Fireside chats feature candid discussions between biopharma CEOs, Wall Street analysts, and other industry experts. Hear about recent company successes, what keeps the C-suite up at night, and where the industry’s leading companies are headed in 2015.
Robert T. Nelsen
Co-Founder and Managing Director, ARCH Venture Partners
Wednesday, October 21 | 12:30-1:25 PM | Cyril Magnin Ballroom
Moderator: Matthew Rossiter, Partner, Fenwick & West
Robert Nelsen is a co-founder and a Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners. He joined ARCH at its founding and played a significant role in the early sourcing, financing and development of more than thirty companies, including fifteen which have reached valuations exceeding $1 billion. His seed and early-stage investments include Illumina (ILMN); Alnylam Pharmaceuticals (ALNY); Juno Therapeutics (JUNO); Agios Pharmaceuticals (AGIO); Sage Therapeutics (SAGE); Ikaria (acquired by Madison Dearborn, then Mallinckrodt); Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (KYTH), Receptos (RCPT); Aviron (AVIR, acquired by Medimmune-MEDI); Denali Therapeutics; NetBot (acquired by Excite-ATHM); Bluebird Bio (BLUE); R2 Technology (acquired by Hologic-HOLX); XenoPort (XNPT); Caliper Life Sciences (CALP, acquired by PerkinElmer); Trubion Pharmaceuticals (TRBN, acquired by Emergent BioSolutions-EBS); Adolor (ADLR, acquired by Cubist-CBST); deCODE Genetics (acquired by Amgen-AMGN); Array BioPharma (ARRY); Nanosys; GenVec (GNVC); IDUN Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Pfizer-PFE); Genomica (GNOM, acquired by Exelixis-EXEL); Classmates.com (acquired by United Online-UNTD); Nura (acquired by Omeros-OMER); Hua Medicine; VLST; Ensemble Therapeutics; Arivale; Accelerator; Theraclone Sciences; Fate Therapeutics (FATE); NextCODE Health (acquired by WuXi PharmaTech); Bellerophon Therapeutics (BLPH); Syros Pharmaceuticals, Aldedade, Inc, and Everyday Learning Corporation (acquired by Tribune Corp.-TRIB.)
Mr. Nelsen is a director of Agios Pharmaceuticals, Juno Therapeutics, Denali Therapeutics, Sage Therapeutics, Syros Pharmaceuticals, and serves as Chairman of Hua Medicine, among others. He previously served as a Trustee of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Institute, the Institute for Systems Biology, and as a director of the National Venture Capital Association. Mr. Nelsen holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. from the University of Puget Sound with majors in Economics and Biology.
James Noble
CEO, Adaptimmune
Tuesday, October 20 | 12:30-1:25 PM | Cyril Magnin Ballroom
Moderator: Tony Gibney, Managing Director, Leerink Partners LLC
James Noble has served as our full-time Chief Executive Officer since March 2014 and part-time CEO from July 2008 to March 2014 and is one of our co-founders. From July 2008 until March 2014, Mr. Noble was also part-time CEO of Immunocore. Mr. Noble has 24 years of experience in the biotech industry.
He has held numerous non-executive director positions, including at CuraGen Corporation, PowderJect Pharmaceuticals plc, Oxford GlycoSciences plc, MediGene AG, and Advanced Medical Solutions plc. Mr. Noble is also Deputy Chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals plc and a non-executive director of Immunocore Limited.
Mr. Noble is qualified as a chartered accountant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers and spent seven years at the investment bank Kleinwort Benson Limited, where he became a director in 1990. He then joined British Biotech plc as Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1997. Mr. Noble was previously Chief Executive Officer of Avidex Limited, a privately held biotechnology company that was Adaptimmune’s predecessor, from 2000 to 2006. Mr. Noble holds an MA from the University of Oxford.