Andrew Kurtz, Ph.D., Program Director, Small Business Innovation Research Development Center, NCI
Andrew Kurtz, Ph.D., Program Director, Small Business Innovation Research Development Center, NCI
Dr. Kurtz has been a Program Director in the Small Business Innovation Research Development Center at the National Cancer Institute. His management portfolio includes projects focused on early-stage cancer drug development, including small molecules, biologics, and novel multifunctional therapeutics based on nanotechnology. Previously, Dr. Kurtz was an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the NIH, during which time he served on the management team of The Cancer Genome Atlas Pilot Project. Dr. Kurtz received a PhD in Biochemistry & Molecular Biology from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., Managing Director, Bay City Capital
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., Managing Director, Bay City Capital
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., is a Managing Director with Bay City Capital, a $1.6B venture capital firm focused on life sciences. Prior to joining Bay City, she served as Chief Business Officer and Vice President of Operations for 23andMe, where she oversaw the company’s finance and operations activities and had responsibility for the company’s long term business strategy focused on database growth plans, R&D productivity, and profitability. Prior to joining 23andMe, she was a Managing Director with venture capital firm MPM Capital where she also served as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. During her years at MPM she focused on developing innovative biotechnology, medical device, and healthcare IT companies, including companies such as 23andMe, Adolor, Alnara, BioVitrum, Epizyme, iPierian, Neosil, Nevro, Rigel, and Tercica. Dr. Dombkowski holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University and received her B.A. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She has been widely quoted in publications ranging from Nature to The Wall Street Journal and she has appeared in media outlets ranging from CNBC to TedMed. She was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2010.
Brook Byers, Partner, KPCB
Brook Byers, Partner, KPCB
Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than fifty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first Life Sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 110 Life Sciences companies which have already developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients. Brook was President and a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a currently a Board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. In 2007, he was awarded the “UCSF Medal” as their honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In May, 2010, he received an Honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Tech.
David Wetherell, Managing Partner, Biomark Capital
David Wetherell, Managing Partner, Biomark Capital
David Wetherell has spent 20 years as a CEO in high-tech, as well as 17 years in venture capital, the last seven of which have been dedicated to biotech and life sciences. From 1986 to 2006, he served as both CEO and, later, chairman of CMGI, where he helped build the company from $3 million in annual revenues to more than $1 billion and started the first venture capital firm focused on the Internet, @Ventures. In 2003, due to the mapping of the human genome and demographic trends, Wetherell turned his attention to the life sciences. In 2005, he started GBP Capital, a venture capital company focused exclusively on leading edge life sciences. Wetherell has received numerous awards, including Ernst & Young's New England Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000 and recognition as one of Money Magazine's Top 25 investors. He obtained his B.A. in Mathematics from Ohio Wesleyan University and an honorary doctorate from Bryant University. He currently serves as chairman of Lentigen and sits on the boards of numerous other companies, including HyperMed, Quintess, and Whiteglove Health.
Diego Miralles, M.D., Head, Janssen Research & Development and Janssen Healthcare Innovation
Diego Miralles, M.D., Head, Janssen Research & Development and Janssen Healthcare Innovation
Dr. Diego Miralles is the management sponsor of Janssen Labs as part of his role as site head of the Janssen West Coast Research Center, part of Janssen Research & Development LLC. He oversees the business and operational management of Janssen Labs including the initial concept development, site construction, business model architecting, and company selection criteria. Miralles is also Head of Janssen Healthcare Innovation (JHI), a newly created team within Janssen R&D. JHI is actively testing and launching more than a dozen new business models. The team is focused on enhancing the value of our existing pharmaceutical business by identifying and integrating emerging technologies and novel partnerships in the following areas – clinical trials, adherence and genomics. The team is also identifying business opportunities in newly created markets such as innovative financing of healthcare, optimizing healthcare delivery and health maintenance. Miralles currently serves as an adjunct full professor in the Pharmacology department at the University of California, San Diego and is on the Board of Rady Children’s Hospital. His background includes over 13 years in the healthcare industry and 12 years in the hospital and academic worlds. Prior to heading the West Coast Research Center he was involved in the development of several drugs that made it to the market, including FTC, T-20, Prezista, Intellence and Edurant. He has extensive experience in clinical research, mostly in the HIV/AIDS space, including work on antiviral drug development at Belgium’s Tibotec BVBA, Trimeris, Inc, and Triangle Pharmaceuticals. Miralles was previously on the faculty at Duke University, Durham, NC, where he had a clinical HIV practice after serving as attending in charge at The AIDS Clinical Trial Unit, Beth Israel Medical Center, NY. He completed his fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Cornell University-New York Hospital after a residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. He graduated from the University Of Buenos Aires School Of Medicine in 1986.
Drew Senyei, M.D., Managing Director, Enterprise Partners
Drew Senyei, M.D., Managing Director, Enterprise Partners
Drew is a managing director at Enterprise Partners where he leads the life science practice. Drew focuses on investments in pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical devices and consumer healthcare. Drew has served on over 25 public and private boards including Adeza Biomedical, NuVasive, Corixa Corp., Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Nanogen, Inc., and Discovery Partners. He currently sits on the boards of current Enterprise portfolio companies including: Scoperta, Inc., Ascenta Therapeutics, Celladon, Celula, Complete Genomics, Ophthonix, TargeGen and Scoperta, Inc. Prior to joining Enterprise Partners in 1987, Drew was a physician and entrepreneur. While still a medical student at Northwestern University, he developed a drug delivery device and licensed it to Eli Lilly. Subsequently Drew joined Lilly as consultant while completing his internship at the University of California Irvine. Drew holds a B.S. from Occidental College and an M.D. from Northwestern University. Drew completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of California, Irvine, and holds 20 patents in healthcare related products and services including the first and only biochemical test that predicts preterm delivery. The test is available worldwide and has been used by over a million women. Dr. Senyei focuses his philanthropic efforts in education and the arts. He founded Equity in Education at The Bishops School to encourage entrepreneurs to donate stock for educational programs. He is a member of Northwestern University’s board of trustees, he is chairman of the board of UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering and is a member of the board of advisors for UCSD’s School of Medicine. Dr. Senyei is on San Diego’s BIOCOM board of directors and also serves as president of the San Diego Opera. In January, 2006, Drew was named one of the Top 100 VC’s in Forbes Magazine’s 2006 Annual Midas List.
Jack Young, Director, Qualcomm Life Fund
Jack Young, Director, Qualcomm Life Fund
Jack heads up the $100M Qualcomm Life Fund (QLF) at Qualcomm Ventures, which was recently ranked as one of the most prolific venture investors in the digital health sector. His investment interests are focused in the areas of digital technologies and wireless health services and applications including: wellness and fitness, chronic disease management, aging in place, transitional care, clinical trials and telehealth/telemedicine. Jack currently serves as a board observer at QLF portfolio companies including Airstrip, AliveCor, ClearCare, goBalto and Telcare. In addition, he serves as a board observer at Jana, Modern Video, uCIRRUS, Validity and Visage Mobile. Prior to Qualcomm Ventures, Jack was EVP and US Country Manager at ZTE who helped establish the company’s US market presence. He was a sales and marketing executive at Nokia following the acquisition of Amber Networks where he was founding AVP of marketing. Early in his career, he held marketing and business development positions at 3Com, GDC, and Nortel. Jack earned a MSEE from University of Calgary and a MBA from McGill University.
John Steuart, Managing Director, Prolog Ventures
John Steuart, Managing Director, Prolog Ventures
John has more than 25 years of experience managing healthcare and technology venture funds and companies. Prior to Prolog, he was a co-founder and managing director of Claremont Creek Ventures. He also served as the CFO of two venture-backed public companies that were acquired by United Airlines New Ventures. He began his investment career at Alafi Capital. John earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Berkeley, where he serves on the Advisory Boards for the Lester Center of Entrepreneurship and Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
Mohit Kaushal, M.D., Partner, Aberdare Ventures
Mohit Kaushal, M.D., Partner, Aberdare Ventures
Mohit is the newest member of the Aberdare team, joining as a partner in 2013. Mohit has had an extensive career within clinical medicine, venture capital and health policy. He was most recently the inaugural Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development at West Health a unique set of entities focused on lowering health care costs through medical research, healthcare policy and investment. He developed the West Health Investment Fund strategy, sourced and led investments in Humedica (acquired by Optum Health), Change Healthcare, RxAnte and goBalto. Previously, Mohit was the Director of Connected Health with the Federal Communications Commission, where he established the agency’s first dedicated health care team. During his time in the Obama administration, he was also a member of the White House Health IT task force, a cross agency team focusing on implementing the technology aspects of Health Reform. Prior to this position, Kaushal was an investment professional at Polaris Venture Partners, and worked for Merrill Lynch’s Health Care Investment Banking Group and the World Health Organization. Kaushal holds an MBA from Stanford and an MD with distinction from Imperial College, London. In addition to his role at Aberdare Ventures, Mohit is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and serves on the curation team at TEDMED. He has been appointed to the Consumer Technology Workgroup of the Health IT Standards Committee and to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics advising HHS on Data Access and Use.
Patrick F. Terry, Chairman, Grey Group Ventures, Inc.
Patrick F. Terry, Chairman, Grey Group Ventures, Inc.
Patrick is a serial entrepreneur who has founded a series of philanthropic, research, and commercial organizations based on the life sciences, applied technology, and social-network theory. He co-founded Genomic Health [NASDAQ: GHDX] and was former Director at the pioneering personalized medicine company based in California. He has published dozens of peer-reviewed scientific papers, articles, and book chapters in the fields of genetics, rare disease, and translational medicine. Some of his activities included leadership positions on numerous trade associations, professional societies, corporate boards, and federal advisory bodies. He has experience coordinating genetics research, conducting research on rare diseases, and managing a life sciences patent portfolio. He has received many honors and awards in the business and scientific communities in the U.S. and internationally. He is currently a Director at MeMed Diagnostics (Israel-based Company), PXE International, and GRAND Therapeutics. He has also helped found the following organizations: US Personalized Medicine Coalition, 21st Century Medicine Coalition, European Personalized Medicine Diagnostic Association, PXE International, Genetic Alliance BioBank, BioLogos Foundation, Coalition for Research on the Eye, International Genetic Alliance, and GRAND Therapeutics, National Association of Healthcare Reimbursement, and Technic Solutions.
Stacy Feld, Partner, Physic Ventures
Stacy Feld, Partner, Physic Ventures
Stacy Feld, J.D., is a Partner at Physic Ventures. Stacy focuses on personalized health solutions to improve and transform care for the health consumer. Specifically, Stacy is interested in life science opportunities offering more precise prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic disease. She is on the board of T2 Biosystems and an observer on the boards of On-Q-ity and Own.
Ted Driscoll, Ph.D., Director, Claremont Creek Ventures
Ted Driscoll, Ph.D., Director, Claremont Creek Ventures
Ted Driscoll is a Director leading the Digital Healthcare team at Claremont Creek Ventures. Prior to his venture capital experience, Ted helped found five successful companies in imaging-related markets. Ted holds a PhD from Stanford University in Digital Imaging, Masters degrees from Harvard University in Computer Graphics and Remote Sensing and a Bachelor's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Ted holds 40+ granted US and foreign patents in image-related fields, with approximately 30 additional pending applications.
Thomas A. Raffin, M.D., Senior Partner, Telegraph Hill Partners
Thomas A. Raffin, M.D., Senior Partner, Telegraph Hill Partners
Tom spent 24 years on the faculty at Stanford University School of Medicine where he remains the Colleen and Robert Haas Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Biomedical Ethics, former Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Co-Founder and Director Emeritus of the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics. He has written over 200 articles, chapters and books. Over the past two decades he has worked extensively in the healthcare and medical device sectors and is a co-founder of Rigel Pharmaceuticals. Tom has represented THP on the boards of AngioScore, Confirma (acquired by Merge), LDR, PneumRx and Freedom Innovations. He is an observer on the boards of Estech and Vidacare. Tom received a BA from Stanford University and an M.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine and medical residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston.
Warren H. Hogarth, Ph.D., Partner, Sequoia Capital
Warren H. Hogarth, Ph.D., Partner, Sequoia Capital
Warren H. Hogarth focuses on bioinformatics, SAAS and energy companies. He is a Director of Silicon Valley Biosystems and FutureAdvisor and a Board Observer of AssureRx, C12 Energy and SunRun. Prior to joining Sequoia Capital in 2008, Warren completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Queensland in Australia, during which time he was a Fulbright Scholar at Princeton University and a Guest Scientist at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany. In addition to his Ph.D., Warren has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a B.E. and B.Comm. from the University of Queensland.
William Greene, M.D., Venture Partner, MPM Capital
William Greene, M.D., Venture Partner, MPM Capital
Dr. Greene joined MPM's San Francisco office in 2002. Prior to MPM, he was at Genentech where from 1998 - 2002 he served as a Senior Clinical Scientist and Epidemiologist with responsibilities in clinical strategy, trial design and management, regulatory interactions and safety monitoring spanning several therapeutic areas including leading the early clinical development of Lucentis®. From 1991-1998, Dr. Greene was at Yale Medical School where he trained in Internal Medicine and Diagnostic Radiology, taught medicine and did clinical research. Dr. Greene has been a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale (clinical epidemiology) and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the NIH (neurobiology). He is a member of the American College of Physicians and the Society for Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research, has published widely, taught and practiced medicine, and received awards for clinical research excellence. He received a BA degree from Wesleyan University (biology) and an MD degree from UCSF.
