Andrew Merken, Sharholder, Polsinelli PC (Moderator)
Andrew Merken focuses on corporate and transactional matters for a wide variety of clients covering the entire business life cycle, from start-up (formation and organizational matters) to seed and venture stage funding to growth stage (later stage funding, corporate collaborations and buy-side M&A) and ultimately exit (sell-side M&A or IPO). Andy actively works with his clients in all such phases with the additional support of transactional and subject matter experts.
On the institutional side, Andy represents VC funds, angel investors, family offices and private foundations in investing in and/or collaborating with their portfolio companies and also has represented investment banks in public offerings, private placements and M&A transactions.
Andy works primarily with life sciences companies (biotech, pharma, med device, digital health and health care) and high-tech companies but also represents clients in such industries as consulting, real estate, professional services and food services.
Michael Langer, Founder & Managing Partner, T.Rx Capital
Michael is Head of Search, Evaluation and In-licensing for all new technology and products at Pear Therapeutics. Michael is the founding partner at Old Silver VC. He also invests directly into Seed and/or Healthcare/Biotech focused venture capital funds as a Limited Partner. He is a mentor and Judge at MassChallenge Healthtech and a mentor at MassConnectDH. He co-founded the Young Coder’s Society. He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, serves on The Discoverers Committee at the Museum of Science, the Visionaries Circle at The Possible Project and is the Senior Advisor of Special Projects at the Galenus Foundation. Prior to Pear and Old Silver VC, Michael spent time at: Akili Interactive Labs, Udacity, Modern Meadow, Polaris Partners, The Harvard Experiment Fund and Boston Seed Capital. Michael has a BA from Lehigh University.
Sunil Shah, CEO, o2h Ventures
A serial entrepreneur having begun a career in the Life Sciences team at PA Consulting group followed by co-founding two companies in the information technology and life sciences sector. The second of these companies, Oxygen Healthcare Ltd was acquired by Piramal Enterprises Ltd (BSE: PEL). Sunil co-founded o2h ventures which involves discovery services / collaborations, seeding drug discovery, academic in-licensing and biotechnology incubation. Sunil has a degree in Biochemistry and an MBA from Cambridge University.
John Parker, Founder and Managing Director, Springhood Ventures
John founded Springhood Ventures to provide critical early support to companies developing important healthcare solutions for children. In this role, he also established and manages the program-related investment (PRI) initiative of the Charles H. Hood Foundation, a Boston-based private foundation that supports pediatric research, where he also serves as a trustee. Springhood invests on a mission-rst basis in seed-stage companies developing important pediatric medical solutions. He is also an observer on the boards of Prapela, Inc., Aldatu Biosciences, Breegi Scientic, and Noninvasix, Inc. Previously, John spent 25 years in the alternative investment industry, including senior roles in venture capital, private equity, and hedge funds. John has a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.
John Abeles, General Partner, Northlea Partners
Dr Abeles, born 1945 in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) obtained his degree in Medicine and a degree in Pharmacology from the University of Birmingham (England).
After practising Medicine in London and Connecticut he held senior medical positions in US pharmaceutical companies, including Sterling Drug, Pfizer and USV.
He then became the first full time MD securities analyst on Wall Street in 1975 with Kidder Peabody.
Later he formed MedVest Group, a biomedical consulting entity and his family office, Northlea Partners, which has general investments as well as an active, largely biomedical venture capital practice.
He has promulgated, invested in and sometimes founded, many early stage biomedical companies, several of which have been acquired and/or become public companies.
He has been an Advisory Board member of the College of Chemistry (UC Berkeley), an external member of the SPARK program ( Stanford U) and an Advisory Board Member of the Higuchi BioScience Institute (U of Kansas).
He is an adviser to the Institute for Translational Medicine at the University of Birmingham (England)
He is a member of the Board of several healthcare and other non-profit organisations in the US and Israel.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and is active in sponsoring the arts and several charities.
David Prim, Principal, Broadview Ventures
David broadly supports the Broadview investment team in its day-to-day operations, including identification and screening of new opportunities, due diligence, negotiation of deal structure, and portfolio company involvement.
Prior to joining Broadview, David was a Senior Associate at Locust Walk, a global life sciences transaction firm, where he led engagements for biopharma and medtech clients guiding corporate development strategy and supporting sell-side, buy-side, and financing deal execution. Previously, David was a consultant at ClearView Healthcare Partners, a premier life science strategy consulting firm, where he supported completion of high-impact strategy projects for a broad range of industry clients across all aspects of the product lifecycle, including new product planning, R&D, commercial, medical affairs, market access, and lifecycle management.
David earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Carolina, where his research focused on vascular grafting. His research projects covered a wide range of vascular mechanics, hemodynamics, and tissue engineering, with a specific focus on understanding and improving remodeling of coronary artery bypass grafts. David also holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of South Carolina with honors from the South Carolina Honors College.
David serves as a Board Director of CorFlow Therapeutics and Board Observer of Puzzle Medical Devices and Vascular Graft Solutions.