Investor Panels

BIG PHARMA

Pipeline Strategy for Preclinical and Early Clinical Assets

BIG PHARMA

Pipeline Strategy for Preclinical and Early Clinical Assets

In recent years, big pharma companies have begun looking outwards for innovative new therapeutics to add to their pipelines. This panel brings togerther speakers from various big pharma companies discussing topics such as:

How big pharma sources assets
The evaluation and investment process
Key factors of interest
How early-stage big pharma is willing to look

These panelists will shed light on the process that big pharma goes through when sourcing early-stage assets and advise startups on how they can best make a case for themselves. Panelists will also explore various trends within the therapeutics marketplace, what assets are of interest to their company, and what they think will be big in the future.

Natalia Novac, Senior Director, Venture Science, Corporate Business Development, Eli Lilly & Co (Moderator)

Natalia Novac is a Senior Director in Emerging Technology and Innovation Team at Eli Lilly Corporate Business Development in London and is responsible for search and evaluation of novel transformative healthcare technologies across all Eli Lilly indications in Europe. In her role, Natalia is also involved in the scientific evaluation of novel life science assets coming from several venture funds where Eli Lilly participates as a limited partner. As a part of Global Corporate Business Development Natalia supports general due diligence and deal process ensuring that scientific excellence and breakthrough technologies are not overlooked.

Natalia worked in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 15 years and has a solid academic background in oncology, endocrinology, immunology and multiple sclerosis. Natalia has a Diploma in Biochemistry, MSc in Microbiology and PhD in Molecular Biology.

Chris Paschall, Director, Technology Partnerships, Business Development & Licensing & Open Innovation, Bayer

Chris Paschall, Ph.D., CLP, RTTP, is the Director of Technology Partnerships in the Open Innovation Center at Bayer where he is responsible for managing multiple research alliances and engaging in the early-stage ecosystem. Prior to joining Bayer in November 2020, Chris was the Executive Director of Licensing at The Ohio State University’s Technology Commercialization Office (TCO), a Licensing Manager for the University of Virginia Licensing & Ventures Group, a Licensing Associate in the Emory Office of Technology Transfer and a Licensing Associate at the U.Va. Patent Foundation. In 2008, he became a registered patent agent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, in 2010, he became a Certified Licensing Professional, and in 2018, he became a Registered Technology Transfer Professional. Chris has nearly fifteen years commercializing technologies in pharmaceuticals, biotech, medical devices, and engineering, having negotiated almost 200 licensing deals, including four of the five largest licensing transactions ever executed at The Ohio State University. Chris received his doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Virginia, where his research focused on leukocyte adhesion in inflammatory responses and its application to targeted drug delivery, as well as his bachelor of science in chemical engineering, also from the University of Virginia.

Nathalie ter Wengel, European Lead, Worldwide Business Development, Pfizer Inc.

Nathalie ter Wengel M.D. is the European Lead Worldwide Business Development at Pfizer, where she is responsible for establishing new collaborations and exploring global licensing and other corporate development opportunities across all therapeutic areas that Pfizer is interested in with European companies. Previous to this role, she was the European Head for External Science & Innovation at Pfizer. Nathalie obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. She has an international background and a broad knowledge in the medical field, having worked in the hospital with extensive experience in Internal Medicine. Nathalie started her commercial career as European Medical Manager at Pfizer, where she successfully led ambitious international projects, combining a business perspective with her medical knowledge. It was this experience, coupled with her father’s illness that convinced her of the urgent need for change in the pharmaceutical industry. Consequently, she started up a company called myTomorrows focused on compassionate use, where she served as Chief Medical Officer before joining Galapagos as Business Development Director, where she played a key role in the very successful NASDAQ IPO and in the partnering of filgotinib.

Amanda Mason, Director, Global Head of Inflammation Search & Evaluation, Business Development, Amgen

Amanda leads Search & Evaluate for the Inflammation therapeutic area at Amgen, which includes diseases across pulmonology, allergy/immunology, dermatology, gastroenterology, and rheumatology. In this role, she is responsible for opportunity identification, technical due diligence, and deal execution across all asset stages and modalities.

Prior to joining Amgen in 2019, Amanda worked at the University of Southern California where she co-founded a new team responsible for early technology evaluation and biotech entrepreneurship. Previously, Amanda worked at Bain as a management consultant focusing on business development and strategy for biopharma clients. She has served as an adviser or consultant to multiple venture capital firms including Clarus Ventures (now part of Blackstone) and WaveMaker 360 Health. Amanda has a PhD in Developmental and Stem Cell Biology from the University of California San Francisco and an AB in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard University, where she graduated summa cum laude. In her spare time, Amanda is an avid ceramic artist and scuba diver.

Garrett Rhyasen, Executive Director, Global Head of Oncology Search & Evaluation, Business Development & Licensing, AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca was formed via a merger in 1999 and is based in the UK. The firm has annual revenues of over $20 billion, and is actively seeking to in-license both small molecule and biologic therapeutics at all stages of development. AstraZeneca’s partnering strategy is focused on cardiovascular, renal & metabolic diseases (including heart failure, renal diseases and insulin sensitivity), respiratory and immunology (including asthma, COPD and lupus), and oncology (including lung, breast, prostate and blood cancers). AstraZeneca is also interested in neuroscience (including psychiatry and pain), infectious diseases, personalized medicine, and research tools (including lead generation and target validation platforms, and stem cell biology platforms). Main sectors: Therapeutics and Diagnostics Subsector(s): Antibodies, Gene therapy, Nucleic acid drugs, Proteins, Vaccines, Peptides, Drug delivery Primary therapeutic area(s): A) oncology, B) respiratory and Immunology (R&I) and C) cardiovascular, renal and metabolic disease (CVRM) together with enabling technologies (discovery and biopharmaceutical development) and explorative cell/regeneration therapies related to our core therapeutic areas.

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SEED FUNDS

Investing in Emerging Science to Pursue High Rewards

SEED FUNDS

Investing in Emerging Science to Pursue High Rewards

This panel features four panelists and a moderator exploring the benefits and risks associated with funding seed-stage life sciences companies. Topics may include:

How much proof-of-concept validation is needed for seed funding
What increased benefit is needed to mitigate the increased risk
What is unique in the structure of seed-stage deals (convertible notes vs straight equity)
Does the early stage of the company lead investors to take a more active role

Many investors prefer to wait for later stages due to the decreased risk of failure. Those investors who are willing to take the risk of seed-stage investment will share their approach and selection criteria when assessing early-stage companies.

David Uffer, Senior Partner, Alira Health Ventures (Moderator)

David Uffer joined Alira Health with over 25 years of management experience in the medical device, products and clinical diagnostics field. He has lead strategy development, strategic planning and business development activities in these fields for mid and large cap public companies.

David has directed business development deals ranging from M&A, licensing, distribution and co-development for companies such as Medtronic (legacy Covidien) in their respiratory and medical products business, as well as Hologic and Boston Scientific. He has held management roles at Integra Lifesciences and Abbott Labs.

David has a BA from Clark University, Worcester, MA and an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, Glendale, AZ.

Peter Crane, Principal. Outsized Ventures

My name is Peter. I’m a venture investor at Outsized Ventures a late-seed investor based in the UK. At Outsized Ventures, we partner with ambitious founders building science-centric businesses in human and planetary health.

We’ve supported entrepreneurs across therapeutic biotech, diagnostics, health-tech, agri/food, life-sciences tools, and frontier technologies.

Before moving across into venture, I was a strategy lead at a deep technology company working at the intersection of technology and biology. I also wrote and spoke on engineering biology, metadata in biology, active machine learning and gene therapy bioprocessing.

Previously, I was working in biopharma and running healthcare accelerators. I have a DPhil (Ph.D.) from Oxford University in Chemical Biology and an undergraduate Masters in Chemistry from Warwick University.

I live in Oxford (UK) and am a bona fide animal lover.

This blog is to house my musings going forward. I hope someone finds them interesting and useful.

Feel free to reach-out via the contact form, I am always open to meeting scientific founders or brainstorming with other investors.

Adam Dakin, Managing Director, DreamIt Health

Adam Dakin serves as the Managing Director for Dreamit Ventures where he leads the HealthTech vertical focused on seed and Series A digital health and medtech companies. He co-founded five health technology companies that have collectively raised over $60M in early-stage capital. Adam serves on the boards of Safkan Health and ZSX Medical, and is an active angel investor. He is a named inventor on seven U.S. patents. Adam holds a BSE from the Wharton School and an MBA from UCLA.

Amit Garg, Managing Partner, Tau Ventures

Amit is currently Managing Partner at Tau Ventures, a $15M seed fund in Palo Alto focused on applied AI in digital health, automation (cars, drones, robots), and enterprise. Key investments he has worked on in the past include UniKey (smart locks), nuTonomy (self-driving cars, sold for $450M), BioBeats (machine learning for human well-being, acquired by Huma / Medapod), Glooko (diabetes management), Cohero Health (respiratory management), Terapede (low-dosage X-ray detection), Figure1 (medical communication), HealthifyMe (fitness and health-tracking), Healthy.io (home-based urinalysis) and RapidDeploy (cloud-based emergency response). He has been in Silicon Valley for 20 years — at Samsung NEXT Ventures, cofounded a startup called HealthIQ (as of May 2019 a series D that has raised $120M and valued at $450M), at Norwest Ventures, and doing product and analytics at Google. His academic training is BS in computer science and MS in biomedical informatics, both from Stanford, and MBA from Harvard. He speaks natively 3 languages, live carbon-neutral, is a 70.3 Ironman finisher, and has built a hospital in rural India serving 100,000 people.

Nancy Torres Kaufman, CEO, Beacon Capital

Ms. Torres Kaufman serves as CEO of Beacon Pharmaceutical. Prior to assuming her current role, she founded and continues to lead Beacon Capital LLC, a family office backing Beacon Pharmaceutical Incubator, as head of investments & CEO. She previously directed Beacon Capital’s boutique advisory strategic direction and new business development efforts. Nancy Founded Beacon in 2009 and has more than 15 years of financial-industry experience

Nancy is a serial entrepreneur and investor. She fled from Cuba to the US alone at the tender age of 14 in a raft in hopes of becoming a Beacon for her family. Nancy excelled in academics and was awarded a full academic scholarship, a 7-year accelerated program between the College of St. Elizabeth and UMDNJ. This is the foundation of her Biology and Chemistry background. Nancy also attended the New York University Stern School of Business.

Nancy started her first business at the age of 12 baking cakes from her home-based bakery in Havana, Cuba. Her entrepreneurial efforts led to the sale of her first company at the age of 26, Wall St. Mortgage, sold to Countywide Home Loans prior to the financial crisis in early 2008. Nancy has worked on Wall St. as an analyst to attain knowledge of the capital markets, then briefly worked at Georgia Malone where she obtained a basic background in commercial real estate. She later joined the rigorous, fast-paced environment at a boutique investment bank focused on Latin American transactions. Acquiring a wealth of experience as the right hand to CEO Violy McCausland, having had the opportunity to work on deals, such as the 2010 $1 billion debt restructuring transaction between the Polanco Family’s Grupo Prisa and Liberty Acquisition Holdings, led by Martin Franklin and Nicolas Berggruen and many more.

At Beacon Pharma, Nancy is responsible for the overall direction of the Beacon Pharma Incubator strategy and generating new JV’s and philanthropic initiatives. Nancy is an active board member of Ohr Simcha, a non-profit helping orphan children in Israel have a happy fulfilling home life, and Montessori Model UN School, an NGO inspiring youth internationally to create a better world by replicating the United Nations’ approach toward policy deliberation and position development within committee sessions, based upon in-depth advanced preparation and simulation activities.

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ASIA CROSS BORDER

Latest Perspectives from Asian Groups on Investments and Partnerships

ASIA CROSS BORDER

Latest Perspectives from Asian Groups on Investments and Partnerships

These days, seeking capital from Asia-headquartered investors, pharmaceuticals, and other strategic partners may seem like nothing new. Many groups continue to expand into geographies outside of Asia to set up new offices, establishing open innovation departments, etc. However, companies based in the USA, Europe, and other parts of the world without any proper connection to Asia still find themselves struggling to engage with the right groups.

This panel will discuss the following topics and more:

How are Asian markets and regulatory hurdles different from those of the USA/Europe?
What do cross-border investors seek in companies outside of Asia? How are they similar or different to their viewpoint on domestic companies?
How has COVID positively or negatively impacted the decision making process?
Aside from the effects of COVID on the industry, will cross-border investment activities continue to increase?
What are some common mistakes investors see from entrepreneurs, and how can they be avoided?

Panelists will discuss how they have been evaluating opportunities in the midst of the COVID pandemic and what the future holds for cross-border activities in the industry. Panelists will also uncover general topics such as navigating the Asian market and the regulatory challenges associated with market entry, how to approach Asian investors and strategic groups, and more.

Ella Li, CEO, ZGC Capital (Moderator)

Dr. Ella Li the CEO of ZGC Capital and also the partner of ZGC U.S. Fund, leading ZGC’s team in investment and incubator operation. She’ established and managed several VC and fund of funds, including one with portfolio funds including KPCB, Menlo, Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Foundation Capital, and Institutional Venture Partners. She is also the founding partner of Medlabs Global Healthcare Accelerator, providing companies with funding, mentorship and key resources to transform healthcare. Dr. Li has 10+ years of experience in biotech research and has rich experiences in therapeutic investment opportunities from discovery and clinical proof-of-concept to commercialization. She also serves as board advisor, consultant and advisor for several global accelerators, VCs and startups. Dr. Ella Li earned her B.S. and M.S. degrees from Peking University, and her Ph.D. from the University of Texas Health Science Centers. She completed her postdoctoral fellowship from Harvard Medical School, where she led five independent projects exploring novel therapeutic targets for metabolic disease. Ella has extensive publications in prestigious journals with IMF over 10 including Nature Communication, Cell Metabolism, Journal of Clinical Investigation, PNAS, Molecular Cell, Diabetes etc. with 700+ citations.

Tai Harada, Vice President, Fast Track Initiative

Tai brings the perspectives of strategic planning and external collaboration to Fast Track Initiative (FTI). FTI is a venture capital firm that invests in early-stage biotech companies. Since its inception in 2004, FTI has invested in more than 25 companies with a mission to translate academic researches into medicine, mostly as a lead investor. It has invested in companies from Japan and now starts global investment with its opening of a Boston office. At FTI, Tai spearheads the launch of the US investment as VP. He sources and evaluates early-stage investment opportunities and supports portfolio companies by bringing connections with the Japanese healthcare community. Before FTI, Tai was an Investment Consultant at ARCH Venture, where he screened and evaluated early-stage therapeutics and diagnostics companies. Previously, he helped Takeda in early-stage oncology and regenerative medicine business collaborations and was a Junior Manager at McKinsey & Company. At McKinsey, he supported pharmaceutical companies to develop new business strategies and corporate strategies. Tai received a Master’s in Molecular Biology from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

George Li, Managing Partner, Proxima Ventures

Focus Areas：Medical Device and Diagnostic Mr. George Li has over 12 years experience of incubating, coaching and investing in life science industry. He is the managing partner of Proxima Venture capital fund which focus on investment in outstanding enterprises with disruptive medical technologies or service models that can address huge unmet medical needs. Proxima is managing two RMB funds and one USD fund. Proxima has invested 20+ innovative medical technology companies covering areas of cardiovascular, oncology, respiratory and diagnostic. In 2008, Mr. Li founded Biohub which is the leading life science accelerator/incubator in China. Biohub is running 5 incubators/accelerators with equipped central labs, CFDA cleared clean rooms in core cities of Wuhan, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Chengdu and Suzhou in China. Biohub has built an ecosystem including leading hospitals, public listed companies and network of seasoned entrepreneurs and can provide one stop professional services for start-up companies. Since it founded, Biohub has successfully incubated over 100 innovative life science projects covering pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic and services. Before Biohub, Mr. Li co-founded Bioherms and brought the first HbA1c POCT diagnostic solution to China market. Mr. Li got his MBA from Hult International Business School and bachelor degree from Zhejiang University.

Rohit Pratap Singh, Vice President, Investments, Xeraya Capital

Rohit joined Xeraya Capital in August 2015. He has more than a decade experience in PE/VC investments and front end investment banking.

Rohit has extensive experience in the PE/ VC/ M&A space. As an investment banker, he has represented clients from Asia, Europe and the US, advising them on cross border acquisitions worth over USD 1 billion and as a VC he has been part of investments in US, W.Europe and Asia. Apart from developing skill sets in equity transactions, Rohit also brings in cross cultural work experience gained from working in different regions and jurisdictions, an understanding of local/international M&A laws and an extensive network of bankers and fund managers.

Prior to Xeraya, Rohit worked in PwC, KPMG and Rabobank in their respective M&A/ IB teams. He graduated as an engineer and has an MBA from India’s leading institution – Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.

Tim Xiao, Principal, Delos Capital

Tim Xiao, CFA, FRM, is a Principal at Delos Capital since its inception in 2014 and has over 12 years’ experience in investment banking and life sciences investment. Tim started his career as an investment banker at China International Capital and later joined the Investment Banking Division of Goldman Sachs where he completed a series of industry-defining transactions with a total deal value of over US$4 billion. Tim serves as a Board member for Eccogene, Clover Biopharmaceuticals, OncoMyx Therapeutics, Curatia Medical, and as a Board Observer for Allecra Therapeutics and Intrinsic Therapeutics. Tim was previously a Board member for Luqa Pharmaceuticals (acquired by China Medical System HKEx: 867). Tim holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is a CFA charterholder.

Derek Yuan, Principal, LYFE Capital

Derek Yuan is a Principal at LYFE Capital. Prior to joining LYFE Capital, Derek was a Biotech Equity Research Associate at Credit Suisse, where he accumulated experience in biotechnology capital markets and insights into the healthcare industry. After joining LYFE Capital, Derek has focused on and covered the Sino-US biotechnology industry; he also has a deep understanding of the secondary markets. Derek obtained his Ph.D. in biology from Rockefeller University with an emphasis in microbiology and immunology; he was initially trained in chemistry and biology at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

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CORPORATE VENTURE CAPITAL

The Corporate Landscape Morphed & New Opportunities Abound

CORPORATE VENTURE CAPITAL

The Corporate Landscape Morphed & New Opportunities Abound

This panel discusses what strategies are employed by corporate venture capital firms for investments and partnerships with early-stage companies. Potential topics for the panel include:

What corporate VCs look for in companies
What working with a corporate VC entails
What companies should do to be relevant to the corporate VC

Panelists could also discuss the relationship between the corporate venture capital firm and the parent company and how it affects investment criteria.

Andy Merken, Partner, Corporate and Securities Co-Chair, Life Sciences, Burns & Levinson (Moderator)

Andy is a Partner in the Corporate Group and the Venture Capital & Emerging Companies Group. He is also the Co-Chair of both the Life Sciences Group and the Securities Group. Andy focuses on business and transactional matters for a wide range of clients, with a particular concentration on Seed round and Venture Capital financings, recapitalizations, mergers & acquisitions, private equity transactions, and corporate governance. In addition to his corporate finance and mergers & acquisitions work, Andy represents entrepreneurs, start-up and growth-stage companies, and investment banks, as well as venture capital investors, private foundations, family offices, and angel investors, in formation and structuring matters, equity and compensation, business contracts and general business advice and planning. Andy also represents C-level and R&D executives in employment matters, including equity compensation. Andy works with clients in a variety of industries, including life sciences (biotech/biopharmaceutical, medical device, healthcare, digital health, and healthcare services), business services, software, financial services, venture capital, investment banking, consulting, legal services, consumer products, staffing, food services, real estate, and entertainment.

Arnaud Autret, Principal, M Ventures

Arnaud Autret, PhD, MSc in Finance, joined the Life Science team as an Investment Principal in March 2019. Previously, he worked at Seventure Partners (Paris, France) as Senior Associate, where he invested in Life Sciences companies (Microbiome applications in all fields, Digital-Health, Medtech, etc.). Before joining Seventure in 2014, Arnaud was a financial auditor associate at KPMG in the Healthcare business unit (Paris, France). Arnaud received his Ph.D. in Immunology from the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) and continued his scientific career with post-doctoral work at the Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). He gained his MSc in Finance from ESCP Europe (Paris, France). Arnaud is based in Amsterdam.

Lana Ghanem, Managing Director, Hikma Ventures

Lana is the Managing Director of Hikma Ventures which she helped establish in 2015. Lana started her career at Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC in 2012 as the Assistant to the CEO and Director of Corporate Strategy & Development where she worked on strategic projects across the company’s various functions including strategy, M&A, operations and finance. Prior to joining Hikma, Lana worked as a Financial Analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions department at Dresdner Kleinwort Investment Bank in London where she worked on transactions for clients across multiple industries. Currently, Lana heads the Innovation & Leadership Advisory Board (ILAB) at Hikma which consists of young Hikma employees whom share a dedication to advancing Hikma and ensuring it is at the frontier of innovation.

Tom Gibbs, Director, Debiopharm Innovation Fund

Tom Gibbs PhD Tom Gibbs is Director at Debiopharm Innovation Fund, Switzerland where he is responsible for new investments in smart data companies in the healthcare space. He is currently a Director on the boards of Nucleai, Carevive, BC Platforms, Immunexpress, and Acteon. Previous board positions include Biocartis and GenePOC. Tom holds a PhD in molecular microbiology from the University of Warwick and has 30 years’ experience in the commercialization of life science technologies in start-ups and established companies in Europe and the USA (including Molecular Devices Corp, Covalys, Med Discovery, Debiopharm). His responsibilities have included quality assurance, operations, late-stage product development & marketing, and business development. He is excited to apply this breadth of experience to the digital health revolution, helping companies make a medically meaningful impact.

Megan Krench, Director of Investments, Sanofi Ventures

Meg joined Sanofi Ventures in 2021 with a background in biotech investing and business development. She previously worked as Director of Business Development at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where she was part of the External Innovation team. Prior to Vertex, Meg worked at RA Capital, a crossover investment fund, where her areas of focus included rare diseases, genetic therapies, and neuroscience.

Meg holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a BS with Honors in Neuroscience from The Pennsylvania State University. She currently sits on the Steering Committee of the New England Venture Network.

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FAMILY OFFICES & ANGELS

How Do Family Offices View Seed & Series A Rounds?

FAMILY OFFICES & ANGELS

How Do Family Offices View Seed & Series A Rounds?

Angel investors are a mainstay in the earliest financing rounds, and many consider Family Offices as the holy grail of investors. These groups share many similarities, and can work in synergy to help their portfolio companies advance. This panel will cover topics such as:

What are the similarities and differences between Angels and Family Offices?
What are the benefits of working with each group?
How does investing personal money change the way Angels and Family Offices act from the traditional VC?

A startup looks to many different kinds of investors when fundraising, and understanding the fundamental differences between groups can improve the success of their approach. Angels and Family Offices frequently invest early on, and can shape the way a company develops. Panelists will discuss how best to approach them and engage their interest.

Katherine Hill Ritchie, Director Nottingham, Spirk Family Office (Moderator)

Mrs. Hill Ritchie has worked internally and as an advisor to 8 family offices through her firm, Private Capital Investments, LLC. Her current role is Director and Board Member for Nottingham Spirk Family Office, and her past roles include: Simon Group Holdings, Eden Capital, PEX Global, and Wedge Alternatives. She spent 7 years in Switzerland where she was a Managing Director at Palladio Alternative Research and Senior Analyst and Investment Committee Member for the Saad family office’s $3.5 billion investment portfolio. She is an Angel Investor and is on the investment committee for University Impact, a social impact VC fund. Katherine received her MBA from Fordham University and her BS in Psychology from University of Maryland. Her Board member activities include: Chair of the ACG New York Family Office Committee, Board Member of ACG NY, and Family Office Advisory Board of TriState Capital. Her past philanthropic volunteer activities include: Global Co-Chair of The Guild, the Philanthropy and Education Committees of 100 Women in Finance, and Fordham MBA Overseers Board.

Charles Cameron, Founder and Managing Director, Hub Angels Investment Group

Charlie has over 20 years of management consulting, marketing and investing experience in more than 30 countries. His experience ranges from working on strategy with Fortune 500 companies to mentoring emerging technology companies to venture investing. He works with entrepreneurs, investors and family offices in Europe, the US and Canada. In addition, he is SVP of Business Development at Cooley LLP, a national law firm with a broad, technology-oriented client base. During the past decade Charlie has built a global network of entrepreneurs, VCs, angel groups, and service providers. Charlie has an MBA from MIT, an MPH from Harvard University, and a BA, Economics–honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Massachusetts.

Ozan Isinak, President, Central Canada Keiretsu Forum

Ozan is an active investors and serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of international experience within the angel investment, venture capital and private equity sectors. Based out of Silicon Valley during the first dotcom boom in the 1990’s, Ozan worked closely with Fortune 1000 companies in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Toronto, Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Istanbul. Ozan later acted as General Partner in various angel investment and private equity practices. He is currently the President of Keiretsu Forum Canada, the world’s largest angel investment network operating on four continents. The global network specializes in syndication of deals and invests over $100 million into 200 early stage companies each year. Ozan also holds a Partner position in Trendwell Ventures Inc., a Toronto based boutique M&A practice. He actively participates in portfolio investment decisions, venture capital GP duties and helps technology enabled companies scale through hands-on management toward exit transactions. Ozan received his MBA in Finance from the University of San Francisco – McLaren School of Business in 1998 and holds a double major in Economics & Political Science from the University of Western Ontario (1994). He speaks English, Turkish and French.

Ron Paliwoda, Founder and President, Paliwoda Group

Ron Paliwoda is an accidental entrepreneur and seasoned investor, primarily through the Ventures arm of The Paliwoda Group, the firm he founded over 20 years ago. The firm’s evergreen Health Tech Fund targets early-stage innovation that reduces costs to healthcare consumers, including projects that promote cost transparency to help consumers make more informed decisions in selecting service providers; that weave raw data streaming from remote patient monitors into insight about one’s health and fitness (i.e. BioArray); and innovations at the intersection of molecular diagnostics and computational biology that use machine-learning tools to better understand complex disorders (i.e. Genotype Diagnostics). Ron actively advises entrepreneur leaders working to solve care and education challenges at underserved communities, and is a passionate advocate of local working environments where startups are nurtured and high-potential teams can excel.

Caroline Sai, Head of Operations, Angels Santé

Caroline is of French-American background and educated both in the US and France. After a master’s degree in International Business, she gained extensive business and Communication experience in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She is currently the Operations Manager of Angels Santé, the largest business angel network in Europe solely dedicated to healthcare and well as the European Coordinator for the EIT Health Investor Network, which brings together private equity investors and healthcare startups raising between 500 K to 10 M €. Caroline, who is passionate about early stage investment, is based in Paris.

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TALES FROM THE ROAD

Biotech & Medtech CEOs Speak About Their Fundraising Journey

TALES FROM THE ROAD

Biotech & Medtech CEOs Speak About Their Fundraising Journey

The industry has quickly adapted to a “new normal” – entrepreneurs and investors meet virtually over digital platforms to discuss potential investment opportunities, and it is not uncommon to see entrepreneurs raise capital from investors they have never met before in person. That said, there is no doubt that the fundraising journey continues to be challenging for many. In this panel, you will be able to hear fellow entrepreneurs share their experiences, from successes to challenges.

This panel will discuss the following topics and more:

What are some of the greatest challenges entrepreneurs have faced especially during the pandemic, and how were they overcome?
How did entrepreneurs identify investors that fit their technology?
What are some misconceptions entrepreneurs had about the early-stage investment landscape?

Furthermore, entrepreneurs will share unique tips and insights they have gained from their fundraising experiences, and how others can work their way towards a more successful campaign.

Richard Austin, Co-founder and CEO, Reglagene

Dr. Richard Austin is a co-founder and the CEO of Reglagene, an oncology therapeutics discovery and development company. Richard is guiding Reglagene’s effort to develop Precision Chemotherapy, cancer medicines that selectively induce DNA damage in cancer cells without the toxicity associated with DNA damage inducement in healthy cells. He is a pharmaceutical industry veteran with 25 years’ experience in product discovery and development ranging from the laboratory bench to R&D management. He holds an Organic Chemistry PhD (University of Texas), an MBA in Pharmaceutical Management (Drexel University, and completed postdoctoral training in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. Richard is an angel investor with Tucson’s Desert Angels and a commercialization partner with the University of Arizona’s technology transfer office.

Heather Callender-Potters, Co-Founder, Vice-Chairman and Chief Advocacy and Shareholder Relations Officer, PharmaJet

Heather Callender-Potters is Co-Founder, Vice-Chairman and Chief Advocacy and Shareholder Relations Officer of PharmaJet, a needle-free jet injection technology focused on immunizations. Having spent more than a decade to develop the company’s technology, including clinical testing, regulatory achievements, and commercial scaling for wide-spread use of the technology, PharmaJet currently enjoys 60 collaboration relationships across 140 distinct vaccine and therapeutic development programs. Partners span the globe, and include pharmaceutical companies, governments, universities, and NGO’s.

The original vision of focusing on immunization to help improve people’s lives and contribute to world health through the elimination of needle-based risks and inefficiencies, PharmaJet is the first and only WHO prequalified needle-free technology, among numerous other regulatory approvals (FDA, CE Mark, and multiple countries). PharmaJet also uniquely plays a role in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, where clinical studies conducted by the World Health Organization have proven that its intradermal technology generates a superior immune response using 60% less vaccine. During the past year of the pandemic, PharmaJet has established several COVID vaccine collaborations, and currently is scaling its manufacturing to support the Zydus Cadila Plasmid DNA vaccine candidate in India.

Underlying Heather’s involvement with PharmaJet, she has ~30 years of Private Equity fund management and international investment experience across multiple jurisdictions. Her investment career started in 1991 when she moved to Poland as part of the Enterprise Fund concept championed by President Bush, Sr. Over time, she spent 19 years investing three funds, covering Central and Eastern Europe, and managing individual investments and financial investor consortiums, in early stage and growth companies, ranging from $1 million to an excess of $100 million, in a variety of industries. She returned to the US in 2010 to focus on PharmaJet’s development, she has continued as an active board member and/or angel investor in certain other companies with the ability to make a profound impact in health. Underlying her practical experience, she has a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Management from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from Wharton, the University of Pennsylvania.

Kasper Roet, CEO, Quralis

Dr. Kasper Roet is a passionate neuroscientist and entrepreneur who graduated with honors from his neuroscience master’s program at the University of Amsterdam during which he did an internship in the neural repair lab of Mark Tuszynski at UCSD and started an IT-company called Netfase. Kasper received his PhD at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and the Free University of Amsterdam in the lab of Joost Verhaagen focused on finding a treatment for spinal cord paralysis. Realizing the value of patient materials for curing diseases of the nervous system he worked for 5 years at the Netherlands Brain Bank as an adhoc autopsy team coordinator during his PhD program. To learn how to bring discoveries from bench to bedside he worked as a potency assay development team leader and technical integrator for Johnson and Johnson on a new vaccine for the paralyzing and highly contagious polio virus. Seeing the incredible discoveries stem cell modeling and gene discoveries in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Kasper realized that with his background in paralysis, nervous system diseases and assay development he could make a real impact for ALS patients. He decided to move to Boston with his wife and work with two world leaders in stem cell disease modeling for ALS, Harvard professors Clifford Woolf and Kevin Eggan where he developed several high throughput technologies for drug screening in ALS together with industry partners GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer pharmaceuticals. These technologies and the discoveries at Harvard and the Boston Children’s Hospital will now be more meaningful in an industrial environment to bring new therapies to ALS patients. Therefore, together with Clifford Woolf and Kevin Eggan and Q-State Biosciences, a company that creates human patient specific models of disease that can be used in drug discovery for diseases of the nervous system, Kasper has founded QurAlis, a company focused on curing ALS, of which he is also the CEO.

Nan-Wei Gong, CEO, FIGUR8

Dr. Nan-Wei Gong is an innovator, researcher and serial entrepreneur. She is currently the CEO of FIGUR8 Inc – the industry leader in transforming musculoskeletal (MSK) care with objective data and AI-driven biomarkers. Her work has been recognized by major news outlets such as the WSJ, Forbes, and INC.

In the past, she was on the award-winning founding team of 3dim Tech, gestural control for mobile devices (acquired in 2014); founder and managing partner of Circular2, an engineering consulting firm specializing in rapidly transforming ideas into production-ready products. Her clients include top universities, MIT and Harvard, as well as, Fortune 50 companies such as Google and Samsung. She was assigned as the R&D lead of Project Jacquard at Google ATAP from 2014-2017. She received a Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab in 2013. As an innovator driven by rigorous scientific and engineering training, she has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers, won two best paper awards at ACM CHI, and filed and granted over 10 US patents to date.

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MEDICAL DEVICE INVESTORS

Investing in Novel Engineering

MEDICAL DEVICE INVESTORS

Investing in Novel Engineering

Investing in medical devices has become more complex with time. While standard medical devices are still a mainstay, there are an increasing amount of combination devices, software-enabled devices and diagnostic devices that require investors to have expertise in multiple sectors. Panelists may discuss topics such as:

The benefits vs. risks of devices that cross sectors
Regulatory challenges
Amount/type of data they want to see before investing

Panelists will discuss how to meet the challenges of raising financing for a new device and advise startups on how to make the investment case for their novel technology. Panelists will also explore what technology areas are of top interest to them and how a startup can make themselves stand out in the crowd.

Diana Saraceni, Founder, Managing Director, Panakes Partners (Moderator)

Founder of Panakes, Diana has over 20 years of international experience in managing Venture Capital investment funds, through which she invested in over 60 start-ups across Europe. After several years of experience in the strategic consultancy sector at A.T. Kearney, Diana worked as Senior Advisor in the Investment Banking division of Lazard. In 2001 she co-founded 360 Capital Partners, a leading pan-European Venture Capital firm. She is a member of several national and international committees (EU and US) for the selection and promotion of innovative start-ups. She has also co-founded and chaired the International Venture Club, an association that brings together the main European venture capital firms. She is frequently involved as Scientific Advisor to Life Sciences conferences and acting in or chairing juries for the allocation of public funds at Italian, European and US level (i.e. Premio Marzotto, Life Star Awards, EIC H2020 and National Cancer Institute-SBIR initiative).

Janelle Goulard, Partner, Investment, Pangaea Ventures

Janelle has over 12 years of healthcare experience, she has a background in private investments, scaling ventures and management consulting. As partner at Pangaea, with a focus on healthcare investment, Janelle brings her expertise in entrepreneurial endeavours (including launching a population health technology platform; becoming a joint venture with Microsoft and GE), her extensive network in private capital, public and private healthcare sectors. Janelle spent most of her career at GE Healthcare collaborating with global teams across Europe and US.

Oliver Keown, Director, Intuitive Ventures, Intuitive Surgical

Oliver joined Intuitive Ventures in 2019 and leads investment efforts with a focus on identifying future leaders of minimally invasive care, including early stage startups across digital, medical device, therapeutic, and diagnostic domains.

Prior to Intuitive Ventures, Oliver was a healthcare investor with GE Ventures, driving international-startup deal flow and supporting numerous portfolio companies operationally and at the board level. He also spent a number of years advising an array of UK, US, and global healthcare innovation projects across technology, government, commercial, and academic fields. He started his career as a junior doctor and policy advisor in the UK National Health Service and remains dedicated to bringing new technologies, diverse partnerships, and investment to address healthcare‘s biggest unmet needs.

Oliver holds an MD and BSc in pharmacology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He is a widely published author in the fields of healthcare and surgical innovation, and is an advisory board member of the Newsom administration‘s California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine.

Martin Pfister, Senior Investment Manager: Life Sciences, High-Tech Gründerfonds

Dr. Martin Pfister joined the High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) Medtech/LifeSciences team in Bonn in 2010. HTGF is the largest Seedfonds in Europe with about 900 Mio EUR under management and an active portfolio of about 260 technology-based portfolio companies, about 95 of which are in life sciences. studied a combination of Medicine and Pharmacy in Germany and New York University, Medical School with a PhD in Immunology Started his career in the hospital/laboratory moved to the start-up life sciences world 18 years ago. co-founded two companies in the molecular Dx field (VC backed, Exit) and healthcare services (privately owned, Exit 2018) @ HTGF manages a portfolio of 13 life science companies including Biotech, Medtech and digital health holds board member seat in 4 companies including clinical stage Biotech.

Lu Zhang, Founder & Managing Partner, Fusion Fund

Lu Zhang is the Founding and Managing Partner of Fusion Fund. Lu is a World Economic Forum – Young Global Leader (Class of 2018). She has also garnered other accolades including the Featured Honoree in VC of Forbes 30 Under 30 (2017), Silicon Valley Women of Influence (2018), Town & Country 50 Modern Swans – Entrepreneurship Influencer (2017), and Top 10 All America Chinese Youth (2018). Prior to starting Fusion Fund, she was the Founder and CEO of a medical device company focused on non-invasive technology for the early diagnosis of Type II diabetes (acq 2012). Lu is a frequent speaker at tech events and conferences and also serves as a mentor and advisor to several tech innovation programs in Silicon Valley. Lu is the board member of the Youth Council of Future Forum and Future Science Award. She received her MS in Materials Science and Engineering from Stanford University.

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MENTAL & BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Investing in Technologies that Help Manage Well-Being

MENTAL & BEHAVIORAL HEALTH

Investing in Technologies that Help Manage Well-Being

With COVID having affected the lives of many across the globe, triggering feelings of fear, stress, uncertainty, and more, the importance of technologies that address mental & behavioral health disorders continues to be recognized by many. Despite the number of people affected by mental & behavioral disorders, this continues to be a stigmatized area and patients easily find themselves lacking the resources and support they need.

This panel will discuss the following topics and more:

Why is investing in mental & behavioral health so important?
Has COVID changed investors’ perspectives on mental & behavioral health in any way?
What are the biggest problems in the current mental & behavioral health landscape (i.e. collecting and consolidating patient data, access to care, identifying appropriate interventions for each disease, etc.)
How can the industry continue to reduce the stigma associated with mental & behavioral disorders?

Panelists will highlight the representation of mental & behavioral health within the industry through various investor types, including hospital and healthcare systems. Panelists will discuss how to meet the challenges of raising financing for a highly stigmatized—though prevalent—area and advise startups on how to make the investment case for their novel technology. Panelists will explore what trends in mental & behavioral health are of top interest, its future outlook, and global impact.

Robert Garber, Partner, 7wire Ventures (Moderator)

Robert is currently a Partner at 7wireVentures, where he focuses on investments in digital healthcare and technology-enabled services that empower consumers to be better stewards of their health in today’s changing healthcare ecosystem.

Robert has over 25 years of experience investing in, advising, and operating early-stage healthcare and technology companies and has co-managed three venture funds with $200+ AUM. Before joining 7wireVentures, Robert served as Managing Director of Stratus Ventures and KB Partners where he led investments in early-stage healthcare and technology companies.

Previously, Robert served as Director of Corporate Development for FastWeb.com, a Web-based direct marketing company now owned by Monster, Inc. (Nasdaq: MNST). He joined FastWEB.com after serving as Director of Application Consulting for TechLaw Automation Partners, a technology consultancy focused exclusively on the legal industry. Robert was recruited to TechLaw Automation Partners from Gnossos Software, a software developer of applications for the public affairs, academic, and non-profit markets, where he was a key member of the development team.

Robert received a Master of Business Administration degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Payal Divakaran, Partner, .406 Ventures

Payal is a Partner at .406 Ventures, where she co-leads the digital health investing practice. .406 Ventures is a Boston-based venture capital firm with ~$1B under management. The firm invests in enterprise-oriented startups in sectors including digital health, cybersecurity, and data & cloud. Payal’s portfolio includes AristaMD, Axial Healthcare, Better Life Partners, Equip, Heartbeat Health, Nomad Health, Redox, WelbeHealth, Wellist, and Virtudent.

Payal joined .406 after her time at Harvard Business School, where she co-founded a company called SpotRocket to help students discover high potential startups to work for. Prior to her entrepreneurial stint and also while in business school, Payal spent time in Corporate Development at Eventbrite.

Prior to HBS, Payal was an Associate at Spectrum Equity, a technology growth equity investor in Boston. She sourced and executed on deals in the software, information services, data/analytics, security, and internet spaces. Payal started her career pursuing technology investment banking at J.P. Morgan in NYC.

Payal received her MBA, with Distinction, from Harvard Business School and her BS in Electrical Engineering and minor in Management from MIT. She is a Boston native, and she and her husband, who is a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and two kids live in Brookline.

Pankaj Jethwani, Executive Vice President, W Health Ventures

Over the last ten years, Dr. Jethwani has been involved in improving care delivery in several care settings in the US and India as a physician leader, operator, management consultant, and investor.

Dr. Jethwani started his career as a Primary Care Physician in Mumbai, India. Through this experience, he witnessed first-hand the gaps in health care delivery in both the public and private sectors. Motivated to bring about reform in this system, he joined The Boston Consulting Group in India where he helped shape BCG’s work with Government agencies to improve delivery of healthcare at scale. He later co-founded The Breakfast Revolution (TBR), a social enterprise fighting the malnutrition epidemic in India. TBR has served 220,000+ children over 20 million fortified meals.

More recently, Pankaj worked at Iora Health, a Boston-based innovative primary care company that serves seniors on Medicare. This experience helped shape his perspective on building and scaling a technology-enabled value-based care organization, taking global risk, and creating a delightful model of care for patients and providers. At W Health Ventures, Dr. Jethwani leads investments in disruptive technology-enabled healthcare services companies in the US and India.

Pankaj holds an MBBS (MD-equivalent) degree from MUHS (India) and received an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Steve Lebowitz, Senior Managing Director, HCN Ventures

Steve was part of the initial team that helped launch HCN Ventures in 2020 and has been responsible for sourcing opportunities as well as setting the strategic direction of the platform. He joined Health Care Navigator (“HCN”) in 2016 as Senior Managing Director with responsibilities for sourcing and leading investment opportunities in their core healthcare business as well as participate in the overall strategic direction of HCN portfolio companies. Prior to joining HCN, Mr. Lebowitz was a Managing Director with Barrow Street Capital LLC a sponsor of opportunistic real estate private equity funds. Mr. Lebowitz was responsible for acquisitions and asset management of firm’s complex opportunistic investments with a capitalization in excess of $2.5 billion. Prior to Barrow Street, Mr. Lebowitz served as a senior accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He earned a B.S. in Accounting from Binghamton University.

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Entrepreneur Workshops

Fundraising BootCamp

Fundraising Boot Camp Workshop

Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Creator of RESI Conference Series, Life Science Nation

Dennis Ford is an entrepreneur and author with expertise in sales, marketing, and business development. He has spent most of his career finding, vetting and launching a myriad of technology-based companies. Over the last decade, he has worked extensively with global alternative investors and is deeply interested in getting funding for high-growth early-stage technologies. He is a big proponent of using profiling and matching technology to find that all-important business fit in the marketing and selling process. In today’s context Dennis can connect early stage life science companies with 10 categories of global partners thus making the finding of capital and distribution channels very efficient.

Dennis created the Redefining Early Stage Investments conference series to facilitate an interactive ongoing dialog between buyers and sellers in the life science arena. Before LSN, Dennis was the President and CEO of a company that improved the way hedge fund and private equity fund managers raised capital and marketed their funds to investors.

Ford is the author of The Peddler’s Prerogative and The Life Science Executive’s Fundraising Manifesto, two well-received sales and marketing books.

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Negotiating Term Sheets

Negotiating Term Sheets: What’s Best for the Company and What’s Best for You?

This interactive workshop, organized and led by McDermott Will & Emery, will provide wisdom to early-stage CEOs and management on the latest trends in term sheets, with a focus on founder and management equity opportunities. The workshop will cover common issues of concern to entrepreneurs (valuation/dilution, liquidation preference, board makeup, protective provisions, anti-dilution). Experts from the legal, investment and entrepreneurial community will discuss the interplay of financing milestones in the term sheet discussion.

David Hendren, Managing Director, Augmentum Ventures

David Hendren has extensive experience launching, financing, and building successful ventures from incubation to exit, with particular expertise in healthcare, biomedical technology, digital health, and related technology and service areas. He has deep knowledge and broad perspective from 25+ years in leadership roles on virtually all sides of the table, including VC, entrepreneur, CEO, board member/chair, advisor, consultant, and counsel. David has led, co-invested and executed deals with leading firms and strategics, with exits including IPO, M&A, and technology licensing transactions. In operating, board, and advisory roles, David has been central to identifying opportunity, building teams, formulating strategy, securing capital, developing business and strategic alliances, and driving successful exits to harvest value for stakeholders.

Mark Mihanovic, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery

Mark J. Mihanovic, head of the Firm’s California Corporate group and head of the Emerging Companies/Venture Capital group, focuses his practice primarily in the areas of corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions. He represents companies in a broad range of industries, with a particular emphasis on technology, life science and health care companies. Mark serves as corporate liaison partner in the Firm’s strategic alliance with MWE China Law Offices based in Shanghai. Mark serves as lead counsel on behalf of issuers and underwriters in public offerings and private placements (including private investments in public equities (PIPEs)) of equity and debt securities. He handles stock and asset acquisitions, divestitures, mergers, proxy fights and joint ventures and has had primary oversight responsibility for the regional and worldwide acquisition programs of multiple clients. Mark represents early-stage companies in connection with formation and organizational issues and venture capital and other financings and has also represented investors in complex venture capital transactions involving equity and debt. Mark has substantial experience advising corporate boards of directors and management regarding fiduciary duties (including in connection with potential change in control transactions and consideration of “poison pill” stockholders rights plans) and corporate governance issues. He assists publicly traded companies with their Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other securities compliance matters. He also advises investment banks on securities compliance issues and in acting as financial adviser and delivering fairness opinions in the context of acquisitions and restructurings.

Brian M. Gordon, Partner, McDermott Will & Emery – Atlanta

Brian M. Gordon represents venture-backed technology companies in acquisitions, financing transactions, the negotiation of credit facilities, corporate governance, employment and equity compensation matters and the resolution of day-to-day legal issues.

Brian also has significant experience representing private equity funds in the acquisitions and disposition of portfolio companies, in both control and non-control transactions. He counsels strategic buyers and sellers in M&A transactions. He also represents restaurants and retail groups in private equity and acquisition transactions.

Nancy Briefs, President & CEO, AltrixBio, Inc.

Strategic business leader with extensive experience creating value, driving strategy and launching product commercialization in diverse life science companies. Deep general management and fundraising expertise having raised over $500 M in equity including IPO. Innovative, collaborative and entrepreneurial, strong communicator and tenacious. Energized by turning innovation into commercial reality, working with creative scientists, and communicating value to partners and investors.

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UCSF Innovation Ventures and Entrepreneurship Program

UCSF’s Innovation Ventures is the group that helps translate UCSF innovation from the lab to the market. It includes Tech Transfer, Partnering/Strategic Alliances, two internal funds to de-risk science for a startup or licensing, and an Entrepreneurship Program that has facilitated the start of 40 companies raising $750MM in 5 years. The Entrepreneurship Program is offering a global online course, Entrepreneurship for Life Science/Healthcare: Master Class Direct from Silicon Valley, that in one year generated over 200 alumni from 13 countries and 4 continents. Hear about this important effort at UCSF and the global class.

Stephanie Marrus, Managing Director, Entrepreneurship, UCSF Innovation Ventures

Stephanie Marrus is Managing Director, Entrepreneurship, UCSF Innovation Ventures. She has facilitated the start of numerous companies based on UCSF science and medicine. She is a key node in the Silicon Valley entrepreneurship ecosystem and has built industry relationships with investors, serial entrepreneurs, accelerators, founders, attorneys, consultants that benefit UCSF startups. She currently heads an open program that delivers online life science/healthcare entrepreneurship training globally.

She has been affiliated with entrepreneurship programs at UC Berkeley and Stanford, has presented on five continents and works with the US State Department.

Prior to joining UCSF, she held C-Suite business roles in biotechnology companies. She has been CEO, COO and VP Corporate Development for public and private firms, led partnering and M&A transactions, headed Corporate Development, Strategy, Marketing, Communications and Investor Relations.

She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MA from Columbia University.

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Beyond Banking: Finding the Right Financial Partner for You

When your startup firm gains traction, you will inevitably need a bank that can add value and understand your distinct early-stage entrepreneurial needs. There are an array of financial institutions that have programs in the life science market to aid and guide early-stage entrepreneurs to set up the right financial packages. First Republic Bank is a leader in the early-stage life science market with decades of experience and dedicated teams that provide support to scientist entrepreneurs. In this fireside chat, we discuss the programs and services available for startups and how to engage and take advantage of the FRB offerings to help your business grow.

Nishta Rao, Managing Director, Life Science, First Republic Bank
Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Creator of RESI Conference Series, Life Science Nation

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How to Evaluate Your Banking Partner Workshop

Life Science companies need more from a bank than just accounts and transactions. The right banking partner brings a mix of excellent service, industry expertise, and the ability to help companies grow. Join Nishta Rao of First Republic Bank to hear what companies should be looking for in a sound banking partner.

Nishta Rao, Managing Director, Life Science, First Republic Bank

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Roundtable Discussion

Over the last several years, a record number of exciting life sciences start-ups have come online. Most of these start-up companies need scientific instrumentation to support their research. But when funds are limited, how can these companies get the instrumentation needed to hit their growth milestones?

Workshop will kick-off with an overview of the leasing market for start-ups. Expert panel will share their own experiences going through the leasing process and offer valuable lessons learned.

This workshop is valuable for start-up companies…

That rely on scientific instrumentation
That are pre-revenue and have limited funds to purchase instrumentation
For whom traditional financing is not available
That prefer debt financing to diluting equity

Topics include, but are not limited to:

An overview of the leasing/financing market for scientific start-ups
Hear from a biotech start-up, a capital investor of start-ups, and a leasing company that specializes in life sciences start-ups
Typical deal structure and approval process for start-ups

Chad Kobold, Director of Business Development, Bold View Capital

Chad has over 25 years of experience in the financial industry. For the last 6 he has facilitated leasing transactions of scientific instrumentation for Bold View Capital. Chad has a unique understanding of start-ups, financing and science.

Darren Platt, President, Demetrix

In addition to his strategic role as President, Darren is responsible for building our automation, computing and data platform. Prior to his work at Demetrix, he was VP of R&D at Amyris, Director of Research at 23andMe, Head of Bioinformatics at the Joint Genome Institute and Director of Bioinformatics at Exelixis. Darren received his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia and did postdoctoral research at the Sanger Institute in Cambridge.

Bryan Leavitt, Managing Partner, Fountainhead Investment Partners

Fountainhead Investment Partners is a venture capital and private equity firm based in San Antonio, Texas. Founded by Brian Kieser in 2014, the firm focuses on investment opportunities in the medical devices, biologics, building and construction, manufacturing, industrial, and environmental industries. Our team brings considerable strategic and operational experiences into each company partnership along with our commitment to work together throughout the investment horizon.

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Why U.S biotechs are coming to Australia

Avance Clinical Workshop - Why U.S biotechs are coming to Australia and how they are saving up to a year in regulatory timelines and considerable costs.

Learn how U.S. biotechs expedite their early phase clinical research program. With no IND required to start your clinical program in Australia, biotechs are able to save up to a year in regulatory timelines and considerable costs.

Avance Clinical and Australia tick all the boxes for early phase trials:

Plus up to 43.5% cash rebate on clinical trial spend.
Our clients are currently experiencing a 3-week IRB/EC turnaround due to the supportive regulatory and clinical environment, and Avance Clinical’s experience
Avance Clinical data is accepted by all the major regulatory authorities including the FDA and EMA.
With almost 50% of adults vaccinated, Australia has prioritized clinical research as an essential service which supports Avance Clinical’s biotech clients, clinical sites, and patients seeking access to therapies.

Yvonne Lungershausen, CEO, Avance Clinical

Yvonne began her career in academic “bench” research with Adelaide University and CSIRO. Yvonne then moved into clinical trials research at a dedicated Phase I unit where she was one of the first in Australia to test a new chemical entity in healthy volunteers, giving rise to what is now a strong Phase 1 sector in Australia. Yvonne also spent time in the biotech world as Clinical Development Manager then moved into senior Contract Research Organisation (CRO) roles. With 25+ years of clinical trial experience gained across most therapeutic areas, Yvonne brings a deep understanding of all phases of the drug development process. With a passion for exceeding client expectations, Yvonne is highly regarded within the industry for her expertise and ability to solve complex clinical trial issues.

In 2009 Yvonne Lungershausen became a Founding Member of CPR Pharma Services (CPR) as it spun out from the University of South Australia. As a key member of the CPR Senior Management Team she was responsible for the clinical operations side of the business. In January 2019, CPR Pharma Services split into two separate service companies, analytical services (Agilex Biolabs) and clinical services (Avance Clinical). Yvonne was appointed as CEO of Avance Clinical and has since rapidly built the company into Australia’s leading CRO for biotechs – attracting innovative biotech clients from USA, EU and Asia and winning awards for quality and service.

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Company Valuation for Fundraising

Valuation is a key aspect of fundraising. An average value assumption for each company in a specific financing stage just does not do it anymore. For entrepreneurs, as for investors, its important to understand the value drivers of a company. We are looking at the financing trends of the last years, discuss dos and don’ts when speaking with investors and look at how to value a life science company with no revenues.

Agenda:

Overview financing trends
Which is the right investor
Dos and don’ts
Company valuation approaches
Conclusion

Patrik Frei, Founder & CEO, Venture Valuation AG, Switzerland

Dr. Patrik Frei is founder and CEO of Venture Valuation AG, Switzerland. He started the company in 1999 when he noticed a need for independent valuation services in high growth industries during a collaboration with Novartis Venture Fund, which became his first client. Since then he has been involved in over 450 valuations for investors as well as biotech, Pharma and medtech companies. Patrik graduated from the Business University of St. Gallen and completed his PhD thesis (”Assessment and valuation of high growth companies”) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL Lausanne. Patrik was a board member and one of the original founders of Ineo, a holding company of the Swiss dental implant VC-backed firm Thommen Medical and also the Chairman of Ophthalmopharma, a Swiss based biotech ophthalmology company, where he successfully out-licensed a portfolio of 4 products. Furthermore, Patrik was member of the board of Aventron AG (AVEN:Berne) a publicly quoted cleantech company, which raised over USD 160m during his time as board member. Patrik’s articles have been published in a number of scientific journals including “Nature Biotechnology”, “Chimia” and other business publications (“Starting a Business in the Life Sciences: From Idea to Market” and “Building Biotechnology: Starting, Managing, and Understanding Biotechnology Companies”). He has also lectured at Seoul National University, South Korea, EPFL Lausanne, University of St. Gallen and gives regular workshops on valuation.

Gergely Ivanyi, PharmD, Business Analyst, Venture Valuation

Gergely holds a PharmD degree from Semmelweis University (Budapest, Hungary) and an MSc in Bioentrepreneurship degree from Karolinska Institutet (Stockholm, Sweden). He worked over two years in business operations at startups in Sweden and Germany, and at a pharmaceutical distributor in Hungary. Before joining Venture Valuation, Gergely interned at a Swedish mutual fund, where he acquired the Investment Foundations certification by the CFA Institute and supported portfolio managers in the assessment of investment opportunities. Pursuing his interest in analyzing innovative life science companies, Gergely joined Venture Valuation in February 2020 as a Business Analyst. His primary responsibilities are: working on the global Biotechgate database, creating industry trend reports and financing deal summaries, as well as working on valuation projects.