Brent Ahrens
General Partner, Canaan Partners

Brent Ahrens joined Canaan in 1999 as a member of the Kauffman Fellows Program. A raconteur extraordinaire, in his work hours, Brent focuses on healthcare investments and has led investments in life sciences companies such as DexCom (DXCM), Revivant (acquired by ZOLL), Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by JNJ), Cerexa (acquired by FRX), Calixa (acquired by CBST), Durata Therapeutics (DRTX), and Elevation Pharmaceuticals (acquired by DNPUF).
Brent serves on the board of Durata Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company pursuing late-stage clinical development of novel antibiotic programs. He is also on the boards of EndoGastric Solutions, the leading company offering medical devices for treatment of reflux disease; Minimally Invasive Devices, a developer of a franchise of products that substantially improve visualization during laparoscopic surgery; Relievant MedSystems, a maker of minimally invasive devices to relieve chronic back pain; Semnur, a developer of pain managements solutions; and Spinifex, a biotech company developing new treatments for chronic pain.
Prior to joining Canaan, Brent worked in both commercial and technical roles at General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (J&J), and IAP Research. He also has several surgical instrument patents to his credit.
Brent earned an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College after graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Dayton. 

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.

John Chambers
Vice-Chairman and Head of Healthcare Investment Banking, ROTH Capital

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.

Sastry Chilukuri
Partner, McKinsey & Company

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Steve Edelson
Senior Editor, Finance, BioCentury

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Cartier Esham, PhD
Executive Vice President, Emerging Companies, BIO 

Cartier Esham serves as Executive Vice President for Emerging Companies at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). In this role, Dr. Esham manages and directs BIO’s policy development, advocacy, research and educational initiatives for BIO’s emerging companies, which comprise approximately 90% of BIO’s membership. This includes capital formation policy and health policy impacting emerging companies, as well as research and analysis of the biopharmaceutical industry and life-science investment and financing. Among the priorities of BIO’s Emerging Companies Section are: promoting a science-based FDA regulatory environment; supporting NIH funding and programs/initiatives such as SBIR and NCATS that promote the effective transfer of technology; and working to create a public and private market environment that incentivizes the research and development of innovative treatments and therapies. 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. Esham has a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Georgia, a Master's degree in Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Kentucky. She has published papers in peer-reviewed science journals on water quality, marine microbial ecology and bacterial phylogeny.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

Nathan Hubbard
Vice President Transactions, Oncology and Diagnostics, Eli Lilly and Company

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Charlotte Hubbert
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).

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. 

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 BI <GO>. 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.

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.

Andrew May, D.Phil.
Chief Scientific Officer, Caribou Biosciences

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Andrew N. Merickel, PhD
Partner, Knobbe Martens

Andrew N. Merickel, PhD, is a partner in the San Francisco office of Knobbe, Martens, Olson & Bear, LLP, where his practice focuses on helping clients build and leverage their patent portfolio and navigate the patent landscape in their technology area. Working primarily in patent prosecution, licensing, due diligence, freedom to operate, opinions and challenges to third party patents, he has clients in a wide variety of technology areas, including biotechnology, integrated circuit fabrication, thin film deposition, agriculture and food technology.

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.

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.

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.

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.