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.