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.