm College, a Ph.D. in polymer chemistry from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andrew J. Schwab
Managing Partner, 5AM Ventures

Andrew J. Schwab is a Founder and Managing Partner of 5AM Ventures. Prior to founding 5AM in 2002, Mr. Schwab was a Principal at Bay City Capital. After joining Bay City Capital in 1999, he led the firm’s investment and merchant banking activities for such companies as Cubist, Metabolex, PTC Therapeutics, Symyx and Syrrx. Previously Mr. Schwab was Vice President of Business Development at Digital Gene Technologies and a Vice President in the life science investment banking group of Montgomery Securities. At 5AM, he has led the firm’s investments in and served on the Boards of Directors of Cleave, DVS, Flexion, Ikaria, Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen), Miikana (acquired by EntreMed), Panomics (acquired by Affymetrix), RuiYi, Synosia (acquired by Biotie) and Viveve. Mr. Schwab received a B.S. with Honors in Genetics & Ethics from Davidson College and was a member of Davidson’s 1992 Final Four soccer team. Mr. Schwab is based in the Menlo Park, CA office.

Luke Timmerman
Vice President, Life Sciences Initiatives, Xconomy

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. Before joining Xconomy, he was the national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News, where he led coverage of major biotech companies like Amgen, Genentech, and Biogen Idec. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.

Dr. E. Cartier Esham
Acting Executive Vice President Emerging Companies, Health and Regulatory Affairs, Biotechnology Industry Organization

Dr. Cartier Esham is currently the Acting Executive Vice President Emerging Companies, Health and Regulatory Affairs for the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). She is responsible for working on health and regulatory issues important to BIO's small biotechnology companies, the majority of which do not yet have a product in the market place. Issues of particular importance to emerging companies include intellectual property, technology transfer, clinical trials, investor relations, and funding. The emerging companies section also works on a wide range of FDA regulatory issues and is a strong advocate for NIH's biomedical research programs.

Prior to joining BIO, Dr. Esham was a Vice President and Director of Research at Dutko Worldwide, a private consulting firm in Washington, D.C. There she worked on a variety of environmental, education, science, technology and health care related issues both on the federal and state/local levels.

Steve Conafay, JD
Principal, The Conafay Group

Steve Conafay has 35 years of leadership and management experience in government relations, public policy and communications. As the sole principal at The Conafay Group, he oversees all client servicing. While leader of the Bio-Life Science Practice at Fabiani & Company, he oversaw over $400M in non-dilutive financing being awarded to the team’s clients. For 12 years, Mr. Conafay was Vice President of Government Relations for Pfizer, where he was elected a corporate officer in 1984.

He served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs for Glaxo Inc., where he was a member of the Board of Directors. After heading the legislative practices for Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue, the world’s second largest law firm, he was tapped by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to assume the number two position of Executive Vice President of Strategic and Legislative Affairs. He also served as an Executive Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the leading free market think-tank in the U.S. After moving to the New York area, Mr. Conafay joined Shandwick, where he assumed positions of increasing responsibility culminating with his appointment as CEO-America’s East in 2000. Mr. Conafay is a lawyer and a decorated Vietnam veteran. He served as an infantry platoon leader and was awarded the Silver Star, Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal, among others. Steve is an avid golfer and has been a member of Congressional Country Club for over 30 years. 

Thomas Kapsner
CEO, Morphochem AG

Thomas Kapsner has been serving as CEO of Morphochem AG in Munich, Germany since 2008. Morphochem is a 100% subsidiary of Biovertis AG in Vienna, Austria. Thomas Kapsner is also CEO of Biovertis which he joined in May 2006. Previously, he served as managing director of Kapsner & Schmid GmbH, a European corporate finance counsel focusing on the healthcare and life sciences industry. He held several management and executive positions in client companies ranging from start-up to turn-around situations. From 2002 to 2006, he was managing the European operations for Argos Therapeutics, Inc. (Durham, NC). Thomas Kapsner was investment manager with GE Capital before founding Kapsner & Schmid in 1999. At GE, he concentrated on M&A of healthcare companies. Prior to joining GE, he worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Company focusing on healthcare and pharma clients. Before joining McKinsey, he was co-founder and managing director of the Bavarian Public Health Research Center in Munich. Thomas Kapsner holds a medical degree from the University of Munich, and was research fellow at the University of Munich in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology.

Brad Spellberg, MD
Investigator, LA BioMed

Dr. Brad Spellberg is an infectious disease specialist who works as an academic hospitalist, attending on the inpatient medicine wards. He also works closely with the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) to bring attention to problems stemming from an increase in drug resistance and a dip in new antibiotic development. His research has become a cornerstone of the IDSA’s white paper, Bad Bugs, No Drugs, and has been cited extensively in medical literature and on Capitol Hill. A Fellow in the IDSA, Dr. Spellberg joined the IDSA’s Antimicrobial Availability Task Force (AATF) and has first-authored numerous IDSA position papers and review articles relating to public policy toward antibiotic resistance and development. Dr. Spellberg has appeared on numerous television programs, including The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, the Dr. Oz show, and The Doctors, and has been interviewed for dozens of radio and newspaper stories regarding the antibiotic resistance crisis. He wrote the book, Rising Plague, to inform and educate the public about the crisis in antibiotic-resistant infections and the lack of antibiotic development.

Eugene Sun, MD
Executive Vice President, Research & Development, Rib-X Pharmaceuticals

Eugene Sun, M.D. has been our Executive Vice President, Research and Development since April 2013. Prior to joining us, Dr. Sun held multiple positions over a 17-year career at Abbott Laboratories (now Abbvie) where he most recently served as Corporate Vice President, Global Pharmaceutical Clinical Development. Dr. Sun was responsible for global clinical development, medical affairs, and clinical operations for all therapeutic areas of the pharmaceutical portfolio. Prior to 2005, he held various leadership positions in the R&D organization. During his tenure at Abbott, Dr. Sun oversaw the development and approval of multiple indications for Humira, and also led the development and worldwide regulatory approval of the landmark HIV protease inhibitor Kaletra. Dr. Sun earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, his M.D. from the New York University School of Medicine, and completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco.

Nicholas Franano, MD
Founder, President & CEO, Novita Therapeutics

F. Nicholas Franano, MD is a physician, scientist, entrepreneur, inventor, and innovator. He is currently Chief Executive Officer of Novita Therapeutics, a privately held life-sciences incubator company that has raised more than $8M in capital and is developing cardiovascular medical device products through subsidiary companies Flow Forward Medical and Metactive Medical. He previously founded Proteon Therapeutics, serving as CEO and Chief Scientific Officer, leading the development of Proteon’s lead drug candidates, and helping raise more than $89 million in capital from venture capital and angel investors. Dr. Franano invented Proteon’s elastase vasodilation technology, as well as important compositions of matter and methods for manufacturing for PRT-201. In total, Dr. Franano holds 10 patents and more than 30 pending patent applications. In January 2013, Proteon announced the results of a highly successful multicenter US Phase 2 clinical trial with PRT- 201. He continues to serve as a member of the Proteon Board of Directors.

Dr. Franano received a Doctor of Medicine from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He completed a residency in Diagnostic Radiology and a fellowship in Interventional Radiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. From 2000 - 2006, Dr. Franano maintained an active clinical practice in interventional radiology, performing a wide range of vascular and non- vascular interventional procedures. He received a Master’s degree in Biomedical Research from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and a BS in Cellular Biology from the University of Kansas. He has received numerous research awards, grants, and fellowships, has published many abstracts and articles in peer-reviewed journals. He currently serves on the Biological Sciences Advisory Board at the University of Kansas, the Advisory Board of the Enterprise Investment Program at the University of Missouri, and the Board of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. In 2009, Dr. Franano was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Central Midwest.

Andrew Merickel, PhD
Partner, Knobbe Martens

Andrew N. Merickel is a partner in our San Francisco office. Dr. Merickel’s practice focuses primarily on patent prosecution in the areas of biotechnology, integrated circuit fabrication, agriculture and food technology. Dr. Merickel joined the firm in 2000 and became a partner in 2005.

Deepa Pakianathan, PhD
General Partner, Delphi Ventures

Deepa joined Delphi Ventures in 2001 and leads the firm's biotechnology investment activities. Deepa served on the boards of Salmedix (a.b. Cephalon in 2005), Ilypsa (a.b. Amgen in 2007), Proteolix (a.b. ONXX in 2009) and led Delphi's investment in Seattle Genetics (Nasdaq: SGEN). Prior to joining Delphi, Deepa was a Vice President in the healthcare group at JP Morgan where she was involved in healthcare M&A transactions worth in excess of $6 billion and public offerings for biotechnology companies that raised more than $9 billion in capital.

From 1997 to 1998, Deepa was a biotechnology research analyst at Genesis Merchant Group. She worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the Immunology Department at Genentech Corporation from 1993 to 1997, where she evaluated chemokines and chemokine receptors as targets for therapeutic intervention. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Gregory C. Simon
CEO, Poliwogg

Mr. Simon has held senior positions in both houses of Congress and the White House, been a senior strategy consultant to a number of international technology CEOs, led a national patient advocacy nonprofit he co-founded with Mike Milken, and has served as a senior executive at a large pharmaceutical corporation. He has developed a reputation as a visionary strategist, dynamic public speaker and writer, and as a knowledgeable analyst of emerging trends in healthcare, information technology, drug research and development, and patient advocacy.

Most recently Mr. Simon was Senior Vice President for Patient Engagement at Pfizer, Inc. In that role he focused on engaging patients more productively in research and clinical trials and on helping Pfizer develop policies, practices, and medical solutions to improve health, happiness and productivity. Previously, from June 2009 to February 2010, he was head of Pfizer‘s Worldwide Policy group. He led a global team of professionals in: 1) worldwide government policy, 2) science policy, 3) economic policy and research, and 4) international policy. He advised the CEO on the company’s efforts in Healthcare Reform.

Prior to joining Pfizer, Mr. Simon was the founding President of FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, an independent, nonpartisan organization that is a center of the California-based Milken Institute. There he led efforts to reform policies governing biopharmaceutical discovery and development, with the goal of bringing a greater number of lifesaving medicines more quickly to doctors and patients.

Mr. Simon was Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Al Gore from 1993 to 1997. He was the lead staffer for the Clinton-Gore Administration for development and passage of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 as well as development of the National and Global Information Infrastructure. He represented the Vice President on the National Economic Council, helped negotiate the US-Russia agreement on the International Space Station and oversaw a number of key initiatives, including programs at the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Human Genome Project. He was also instrumental in crafting the regulatory framework that is now the foundation for the biotechnology industry.

Hemai Parthasarathy, PhD
Scientific Director, Breakout Labs/Thiel Foundation

Hemai Parthasarathy, Ph.D. is the Scientific Director of Breakout Labs, the Thiel Foundation's program to support early-stage companies engaged in radical scientific innovation. She is responsible for establishing the scientific priorities of the program and evaluating the technical merits of submitted proposals. Hemai brings a deep commitment to scientific innovation and communication to Breakout Labs, with ten years' experience in high profile scientific publishing (Nature and PLoS) and five years as a consultant advising research institutes, non-profits, and biotechnology companies on the development and communication of their scientific portfolios. She holds a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jeffrey A. Baumel
Partner, Dentons

Jeffrey Baumel is a head of the Firm's legacy Life Sciences and Health Care industry sector and the Firm's legacy Securities practice, and represents a broad range of companies in the life sciences, biotechnology and technology industries. His deep securities law experience comes from working with issuers, underwriters and venture capital investors on a wide range of transactions. These have included public offerings and private placements of equity and debt securities involving hundreds of millions of US dollars. In addition, Jeffrey has worked extensively with venture capital and investment banking firms specializing in growth-stage ventures.

Jeffrey advises boards of directors on complex corporate governance and compliance matters. He also represents both public and private companies in connection with corporate and commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions. A chair of the BioNJ Venture Capital Forum, Jeffrey also speaks regularly on issues relating to finance, corporate governance and securities law.

Paul J. Hastings
President and 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.

Michael Dybbs, PhD
Principal, New Leaf Venture Partners

Mike Dybbs joined New Leaf Venture Partners in 2009 and became a Principal in 2012. Prior to joining New Leaf, Mike was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group where he was a core member of their Health Care practice. At BCG, Mike lead projects in the biopharmaceutical industry across a range of functions and therapeutic areas. He also worked as an independent biotechnology consultant, performing such projects as identifying assets at both universities and medical centers, as well as evaluating spin-outs of discovery stage research programs. Mike graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in biochemical sciences and received his PhD in molecular biology and genetics from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship. His research had been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Neuron, Science and Nature.

Michael Margolis, RPh
Managing Director, ROTH Capital Partners

Michael Margolis is a Managing Director in ROTH Capital Partners’ Healthcare Investment Banking group and joined the firm in December 2009. Margolis was most recently a Managing Director of Healthcare Investment Banking at Merriman Curhan Ford. Previously Margolis was a senior vice president at Rodman & Renshaw. He had extensive financial and pharmaceutical industry experience before joining Rodman. Margolis worked at Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation in several roles, including as a director in the global business development and licensing group. He was an equity research analyst at Ursus Capital, and he began his career as at Eli Lilly & Company as a senior pharmaceutical representative.

Margolis is a registered pharmacist with an M.B.A. from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a pharmacy degree from Rutgers University, College of Pharmacy. He is based in our New York office.

Steven J Mento, PhD
President and CEO, Conatus Pharmaceuticals

Steven J. Mento, Ph.D. co-founded and has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Conatus Pharmaceuticals and as a member of the board of directors since July 2005. From July 2005 until December 2012, Dr. Mento also served as chairman of the board of directors. Dr. Mento has over 30 years of combined experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. From 1997 to 2005, Dr. Mento was President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of Idun Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Mento guided Idun during its transition from a discovery focused organization to a drug development company with multiple products in or near human clinical testing. In April 2005, Idun was sold to Pfizer Inc. Previously, Dr. Mento served as President of Chiron Viagene, Inc. (subsequently Chiron Technologies, Center for Gene Therapy), and Vice President of Chiron Corporation from 1995 to 1997. Dr. Mento was Vice President of R&D at Viagene from 1992 to 1995. Prior to Viagene, Dr. Mento held various positions at American Cyanamid Company from 1982 to 1992. His last position was Director of Viral Vaccine Research and Development at Lederle-Praxis Biologicals, a business unit of American Cyanamid. Dr. Mento currently serves on the boards of directors of BIOCOM, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), BIO Emerging Company Section Governing Body, BIO Health Section Governing Body, Sangamo Biosciences, Inc., and various academic and charitable organizations. Dr. Mento holds a B.A. in Microbiology from Rutgers College, and an M.S. and Ph.D. both in Microbiology from Rutgers University.

Ashley Dombkowski, PhD 
Managing Director, Bay City Capital

Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D. is a Managing Director with Bay City Capital, a $1.6B venture capital firm focused on life sciences. She has more than 15 years of experience as an investor, operating executive, and entrepreneur in the healthcare field. Prior to joining Bay City, she served as Chief Business Officer and Vice President of Operations for 23andMe, where she had oversaw the company’s finance and operations activities and had responsibility for the company’s long term business strategy focused on database growth plans, R&D productivity, and profitability.

Prior to joining 23andMe, she was a Managing Director with venture capital firm MPM Capital where she also served as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. During her years at MPM she focused on developing innovative biotechnology, medical device, and healthcare IT companies, including companies such as 23andMe, Adolor, Alnara, BioVitrum, Epizyme, iPierian, Neosil, Nevro, Rigel, and Tercica. Prior to this, she was a Healthcare Equity Analyst for hedge fund Tiger Management L.L.C. and for institutional asset management firm Dresdner RCM Global Investors. Dr. Dombkowski holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University and received her B.A. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She has been widely quoted in publications ranging from Nature to The Wall Street Journal and she has appeared in media outlets ranging from CNBC to TedMed. She was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2010.

Mark Charest
Vice President, New Leaf Venture Partners

Mark Charest, Vice President, joined New Leaf Venture Partners in 2012. Previously, Mark was an Associate and Kauffman Fellow at Panorama Capital where he served on the board of Itero Biopharmaceuticals and was a board observer at Presidio Pharmaceuticals and PowerVision.

Mark joined Panorama from ZS Associates, where he led consulting engagements for a variety of global pharmaceutical companies focused on commercial strategy and optimization. Mark gained early healthcare investing experience as an Associate at Great Point Partners where he sourced and managed capital allocations in public and private healthcare companies. Prior to Great Point, Mark played a leadership role in several drug discovery programs in the oncology area as a medicinal chemistry lab manager at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research.

Mark received his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from Harvard University as a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and his B.A. in Chemistry with the highest honors from Rutgers University. During his graduate studies, Dr. Charest completed the chemical synthesis of tetracycline and made key contributions to intellectual property out-licensed to found Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals.

Evan McCulloch, CFA
Portfolio Manager, Franklin Templeton Investments

Evan McCulloch is a vice president, portfolio manager and analyst for Franklin Equity Group. Mr. McCulloch is the lead portfolio manager of Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund. He is also the health care sector team leader. Mr. McCulloch specialises in research analysis of biotechnology and emerging pharmaceutical companies, with a therapeutic focus on infectious diseases, ophthalmology, pulmonology, cardiovascular disease, gastroenterology and the central nervous system. Prior research coverage includes the pharmaceutical, medical technology and healthcare service sectors. Mr. McCulloch joined Franklin Templeton Investments in 1992. He earned his B.A. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Charterholder, and a member of the CFA Institute and the Security Analysts of San Francisco (SASF)..

Before Constellation, Dr. Goldsmith held other senior executive positions in the biotechnology industry and academia. Prior to his appointment at Constellation in 2009, he was senior executive-in-residence at Prospect Venture Partners, a leading life science investment firm based on the west coast, after serving as chairman and CEO of Cogentus Pharmaceuticals. Previously he was senior vice president, responsible for the health care division of Genencor International, an independent and publically listed company prior to its acquisition by Danisco. Before entering the private sector, Dr. Goldsmith led a productive biomedical research laboratory at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, and he has co-authored 85 peer-reviewed scientific publications and is co-inventor on multiple patents. He practiced medicine on the faculty of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and at San Francisco General Hospital, and served as a consultant to and collaborator of leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Dr. Goldsmith received his BA degree from Princeton University, earned his MD and PhD in microbiology and immunology from UCSF, and conducted postgraduate medical training at Harvard Medical School and UCSF.

Eugene Rozelman
Managing Director, Biopharma Investment Banking, Canaccord Genuity

Eugene Rozelman is a Managing Director and senior member of Canaccord Genuity’s Global Life Sciences Investment Banking team. He is responsible for transaction origination and execution in the Emerging Therapeutics space. Eugene joined Canaccord Genuity from HSBC where he was a member of the Global Healthcare Investment Banking group. He has over 13 years of investment banking experience advising biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Prior to joining HSBC, Eugene was with Wells Fargo Securities where he focused on Life Sciences sector coverage. He began his career in Life Sciences investment banking at Robertson Stephens. Eugene received a M.B.A. from the NYU Stern School of Business and holds a B.A. in Biology from New York University.

David Thomas, CFA
Director, Industry Research & Analysis, BIO

David is currently 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 protein scientist in early drug discovery at Amgen, Millennium, and Novartis. David has completed all three levels of the chartered financial analyst (CFA) program and holds a master’s degree in biochemistry from Washington State University.

Effie Toshav
Partner, Fenwick & West LLP

Ms. Toshav’s national practice focuses on providing counsel to life sciences clients where she serves as a strategic advisor on a wide range of business and legal issues. Her experience covers the full spectrum of issues and transactions facing such companies, including the negotiation and structuring of complex technology transactions, complex strategic partnering transactions, intellectual property counseling, R&D commercialization collaborations and university licensing. She also represents both companies and investors on corporate matters, including formation issues, public offerings, spin outs, corporate financings and mergers and acquisitions transactions.

Ms. Toshav is known for partnering with her clients as an integral member of the management team to collaborate on setting strategic direction as well as structuring and negotiating complex legal and corporate transactions. Her extensive operational in-house experience and deep understanding of the issues facing emerging and public life science companies allows her to provide clients with highly practical and relevant advice.

Prior to joining Fenwick & West, Ms. Toshav served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel with AVI BioPharma, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVII), a developer of RNA-based therapeutics, and prior to that, a partner in the life sciences practice at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. From June 2004 to June 2006, she was general counsel of GlycoFi, a venture-backed, private biotechnology company, and played a significant role in the sale of the company to Merck for $400 Million. Prior to GlycoFi, Ms. Toshav was senior corporate counsel at Protein Design Labs, predecessor of Facet Biotech.

Marianne Andreach
VP of Strategic Marketing & Product Planning, Esperion Therapeutics

Marianne Andreach is Vice President of Strategic Marketing and Product Planning. Prior to joining Esperion, Marianne was a consultant in the pharmaceutical industry. Previously, she was Senior Director, Business Development and Team Lead, MDCO-216 (ApoA-I Milano) at The Medicines Company. Marianne also worked in Medical Affairs at Pfizer Global R&D, and led Marketing and Product Planning at the original Esperion Therapeutics. Additionally, Marianne has worked in a variety of marketing and product planning roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Parke-Davis, including working on the launch teams for both Pravachol and Lipitor, as well as supporting both Plavix and Glucophage. Marianne earned a BA in Biology/History from the College of the Holy Cross.

Charles C. Duncan, PhD
Managing Director & Senior Research Analyst, Piper Jaffray

Charles Duncan, Ph.D., joined Piper Jaffray in 2012 as a managing director and senior research analyst focused on small- and mid-cap emerging growth biotechnology companies. Duncan brings more than 17 years of sell-side experience during which he has covered a broad range of biopharma companies, most recently serving as an analyst at JMP Securities since 2002. Previously, Duncan covered the sector at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, Vector Healthcare Group - Prudential Securities, Tucker Anthony Cleary Gull and Chatfield Dean & Co. Duncan has been recognized by industry sources, including the Financial Times and StarMine Analyst Awards, as being among the best analysts for his fundamental and timely analysis.

Duncan began his career as a manager of clinical development at Global Drug Development, Inc., a pharmaceutical development consulting firm, and he also launched InfusionVision Medical, a venture-backed start-up medical device company. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and holds a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences with a concentration in neuropharmacology from the University of Colorado.

Ed Mathers
Partner, New Enterprise Associates

Ed Mathers joined NEA as a Partner in August 2008 after spending 26 years working within the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry in a variety of senior roles. Ed is focused on biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals investments, and is a director of Intarcia, Liquidia Technologies, Mirna Therapeutics, Ra Pharmaceuticals, and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Ed was a director of Plexxikon prior to its sale to Daiichi Sankyo. Ed is also a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) board, Southeast Bio board, and the NC State Physical and Mathematical Sciences Foundation board.

Immediately prior to joining NEA, Ed served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Venture, at MedImmune, Inc., and was a director of MedImmune, LLC. In this role, he was a member of the leadership team that executed the sale of the company to Astra Zeneca for $15.6 billion in 2007. While at MedImmune, Ed was responsible for the company’s corporate and business development activities and led the company’s venture capital subsidiary, MedImmune Ventures, Inc. Before joining MedImmune in 2002, he served as Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Licensing and Acquisitions at Inhale Therapeutic Systems (now Nektar). Previously, Ed spent 15 years at Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. (GlaxoSmithKline), where he held sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Carolina State University.

Michael Wyzga
President & CEO, Radius Health

Michael Wyzga is President and Chief Executive Officer, and a member of the Board of Directors, of Radius. Prior to joining Radius, he was Executive Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Genzyme until its acquisition by Sanofi in April 2011. Mr. Wyzga joined Genzyme in 1998 and held primary responsibility for the firm's financial management worldwide. He provided strategic leadership in the successful $20.1 billion sale of Genzyme to Sanofi, the second-largest acquisition in biotechnology history. Prior to joining Genzyme, Mr. Wyzga was Chief Financial Officer of Sovereign Hill Software. He previously served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of CacheLink Corporation, a client/service software company. Mr. Wyzga also held management positions at Lotus Development Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation. He received an MBA from Providence College and a BS from Suffolk University.

James B. Breitmeyer, MD, PhD
Division President Cancer Vaccines, Executive Vice President, Bavarian Nordic A/S

Prior to joining Bavarian Nordic A/S, Dr. Breitmeyer served as Executive Vice President of Development and Chief Medical Officer of Cadence Pharmaceuticals Inc. from 2006 to 2012. From 2001 to 2006, he served as Chief Medical Officer of Applied Molecular Evolution Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Co. From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Breitmeyer served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. From 1991 to 2000, he held a variety of positions at Serono Laboratories Inc., including Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Research and Development. Prior to Serono, he served as a scientific advisor to Immunogen Inc., and held clinical and teaching positions at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School.

Laurence Fong, MD
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology), UCSF Medical Center

Dr. Lawrence Fong is a specialist in genitourinary cancer at UCSF Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Fong is particularly interested in tumor immunology and developing immune-based treatments of cancer. He earned his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and his medical degree from Stanford University. He completed an oncology fellowship at Stanford, then joined the medical staff there in 1999. Fong joined UCSF Medical Center in 2002.

Paul G. Higham
CEO, immatics biotechnologies GmbH

Paul Higham served as Director Commercial Development at Ark Therapeutics Group plc (LSE: AKT.L) where he was responsible for commercial strategy and all business development activities. In addition, he was in charge of establishing the operations and gene-based medicine production facilities of Ark Therapeutics in Finland.

Prior to joining Ark Therapeutics in 2001, Paul Higham worked as International Commercial Vice President for GI, Metabolic and Pain at GlaxoWellcome plc from 1996 to 2001, where he covered all aspects of business development, strategic marketing and sales. From 1985 to 1996, after completing his studies in Applied Biology, he held various sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility with Bayer AG and eventually became General Manager of Bayer Pharmaceuticals for Sweden and Denmark.

J. Joseph Kim, PhD
President, CEO & Director, Inovio Pharmaceuticals

Dr. Kim was appointed President and CEO of Inovio Pharmaceuticals in June 2009. Dr. Kim co-founded VGX Pharmaceuticals, a synthetic vaccine company, in 2000 to develop intellectual property related to immunotherapeutics licensed from the University of Pennsylvania. He led that company for nine years and combined VGX with Inovio Biomedical in 2009 to form Inovio Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Dr. Kim was a senior vaccine developer at Merck & Co. where he successfully led efforts in manufacturing and process development for several FDA-approved products for hepatitis and developmental vaccines and therapeutics for HIV/AIDS. Dr. Kim earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was a U.S. Senate Honors Scholar. He holds a PhD in Biochemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Business Administration degree in Finance from the Wharton School. Dr. Kim has published more than 100 peer-reviewed scientific papers, holds numerous patents and sits on several editorial boards and review panels.

Joseph Pantginis, PhD
Senior Research Analyst, ROTH Capital Partners

Joseph Pantginis, Ph.D. joined ROTH Capital Partners in 2009. Prior to joining Roth Dr. Pantginis was a senior biotech analyst at Merriman Curhan Ford. Dr. Pantginis was also a senior biotechnology analyst at Canaccord Adams, focusing on the oncology, inflammation and infectious disease spaces. Prior to Canaccord Adams he was a biotech analyst at several firms, including JBHanauer & Co., First Albany Corporation, Commerce Capital Markets and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., Inc. Prior to his tenure on Wall Street, Dr. Pantginis served as an associate manager/scientist of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals' Retrovirus Core Facility. Dr. Pantginis received an M.B.A. in Finance from Pace University; a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and an M.S. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine; and a B.S. from Fordham University.

James I. Healy, MD, PhD
General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures

Jim Healy, M.D., Ph.D., has over 20 years of experience in biomedical research, development and finance. He joined Sofinnova in 2000 as a General Partner, and specializes in funding clinical stage pharmaceuticals. Jim has financed and served on the board of eight companies which received drug approvals from either the FDA or EMA. He was an early investor and board member of eight companies which subsequently completed initial public offerings. Seven companies he served on the board of have been acquired. Previous investments and board memberships include Cellective (acquired by AstraZeneca), Cotherix (CTRX, acquired by Actelion), Movetis (MOVE, acquired by Shire), NextWave (acquired by Pfizer), Novacea (NOVC, merged with Transcept), Preglem (acquired by Richter) and Prestwick (acquired by Biovail). Dr. Healy presently serves on the board of directors of Amarin (AMRN), Anthera (ANTH), Auris Medical, Durata (DRTX), Intermune (ITMN) and is the Chairman of the Board at both Hyperion (HPTX) and Kalobios (KBIO). He also serves on the board of directors of various private companies.

Paul J. Hastings
President and 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.

Thomas E. Hughes, PhD
President & CEO, Zafgen

Dr. Hughes has over 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical research and development. Dr. Hughes joined Zafgen in 2008 as president, chief executive officer and a member of the company’s board of directors. From 1987 to 2008, Dr. Hughes held several positions at Novartis AG (and formerly Sandoz Pharmaceuticals) including vice president and global head of the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases therapeutic area at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Cambridge, MA. In these roles he oversaw many drug discovery and development projects targeting obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. As a scientist, Dr. Hughes led Novartis’ efforts to discover and develop its dipeptidylpeptidase IV inhibitor vildagliptin (Galvus®/Eucreas®), a drug used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, currently approved in 70 countries. Dr. Hughes is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications and is an inventor on numerous issued and pending patents related to the treatment of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity.

Ed Mathers
Partner, New Enterprise Associates

Ed Mathers joined NEA as a Partner in August 2008 after spending 26 years working within the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry in a variety of senior roles. Ed is focused on biotechnology and specialty pharmaceuticals investments, and is a director of Intarcia, Liquidia Technologies, Mirna Therapeutics, Ra Pharmaceuticals, and Rhythm Pharmaceuticals. Previously, Ed was a director of Plexxikon prior to its sale to Daiichi Sankyo. Ed is also a member of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) board, Southeast Bio board, and the NC State Physical and Mathematical Sciences Foundation board.

Immediately prior to joining NEA, Ed served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Venture, at MedImmune, Inc., and was a director of MedImmune, LLC. In this role, he was a member of the leadership team that executed the sale of the company to Astra Zeneca for $15.6 billion in 2007. While at MedImmune, Ed was responsible for the company’s corporate and business development activities and led the company’s venture capital subsidiary, MedImmune Ventures, Inc. Before joining MedImmune in 2002, he served as Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Licensing and Acquisitions at Inhale Therapeutic Systems (now Nektar). Previously, Ed spent 15 years at Glaxo Wellcome, Inc. (GlaxoSmithKline), where he held sales and marketing positions of increasing responsibility. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from North Carolina State University.

Erin McCallister
Senior Editor, BioCentury Publications

Erin joined BioCentury in 2008. She previously was a program officer at The Great Lakes Protection Fund and a biologist at Dow AgroSciences LLC. She holds an M.Sc. in environmental science and policy from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in biology from Purdue University.

Susan Schaeffer
Editor, BioCentury Publications

Susan serves as Editor of BioCentury, the Bernstein Report on BioBusiness. She was previously Senior Editor in charge of Product Discovery & Development coverage from 2010 through 2012. She was Managing Editor of BioCentury, the Bernstein Report on BioBusiness, and BioCentury Extra from 2004 through 2010. She joined BioCentury in 2003 after 10 years as an editor in the consumer packaged goods sector, including work with international strategy consultants Kurt Salmon Associates.