About the Advisory Committee
Fred Craves, Ph.D.; Bay City Capital
Fred Craves, Ph.D., is an Investment Partner, Managing Director and Founder of Bay City Capital, and serves as a member of the board of directors and Chairman of the executive committee. Before founding Bay City Capital, he spent over 20 years leading and managing biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Previously, he was Executive Vice President of Schering Berlin and Chief Executive Officer and President of Berlex Biosciences, a research, development, and manufacturing organization. He founded Burrill & Craves, a merchant bank focused on biotechnology and emerging pharmaceutical companies. He was also the founding Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Codon, and co-founder of Creative Biomolecules. Dr. Craves is a member of the boards of directors of Poniard Pharmaceuticals and VIA Pharmaceuticals. He also serves as a member of The J. David Gladstone Institutes' Advisory Council and is a member of the Board of Trustees of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Dr. Craves earned a BS in Biology from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Toxicology from the University of California, San Francisco.
James Healy, M.D., Ph.D.; Sofinnova Ventures
James Healy, M.D., Ph.D. has served as a member of the Board since April 1999 and served as the interim Chairman of the Board from October 1999 through January 2000. Dr. Healy joined Sofinnova Ventures in June 2000 as a general partner and managing director. From January 1998 through March 2000, Dr. Healy was a partner at Sanderling Ventures. During 1997, Dr. Healy was supported by a Novartis Foundation bursary award and performed research at Brigham and Women's Hospital. From 1990 to 1997, Dr. Healy was employed by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University. Dr. Healy serves on the board of directors of several private companies. Dr. Healy holds a B.A. in molecular biology and a B.A. in Scandinavian studies, both from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Healy holds an M.D. and a Ph.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Stephen J. Hoffman, M.D., Ph.D.; Skyline Ventures
Steve joined Skyline in May 2007, based in Boston. Prior to joining Skyline, he was a General Partner of TVM Capital. Steve was the founding President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Allos Therapeutics (NASDAQ: ALTH), Inc. where he is currently Chairman. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in chemistry and his M.D. from the University of Colorado. Dr. Hoffman completed a fellowship in clinical oncology and a residency and immunodermatology fellowship in dermatology, all at the University of Colorado. Steve is also a director of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Regarding our national pastime, he thinks the designated hitter is an abomination; still, he roots for the Red Sox but his son is a Yankee fan.
Ronald W. Lennox, D. Phil.; CHL Medical Partners
Ron is a founding partner at CHL Medical Partners. Prior to joining CHL Medical Partners in 1997, Ron was a general partner at Hancock Venture Partners (now HarbourVest Partners) where he invested in sixteen healthcare companies, eleven of which went public.
Ron currently serves on the boards of BioRelix, Inc. and BIKAM, Inc. Ron has served on the boards of 16 companies including General Surgical Innovations, Inc., (acquired by Tyco International Corp.), GeneOhm Sciences, Inc. (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and Protometrix, Inc., (acquired by Invitrogen Corp.). He was founding CEO of Protometrix, Inc. as well as CGI Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and was formerly Chairman of the Board of Amicus Therapeutics, Inc.
Scott M. Rocklage, Ph.D.; 5AM Partners
Scott M. Rocklage, Ph.D. joined 5AM Ventures in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a Managing Partner in 2004. Dr. Rocklage has over 20 years of healthcare management experience with strategic leadership responsibilities that have led to the successful approval of three U.S. New Drug Applications by the FDA (Omniscan™, Teslascan® and Cubicin®), and entered six drug candidates into clinical trials. Dr. Rocklage has served as Chairman and CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, President and CEO of Nycomed Salutar, President, CEO and Chairman of Nycomed Interventional and has also held various R&D positions at Salutar and Catalytica. Dr. Rocklage currently serves as Board Chairman of Achaogen, Relypsa and Semprus as well as on the Boards of WaveRx, Pulmatrix and Variation and the Board of Associates at the Whitehead Institute. Dr. Rocklage was formerly Executive Chairman of Ilypsa (acquired by Amgen) and Miikana (acquired by EntreMed). Dr. Rocklage received his B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Rocklage is based in the Waltham, MA office.
David Schnell, M.D.; Prospect Venture Partners
David is a Managing Director of Prospect Venture Partners. David co-founded Prospect Venture Partners I, II, and III as dedicated life science funds with over $1 billion under management. David has been actively involved in the formation and growth of numerous successful biomedical and health care companies. He has lead investments and served on the Board of Directors of Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, Healtheon (NASDAQ: HLTH), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Lux Biosciences, Microcide Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MCDE), Neurocrine Biosciences (NASDAQ: NBIX), NGM Biopharmaceuticals, Nora Therapeutics, Rinat Neuroscience (NYSE: PFE acquired), Senomyx (NASDAQ:SNMX), Trubion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TRBN) as well as several other privately held companies.
Prior to founding Prospect, David was a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) where he focused on biomedical product and health care information technology investments from 1993-1997. Prior to KPCB, David spent seven years at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (presently Novartis) in executive management positions in product marketing, strategic operations and business development in the US and Switzerland. In addition to his operating roles at Sandoz, David managed the company's global venture capital investing activities in affiliation with Avalon Medical Partners from 1992-1993. While at KPCB, David co-founded and served as the CEO of Healtheon Corporation (NASDAQ:HLTH), a pioneering health care transaction company that subsequently merged with WebMD in a $6 billion transaction.
David is also a Principal Partner in the San Francisco Giants, and Manager of Schnell Baseball LLC, a limited partner in SFBA, LP. David received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an M.A. in Health Services Research from Stanford University School of Medicine, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.
Michael Wasserman, Ph.D.; H.I.G. Ventures
Michael focuses on investments in therapeutics and medical devices and currently serves as a director or board observer for H.I.G. portfolio companies: HyperBranch Medical Technology, Clarus Therapeutics, Tranzyme Pharma, and CardioFocus.
Prior to joining H.I.G., Michael was a Principal at Innovations Foundation, focused on the creation, financing and development of high technology companies in the life sciences, information technology and engineering sectors. At Innovations Foundation, Michael was instrumental in building multiple high growth companies derived from academic or federally sponsored research programs. Michael has also held prominent operating roles in several entrepreneurial and venture-backed life sciences efforts. Michael was a founder and Vice President, Business Development at CELLutions Biosystems (acquired by Cedarlane Laboratories), where he broadly managed business operations and was directly responsible for the successful negotiation of partnership, co-development and licensing agreements with industry leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology organizations. Michael also has extensive clinical research experience. As Director of Research at Advanced Therapeutics, Michael was involved in a series of seminal clinical studies involving biological approaches to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune and inflammatory disorders. Earlier in his career, Michael worked directly for, or as a consultant to, several early stage life sciences businesses, and in the corporate finance, pharmaceutical and clinical research industries.
Michael received his B.Sc. from McGill University and his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto.