Bibhash is a Principal at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), where he focuses on investing in emerging therapeutics and device companies, assisting them grow and create value. Previously, he was at AstraZeneca / MedImmune as an Associate Director of Business Development, where his responsibilities spanned end-to-end in the deal-making spectrum, from search and evaluation to transactions, with focus on the immune-oncology and immunology spaces. He started his career at Johnson and Johnson, where he held multiple Business Development roles, at different times, in Global Surgery, Oncology and Emerging Technologies. Bibhash’s doctoral research work focused on pathophysiology of retinal diseases using tools of cell biology and mathematical modeling, during which he also consulted for venture funds and start-ups.

Sara joined NEA's healthcare team in 2009 and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical companies. She serves on the boards of Centrexion, Complexa, Cydan, Imara, and Tiburio. She previously served on the boards of Vtesse (acquired by Sucampo), Mersana (MRSN) and Therachon and as a board observer for Loxo Oncology (LOXO, acquired by Lilly), Tesaro (TSRO, acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), Clementia (CMTA, acquired by Ipsen), Nightstar (NITE, acquired by Biogen), Ziarco (acquired by Novartis), Omthera (OMTH, acquired by AstraZeneca), Epizyme (EPZM), Millendo (MLND) and Zyngenia. She has also been involved in other NEA investments such as Prosensa (RNA, acquired by BioMarin), Metacrine, and 3-V Biosciences. She also serves on the board of BioHealth Innovation Management. She was selected three times as one of GrowthCap’s Top 40 Under 40 Growth Investors. Prior to joining NEA, Sara was an Associate with Merrill Lynch’s Global Healthcare Group, where she advised biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies on numerous mergers, acquisitions and financing transactions. Previously, she worked as an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. She has conducted basic science research in mammalian cardiac development and clinical research in age-related macular degeneration. Sara concurrently earned her MD (cum laude) and MBA from Yale University, where she was a Yale MBA Scholar. She received her AB (magna cum laude) in Biology from Harvard University.

Kimberly Nearing has over 20 years of life sciences experience, including in the capacity as a senior operations manager, an investor, an investment banker and a consultant.  Currently, as the Managing Director, Head of Life Sciences at the Cedrus Group, a global boutique investment firm headquartered in Hong Kong with offices in Shanghai, and Beijing, Kim is actively engaged in international business and finance activities, particularly in the Greater China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)  regions. She is also the regional leader (NY/NJ/PA) for BayHelix, an invitation-only organization of leaders of Chinese heritage in the global life sciences and healthcare community.

She was previously the Managing Partner of Phoenician Venture Partners, a late-stage biotechnology venture capital fund, and she had held various management positions at Amgen, Merck, and IBM’s Healthcare Group.  Kimberly received a Master of Science (MSc) with Honors from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with Distinction from the University of Michigan

Kuldeep Neote, Ph.D. is Vice President External Innovation at Eli Lilly and Company and is responsible for integrating external innovation into Lilly Research Labs. He was Senior Director at J&J Innovation Center- Boston responsible for New Venture activities for the Janssen R&D in the East Coast. He has been responsible for several academic and biotech collaboration including two opportunities in Canada and also served as the interim Head of JLABS@Canada. Dr. Neote is trained as a Molecule Biologist with an extensive background in drug discovery. He has been focused in the area of Immunology, Inflammation and Oncology and has a passion for implementing cutting edge scientific discoveries into practical drug discovery programs. Throughout his career, he has looked at creative scientific and business development collaborative and partnering opportunities that have resulted in tangible clinical translation of new scientific discoveries working in conjunction with academic and biotech companies. Formerly, Dr. Neote was Research Advisor/Director in Global External R&D at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, IN and responsible for search and evaluation of Oncology in-licensing opportunities. Prior to Eli Lilly, he was a Discovery Scientist in Pfizer Inc. in Groton, CT. Dr. Neote initiated the Chemokine Receptor Drug Discovery platform that lead to several clinical candidates, and also discovered novel chemokines. Earlier in his career, Dr. Neote cloned one of the first chemokine receptors during his post-doctoral studies in Genentech. Dr. Neote earned her BSc. in Microbial and Cellular Biology at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, and a Ph.D. in Human and Molecule Genetics at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, where he was a major contributor in the understanding of the molecular basis of lysosomal storage diseases, in particular Tay Sachs and Sandhoff’s disease.

Susan Peschin, MHS, is president and CEO at the Alliance for Aging Research. Founded in 1986, the Alliance is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering medical research to improve aging and health. Since 2012, Ms. Peschin has continued to build on the Alliance’s reputation as a forward-thinking public policy and health education organization and has led efforts to: boost older adult immunization rates; increase NIH Alzheimer’s disease and aging research funding; raise awareness of geriatric cardiac issues; develop a senior patient and family caregiver research engagement network; and co-organize a first-ever NIH geroscience summit. Ms. Peschin participates in major industry and policy symposiums around the country each year and has published opinion pieces in news outlets nationwide. 

Prior to her work at the Alliance, Ms. Peschin worked at the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America where she guided the “detection of any cognitive impairment” provision in the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. She worked for more than 10 years in gun control, and successfully led a coalition of organizations to advocate for the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban. Ms. Peschin currently serves on the Board of Heart Valve Voice U.S.; on the National Advisory Council for the National Institute on Aging at the NIH; and as a member of the Lifespan Domain Task Force for the Clinical & Translational Science Award program, funded by NCATS at the NIH. Ms. Peschin earned a B.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University, and a M.H.S. degree in Health Policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Mr. Purcell is the original Founder of Aisling Capital LLC and currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Aisling. Previously, he served as the Senior Managing Partner. Prior to Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell served as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist, “H&Q”) for over five years. While at H&Q, he was directly involved with over two hundred completed transactions and supervised over $10 billion of financing and advisory assignments in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical products industries. During his tenure, BioWorld and other industry publications cited H&Q as the leading underwriter of life sciences securities. Prior to joining H&Q, Mr. Purcell was a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group at PaineWebber, Inc. Mr. Purcell is a frequent commentator on the industry and has been honored in the “Biotech Hall of Fame” by Genetic Engineering News, named to the Biotechnology All-Stars list by Forbes ASAP, honored as one of the top 50 Irish-American businessmen and cited as one of the top 100 contributors to the biotechnology industry. Mr. Purcell has served as a director of Aton Pharma, Bridge Pharmaceuticals, Cengent Therapeutics, Dynova Laboratories, Paratek Pharmaceuticals, Valentis and Xanodyne Pharmaceuticals. He has served as a member of the Advisory Council at Harvard Medical School, the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Association, as well as the New York Biotechnology Association, the Irvington Institute and on the Board of L.E.K. Consulting. He currently sits on the board of Real Endpoints, Summus Global, Inc., Life Science Leader Magazine–Editorial Advisory Board, NY BIO Association and is a member of The University of Delaware Investment Visiting Committee Member. Mr. Purcell received his M.B.A. from Harvard University and his B.S. in Accounting from the University of Delaware.

Yasmeen Rahimi, Ph.D. is a Managing Director, Senior Research Analyst & Co-Head of Biotechnology Research at ROTH Capital Partners. Dr. Rahimi is focused on biotechnology with particular interest in therapeutic areas encompassing nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NASH), metabolic and rare diseases. Dr. Rahimi joined ROTH Capital directly from H.C. Wainwright & Co., where she worked as an equity research associate and before that, she was a research associate at Guggenheim Securities. Dr. Rahimi also worked as a research scientist at Shire Pharmaceuticals where she developed biomarker strategies for a number of clinical programs.

Dr. Rahimi has extensive expertise in NASH and liver metabolism with 16 publications in highly prestigious journals. She trained at Yale University in the laboratory of Dr. Gerald Shulman, a world-renowned endocrinologist who pioneered the understanding of lipid-induced insulin resistance contributing to the pathogenesis of NASH. In addition, she completed her Ph.D. training in the laboratory of Dr. Robert A. Harris, a distinguished biochemist at Indiana University and a former trainee of Sir Hans Krebs, the “father of biochemistry”. Over the last several years, she utilized her understanding in NASH and metabolic diseases with bridging it to equity research through publications of in-depth industry notes, expert discussion series, and an investor conference.

Dr. Rahimi earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry with highest distinction from Indiana University School of Medicine. In addition, she has M.S. in Bioanalytical Chemistry from Purdue University, and a joint B.A. in German and Chemistry from Butler University.

For the past eighteen years Stephen M. Ritoch has been the founding Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Blaise Group International, Inc. (BGI), a global leading retained executive and board search and strategic services firm exclusively focused in the Life Sciences.

Prior to co-founding BGI, Mr. Ritoch served on the senior executive search team of a national executive search firm.  Mr. Ritoch helped the company obtain a larger market-share for a desired IPO.  Previously, Mr. Ritoch was an operations and business development specialist with a focus on growth strategies, corporate partnering, talent acquisition and organizational development. He has served in many high profile capacities with a variety of domestic and multi-national companies.

Mr. Ritoch has been an entrepreneur with two prior start-up companies. Mr. Ritoch is a noteworthy executive advisor and coach to many high profile and influential senior executive leaders within industry, academia and government institutions. He is an investor and collaborative partner in several pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations. Mr. Ritoch has been published in the business community, internal corporate enterprises, philosophy and ethics sectors.

He had previously served on the Boards of MyPage, Inc. and Sports Zombie, Inc.  Mr. Ritoch was also an Advisory Council member to Hope Funds For Cancer Research. 

Bio coming soon.