Melissa M. Fitzgerald, Ph.D. is a Senior Director, Global Scouting-San Diego for Pfizer’s External Research & Development Innovation (ERDI) group. In this role, Melissa leads scouting efforts in the Southwest region of North America, and helps expand and manage partnerships with key academic institutes and start-up companies in areas of scientific interest to Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development and the Pfizer Emerging Science Fund.

Melissa brings to ERDI’s Global Scouting team her enthusiasm for promoting innovation, gained through fifteen years of research and corporate development experience in the San Diego Life Sciences eco-system. Following her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University, Melissa was a post-doc in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. She then held positions of increasing responsibility at Dura Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Elan Pharmaceuticals), Derm Tech International, and UC San Diego’s Technology Transfer office. From 2004-2008, Melissa was an Associate Director-Business Development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, where she led the search and evaluation team for early stage technologies, and completed a number of acquisitions, licenses and collaboration agreements. In 2009, Melissa returned to UC San Diego to help found and launch UC San Diego’s new Institute for Genomic Medicine, and then moved to the UCSD Technology Transfer Office for a second term prior to joining Pfizer in 2011.

Greg is trained as a chemist and chemical engineer focused on applied research across chemical, material and biological sciences. He has hands-on experience in sales, marketing and business development with start-ups and global corporations. His entrepreneurial ventures involved bioinformatics, medical devices and therapeutics in dermatology, endocrinology, pulmonology and rheumatology.  He joined Sanofi in 2010 in San Diego.  In his current role he sources & facilitates partnerships with external innovators on the US West Coast for Sanofi and Genzyme.

Steve has been with Merck & Co., Inc. for the past 10 years.  He received his Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Wisconsin and continued his post-doctoral training at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.  Most recently Steve joined Merck's External Scientific Affairs department as a Scientific Liaison supporting the West Coast (Bay Area and Pacific Northwest) activities.  In this role, he acts on behalf of Merck to identify new collaboration, licensing, product acquisition/co-development, and strategic alliance opportunities in his geographic area.

Neil is responsible for search and evaluation of pharmaceutical products and platforms as well as the support of various strategic initiatives on the West Coast.  Prior to joining GSK, he was head of business development at Cadence Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Mallinckrodt) and helped found two biotech companies, including Mpex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Aptalis).

Stephanie joined the New Ventures team at J&J’s California Innovation Center in 2014. She brings expertise in drug discovery and early clinical development, as well as business development and alliance management.

Previously, Stephanie was at the University of California, San Francisco UCSF where she led business development efforts for the campus and built and led a one of the first formal alliance management teams found in an academic setting. Prior to this, Stephanie was Program Director for the UCSF Sandler Center for Drug Discovery and also helped in the establishment and oversight of the UCSF Grand Multiple Myeloma Translational Initiative (GMMTI). Prior to joining UCSF, Dr. Robertson worked for over a decade at Exelixis, Inc. During her tenure at Exelixis the company grew from early start-up to over 700 employees. She grew from leading a computational biology team to serving as scientific project leader for drug discovery programs in cancer, cardiovascular disease and metabolism, project manager for early oncology clinical programs and leading alliance management for several programmatic collaborations with large pharma.

She earned an undergraduate degree in chemistry (Honors) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

As Head of Company Sourcing for JLabs, Kara leads the company recruitment and selection process for JLabs including JLabs San Diego, JLabs @QB3 in San Francisco and JLabs @LabCentral in Cambridge/Boston. In this role, Kara is actively building a pipeline of prospects and driving licensee companies through diligence, selection, and joining JLabs. Kara coordinates opportunities to grow relationships between JLabs companies and Johnson & Johnson Innovation and other potential strategic partners.

Kara joins JLabs through Prescience International, where she was Director of Corporate Ventures, primarily focusing on JLabs. She has over 10 years experience in the European and the U.S. biotech sector. Prior to joining Prescience, Kara led the scientific communications and marketing for Belgian-based Galapagos NV at a period when the company grew from 60 to over 800 employees and completed its initial public offering on Euronext. She holds a BS in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Texas.

Christoph Pittius is Head of Transactions, AstraZeneca Business Development, and is based in Mölndal, Sweden. He and his team focus on negotiating global strategic in- and out-licensing deals of clinical-stage and on-the-market product opportunities as well as M&A in AstraZeneca’s core indications of interest. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2011, Christoph was in senior Business Development roles at Novartis, Boehringer Ingelheim and Hoechst (now Sanofi) in the US and Germany, and also worked at a New York City based Investment Bank. Christoph’s original training was as a biochemist and molecular biologist, obtained at the Max-Planck Institute for Psychiatry, Munich, Germany.

Dr. Christopher Haskell leads Bayer’s U.S. Science Hub, based in the company’s U.S. Innovation Center located at Mission Bay, San Francisco. Haskell and his group support Bayer’s Global Drug Discovery through developing and managing partnerships with U.S. academic research institutions and emerging life science firms.  Haskell is also responsible for the development of the CoLaborator, Bayer’s biotech incubator space adjacent to the company’s U.S. Innovation Center.

In addition, Haskell is chair of the California Life Sciences Institute and a board member of the California Life Sciences Association.
 
Haskell completed his graduate studies at the University of California, Davis and a postdoctoral fellowship at The Gladstone Institute in San Francisco.

Mr. Seaton is responsible for major transactions in Bayer HealthCare, including licensing, product acquisition, divestitures and out-licensing.  Mr. Seaton is based in the United States with direct reports in the USA and Germany.

Mr. Seaton earned both his Masters of Business Administration and his undergraduate degree from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Mr. Seaton has had experience in multiple countries and businesses. Immediately prior to his current role he was responsible for Business Development and Licensing for Bayer HealthCare (a predecessor of Bayer Schering Pharmaceuticals AG) and prior to that, for Business Planning and Administration for Bayer HealthCare in North America, a function which covered Finance, Information Systems, Strategic Planning and North American Licensing.

He worked for Bayer in Canada from 1982 to 1988 and rejoined the company in 1995 in the United States. He has lived and worked in Canada and the United Kingdom, in addition to the United States. He also has experience in multiple industries and companies, including General Electric and the predecessor company to Astra-Zeneca, the multi-national Pharmaceutical company.

Mr. Seaton and his wife live in Madison, Connecticut. They have three grown children. He is an avid motorcyclist, an amateur photographer and astronomer and reads extensively (History, Science and General Fiction)

Neela Patel is a Director of Licensing-Scientific Assessment at AbbVie (formerly Abbott Laboratories) with responsibility for identification and evaluation of discovery and early clinical stage collaboration and licensing opportunities worldwide for oncology. In addition, Dr. Patel serves as the therapy area liaison for oncology discovery, partnering with senior management to create the overall strategy for the pipeline, and assessing all incoming opportunities for technical robustness and strategic fit. Prior to her role in Business Development, she served as Director of Global External Research, with a focus on building the early stage discovery pipeline through collaborations. Dr. Patel has over twenty years pharma/biotech industry experience with small molecules and biologics from early stage discovery through IND filing, with a focus on oncology and ophthalmology. Most recently, she led Preclinical and Translational Medicine at Poniard Pharmaceuticals where she established the biology department and jointly created a preclinical product pipeline with the head of chemistry, including FAK inhibitors which were licensed to Verastem in 2011. Prior to Poniard, Dr. Patel served in drug discovery management positions of increasing responsibility at Genentech, SUGEN/Pharmacia, and Roche Bioscience. Dr. Patel was also a key member of several start-up company teams to establish the overall business and scientific strategies and to seek and secure funding.

Graham joined Bristol Myers Squibb in 2002 and has transactional responsibility for the full array of collaborations covering research, clinical and commercial stage assets across BMS’ global pharmaceutical business.  Graham is also responsible for Japan Partnering activities.

Prior to joining BMS, Graham was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery company and before that Vice President, Worldwide Business Development at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where he spent 10 years. 

Graham has successfully led and overseen numerous transaction teams involved in company acquisitions, co development and co promotion deals, compound in and out licensing, product disposals, research collaborations, patents licenses and other strategic transactions.

Originally from the UK, Graham has lived and worked in Holland, Belgium and the USA, where he has spent the last 20 years.

Graham is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, United Kingdom.

Mr. Andriole is a member of Eli Lilly’s Corporate Business Development leadership team and is responsible for transactions within the Emerging Markets including in/out-licensing, JV formation and M&A.  Mr. Andriole brings to this role a proven focus on execution of complex business development projects, including his project leadership on Lilly’s $6.5bn acquisition of ImClone Systems and the $315mn acquisition of Hypnion, as well as transactions spanning multiple partnerships in China, including corporate alliances with Innovent Biologics, Hutchison Medipharma and Novast Laboratories.

Previous to this role, Mike spent 10 years in Eli Lilly's Corporate Finance and Investment Banking group, in both Indianapolis and London, leading global M&A projects for the firm and in Eli Lilly’s US operations in both finance and marketing roles.  Mr. Andriole graduated cum laude from Xavier University's Williams College of Business (BA, Finance) and earned his MBA from Indiana University's Kelley School of Business (Finance) where he is a guest lecturer on graduate business courses related to the life sciences.

Mary Jo Struttmann joined Astellas US LLC in December 2004. Since joining Astellas, she has been primarily responsible for establishing, driving & maintaining successful collaborative relationships with multiple partners such as Ambit, Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffmann-La Roche, Inc., Medivation and Theravance.   Mary Jo led the formalization of Astellas’ Alliance Management model, including the development and implementation of processes and tools for effective Alliance Management.   Prior to joining Astellas, Mary Jo held various positions of increasing responsibility in Medical Affairs, Managed Care, Sales, Marketing & Business Development within DuPont Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb & Bristol-Myers Squibb Medical Imaging.  Mary Jo has a BS in Nuclear Medicine and a MBA from Haub School of Business, St. Joseph’s University.  Mary Jo received the Certification of Achievement – Alliance Management (CA-AM) from the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals (ASAP), demonstrating a level of excellence in the profession of alliance management.

Liz Bhatt is a Senior Director, Corporate Development at Gilead Sciences where she is responsible for licensing, M&A and collaborations across all of Gilead’s therapeutic areas.  Liz joined Gilead in 2006, and in addition to executing deals in corporate development, she also lead long-term global commercial and strategic planning for Gilead’s HIV, HBV, HCV and respiratory franchises.   Before Gilead, Ms. Bhatt held corporate development and strategy roles at Eli Lilly and Maxygen.   She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Pomona College, a M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from University California, San Diego and an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Bethany Mancilla is Executive Director, Transactions for Amgen.   Since joining Amgen in April 2012, Ms. Mancilla led the execution of a multi-product cardiovascular collaboration with Servier that included US rights to ivabradine for heart failure.  She also completed the world-wide out-license of motesanib, a phase 3 program in oncology to Japanese partner Takeda.  In  2015 she was selected as a top woman at Amgen who has helped build the company’s history and is impacting the world of science, technology, and business.

Prior to joining Amgen, Ms. Mancilla served as the Vice President of Business Development and Alliance Management for Micromet from April 2010 to March 2012. During this time she negotiated the one billion dollar, multi-target BiTE® antibody collaboration with Amgen which led to the acquisition of Micromet by Amgen.

From February 2008 until March 2010, Bethany was the Vice President of Business Development and Licensing for PharmAthene a developer of biologics and vaccines for the biodefense and emerging infectious disease markets.   Prior to joining PharmAthene, Bethany was the head of Business Development for Gene Logic. During her ten year span with the company she spear-headed several multi-million dollar partnerships with major pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Roche, Wyeth, Lilly, Organon, Solvay and Abbott. 

Ms. Mancilla began her career as the Director of Business Development for BCM Technologies, the for-profit subsidiary of Baylor College of Medicine, where she was involved in the creation and financing of four start-up biotechnology companies. Ms. Mancilla received an M.B.A. from the University of Houston and a B.A. from the University of Colorado.

Dr. Zipkin is Senior Investment Director at Takeda Ventures, Inc., having been involved in biotechnology and pharmaceutical venture capital since 2000. He was previously a Partner at the institutional venture firms Prospect Venture Partners and MPM Capital, where he focused on investments in therapeutics companies as well as platform technologies. In addition to serving on the Board of several private and public biotechnology companies, Dr. Zipkin served as the CEO of Chimeros, Inc., a protein-based system for the development of multivalent biologic therapeutics. Prior to his venture capital experience, Dr. Zipkin was the Science Editor of BioCentury Publications Inc., a biotechnology news and analysis publication. He received a Ph.D. in cell biology and biochemistry from the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), and a B.A. in Molecular and Cell Biology from U.C. Berkeley.

Mr. Adamou has 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry with an established track record for concluding global transactions of multi-year partnerships with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies located in North America, Europe and Japan. In his current function, Mr. Adamou is responsible for leading the Strategic Transaction Team located in the U.S. in structuring, negotiating and managing global strategic collaborations across a broad array of deal structures and across various therapeutic categories.

Mr. Adamou joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 2002, having previously held positions in business development at MedImmune, Inc., and research at Smithkline Beecham and Allelix Biopharmaceuticals. Mr. Adamou holds a B.S. and M.S. degrees in Molecular Biology and Genetics from the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.

Martin joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund (BIVF) in 2010 to invest in early innovative therapeutic life science companies. In October 2013, Martin established the US-office of BIVF in Cambridge, MA, where he is focusing on biotech seed-investments. He has 15 years of investing and commercial experience in both venture capital and global pharma companies. He serves as board member of AMP Therapeutics in Leipzig, ArmaGen in Calabasas, CA and 121bio in Cambridge, MA.

Dr. Warmke is currently Senior Vice President, Daiichi Sankyo Group and leads the External Scientific Affairs group responsible for identification and evaluation of Product Licensing and Research and Development collaboration opportunities, and he also heads the co-development partner Alliance Management function.  Dr. Warmke received his B.A. in Biology from Wabash College and his PhD. in Molecular Genetics from The Ohio State University.  He did post-doctoral research in Neurogenetics in the Department of Genetics, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Warmke began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Merck Research Laboratories where he held positions of increasing responsibility in Discovery Research and Project Planning and Management. Dr. Warmke joined the Project Management group at Sankyo Pharma Development in 2002, and with the formation of Daiichi Sankyo Pharma Development in 2006, he was appointed co-leader of the Global Project Management function and served as a member of the Global R&D Management Committee.  In his current position he is a member of the Senior Licensing Committee and works directly with global senior management on licensing and research & development collaboration projects.

Kia Motesharei is currently Head of Global Licensing & Business Development, Immunology at EMD Serono (Merck Serono outside the US and Canada).  He is responsible for Search & Evaluation and all transactions within the Immunology Franchise at Merck KGaA.  Prior to EMD Serono, Kia was Vice President of Business Development & Alliance Management at Dyax, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in rare disease.  Previously, Kia managed the US operation of Genfit - a French biotech company – in Cambridge and led its global business development as the company’s Chief Business Officer.   Prior to Genfit and over the past 15 years, he has worked for multiple private and public biotech companies with increasing levels of responsibility in R&D, New Technologies, Technical Marketing, Product Management, Business Development and Alliance Management. 

Kia has a successful track record of transactions which include strategic alliances, product and technology licensing, distribution, divestitures, and M&A agreements with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the US, Europe, Japan, China, LATAM, and Middle East.  In addition, he has been involved in a number of financing activities.

Kia received his B.A. in Chemistry from The Colorado College and his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from University of California, Los Angles. He completed his postdoctoral training at The Scripps Research Institute as an NIH Fellow.

Daniel Feliciano Ferreira has over 17 years of experience in Pharma business, more than 10 in Business Development.
Currently he is the Business Development & Alliance Management Director at Merck KgaA (EMD Serono) in charge of Latin America. At this role worked on the establishment of a Regional partnership between EMD Serono and the Indian company Lupin. The partnership became eventually a Global Alliance focused on Emerging Markets.

In 2009 he Started Up a Business Development and Regulatory Affairs organization based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
The company was successfully sold in 2010 when he decided to move back to Brazil with his family, after 5 years living in Europe.
Previously, he was International Division and Business Development Director at EMS Group, the leading Pharma Company in Brazil (Turn over above USD2,5 Billion).

Based in Milan Italy he was responsible for the P & L of four (4) Organizations located in three (3) different countries: 
Germed (Portugal), Edigen (Spain), Biomedica Foscama and Germed-Pliva (Italy).

He was also in charge of the Pipeline of the R & D Organization Monte Research, (Italy) and exports to Russia, China and Africa. Daniel has worked 4 years as a Medical Representative. He has a degree in History by the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and Business Administration graduation by Uninove. (Sao Paulo).

John McDonald joined Biogen in June 2011 and currently is the Vice President of Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions.  From May 2006 through June 2011 John was a managing director at MPM Capital, one of the world’s largest science-dedicated venture capital firms, focusing on company formation and supporting portfolio company business development efforts.  Working with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from April 2000 through May 2006, John was Vice President of Business Development.  Prior to April 2000, John worked at both Genentech, Inc. and Genzyme Corporation where he led or participated in various business development transactions. 
 
In his career, John has led or participated in the evaluating, structuring and negotiating of numerous mergers and acquisitions, licenses and strategic alliances, including Biogen's collaborations with Sangamo BioSciences, UCB, and Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Biogen’s acquisition of Stromedix, Inc., Millennium's Ex-U.S. collaboration with Ortho Biotech/Johnson & Johnson for VELCADE, the restructuring of Millennium's relationship with Schering-Plough Corp. for INTEGRILIN, and the sale of Millennium's interest in its CAMPATH joint venture, Genzyme’s alliance with BioMarin for ALDURAZYME, and Genentech’s alliances with Xoma Corporation (RAPTIVA), and IDEC Pharmaceuticals (RITUXAN). 
 
John holds a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, and an M.B.A., Beta Gamma Sigma, and a B.S., Phi Beta Kappa, from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Robert G. McNeil Ph.D. has over thirty four years of experience as an active investor and management participant in seed and early-stage biomedical companies. He founded Sanderling Ventures in 1979 and has served since then as a Managing Director of Sanderling's seven investment partnerships. Dr. McNeil was the seed investor for several companies that are the bases of the practice of modern medicine including Advanced Cardiovascular Systems (the basis of Guidant Corp.) and Ventritex (the basis of rhythm management of St. Jude Medical). Over the ensuing years Dr. McNeil has been the founder, Chief Executive Officer of many portfolio companies successfully developed by Sanderling Ventures which continue to define the treatment of human disorders.  In each case the ability to develop a close relationship with management and careful understanding of the companies’ technologies have allowed successful development of products at very early stage. Dr. McNeil earned his Ph.D. in the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry and genetics in 1972 from the University of California.

Nina Kjellson joined Cannan’s healthcare team from InterWest Partners where she has been investing in healthcare start-ups since 2002. She focuses primarily on investments in biopharmaceuticals and digital health. Nina is co-founder and co-chair of ConsumerMed.org, a forum to address the convergence of health care and consumer innovation and serves as a mentor to Blueprint Health, a digital health incubator and Springboard Life Sciences, an accelerator for healthcare companies driven by women entrepreneurs. Investment themes include innovative therapeutics for serious and underserved conditions, IT-enabled transformation of healthcare delivery and patient/consumer engagement.

Current investments include Cidara (CDTX), Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, Lycera, Ocera (OCRX), Paratek (PRTK), and WellTok.

Previous investments include Labrys Biologics (acquired by Teva), Alt12 (acquired by Honest Company), Trius Therapeutics (TSRX; acquired by Cubist), CNS Therapeutics (acquired by Covidien), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck), and Aspreva (ASPV; acquired by Galenica)

Prior to InterWest, Nina was an investment manager at Bay City Capital, a life sciences merchant bank, and a research associate at Oracle Partners, a health care-focused hedge fund. Nina began her career conducting health policy and survey research with the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Nina received a B.A. in human biology from Stanford University (1997).

She serves on the California Leadership Council for the Nature Conservancy and has been nominated to join the board of the California Family Health Council.

Gerry McCluskey is VP, Business Development and Alliance Management at Horizon Pharma.  He has 25 years of experience in the biopharmaceutical industry in the areas of commercial analysis, finance, marketing, alliance management and business development.  Prior to Horizon Pharma, Gerry served in various roles within the finance and commercial organizations of Lundbeck, Abbott, Sirius Laboratories and Searle.

Josh Grass joined BioMarin in 2002 as Head of Investor and Financial Relations and was directly involved in raising approximately $1 billion in capital for BioMarin. Since 2006 Mr. Grass has been Head of Business and Corporate Development, currently as Senior Vice President reporting to the CEO, leading the company’s initiatives on corporate strategy, mergers and acquisitions, and technology licensing.
 
For two years prior to joining BioMarin, Grass was an Associate at the investment bank Vrolyk & Company, focusing on mergers and acquisitions and private equity financings. Prior to that he was a Research Analyst at BioMedical Insights where he conducted strategic market research for established biopharmaceutical and emerging product development companies. Grass also worked in the biotechnology equity research group at SG Cowen between his first and second year of graduate studies in business.
 
Grass started his career in biotechnology as a Research Scientist at Cerus Corporation where for five years he focused on research and development in the areas of cell biology and immunology. Grass holds a B.S. in Biology from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo and an MBA in Finance from the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York.

Dr. Bayewitch is a business development executive in the pharmaceutical industry with thirteen years career experience including ten years fulfilling business development roles, deal due diligence, and deal execution within startup biotech companies, venture funds, mid- and large-size pharmaceutical companies. Currently, Director of Search and Evaluation for Teva Pharmaceuticals, R&D division, with key responsibility to manage the identification, technical diligence, and support transaction processes focused on in-licensing product and platform opportunities.

Priyanka is a Director at Baxter Ventures. Baxter Ventures is a corporate venture fund that invests in companies with innovative technologies, products and therapies with a focus on therapeutic areas complementary to those of Baxter's business.
Priyanka brings over 9 years of healthcare and life sciences experience. She holds a PhD and MS in Bioinformatics from Georgia Institute of Technology and MS in Pharmaceutics from University of Washington.

QB3 seeks to accelerate the commercialization of innovations from UCSF, UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.  Neena leads QB3's efforts to establish alliances with industry partners, which includes partnerships between industry partners and startups as well as faculty collaborations with industry scientists. QB3 currently has partnerships with Calico, Roche, Bayer, Takeda and Johnson & Johnson.  Neena leads the effort for primeUC, a UC-wide startup event to fund and showcase exciting startups emerging from the UC system, and manages other grant funding programs at QB3, including the Bridging the Gap program.  She also works to advise campus-affiliated venture funds emerging from the UC system. Neena received her PhD from CalTech in Chemistry and has an undergraduate degree from MIT.

Kalpana Gupta joined the Strategy and Business Development team at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in May 2014.  Kalpana has extensive experience in the life sciences industry and in the non-profit sector in drug & technology development. Prior to Regeneron, she was with PwC’s Healthcare and Life Sciences Advisory Practice.  Up until 2012 Kalpana was Director New Alliances and Strategic Initiatives at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative where she led the organization’s external R&D / innovation function.  Kalpana received her doctoral degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is a graduate of Columbia University’s Executive MBA program.

Kelly Powell joined MEI Pharma in 2013 as Vice President, Business Development where she is responsible for licensing, valuation, strategy  and opportunity assessment.  From 2002 to 2012, Ms. Powell held a number of successive positions within Business Development at Amylin Pharmaceuticals, most recently serving as Sr. Director, Business Development.  During her time at Amylin, she was responsible for numerous collaborative transactions and was involved in the sale of the company to Bristol-Myers Squibb.  Prior to Amylin, she held several financial roles at large pharmaceuticals companies including Aventis (acquired by Sanofi) and Bristol-Myers Squibb.  Ms. Powell earned her bachelor’s degree in finance as well as her M.B.A. from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

Jim Beitel is currently leading corporate development and strategy for Avanir where his track record includes three "buy-side" transactions and the subsequent $3.5 billion acquisition of Avanir.  Jim has demonstrated his ability to deliver results for a variety of companies including early-stage venture-backed companies to large multi-national biopharmaceutical companies including Avanir, Amgen, Zacharon, and La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company.  His background includes complex license transactions and multi-billion dollar M&A deals with the ability to leverage strong experience in sales, marketing, and finance across multiple therapeutic areas.  Jim holds an MBA from Harvard and a degree in Engineering from the University of Kansas. 

Dr. Liu joined International Business Division of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group in 2009 to lead the effort in executing Fosun Pharma’s investment and M&A strategies in the North America region. Upon joining the company, Dr. Liu has made significant contribution to implanting Fosun Pharma’s international strategies. His achievements including helping the company to raise a $500 million private equity fund from oversea and setting up two JVs with large US and Canadian companies in China. Currently Dr. Liu is focused on helping Wanbang and Fosun Pharma to acquire more product and technology for the Chinese market.

Before joining Fosun Pharma, he served in several Chinese and US startup companies as well as a healthcare focused PE/VC fund.

Dr. Liu received his Ph.D. degree in Molecular Biology in Drexel University and MBA degree from University of Rochester.

Dr. Douville is an executive with significant entrepreneurial experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. He is a founder and the Chief Executive Officer of Milestone Pharmaceuticals Inc. While at Milestone, he raised $34 million in several rounds of equity financing with top tier life sciences venture capital firms to advance Milestone’s lead program from discovery to the clinic. Dr. Douville has been a member of Milestone’s Board of Directors since the company’s inception in 2005 and briefly served as Chairman from 2011 to 2012.  Prior to Milestone Pharmaceuticals, he held the positions of CEO and Chief Business Officer at Galileo Genomics (later Genizon Biosciences), a population genomics company he co-founded. He negotiated Galileo’s seminal deal with Myriad Genetics that provided Galileo’s initial round of financing and subsequently, as Chief Business Officer, he played a key role in preparing the company for its successful $16 million Series A financing. Dr. Douville has also been involved in other biotech start-ups. He has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from McGill University and an MBA from the HEC business school of the University of Montreal.

Mr. Mossinghoff joined G1 Therapeutics as chief business officer in 2014 and is responsible for finance, business development, planning and administration. He has more than 25 years of domestic and international pharmaceutical industry experience in big pharma and biotech in general management, corporate development, licensing, financing, strategic and new product planning, operations, market research and product valuation. Prior to G1 he served as president of Integrated Oncology Solutions and Inspire Pharmaceuticals, and helped guide Inspire from its early stages of development through its IPO and closed various corporate partnerships including those with Genentech and Allergan. In his first decade in the industry, Mr. Mossinghoff held management positions of increasing responsibility at Roche and GlaxoWellcome in global business development, product planning, finance and operations. He holds a BA in economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA in financial management and analysis from George Mason University.

Brandi Simpson is CEO for Navigen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical discovery and development company located in Salt Lake City.

Brandi started her career as an investment banking analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York City. While at Merrill, Brandi worked with clients on public stock offerings, acquisitions, acquisition defense strategies, and structured financings. Brandi then spent nearly 5 years working as a management consultant for Booz Allen & Hamilton.  At Booz, Brandi worked primarily in the life sciences practice on client projects ranging from new business development, strategic planning, acquisitions, and post-merger integration.  Ms. Simpson joined NPS Pharmaceuticals in 2002 where she served as Senior Director of Corporate Development and Strategy and then Senior Director of Investor Relations.  Brandi joined Navigen in 2007, serving as Chief Business Officer until her promotion to CEO in 2014.

Brandi received an Honors degree in Finance from the University of Utah. Brandi attended Stanford University's Graduate School of Business to earn an MBA.

Dr. Williams Ettouati received his Doctorât d' État en Pharmacie from Université René Descartes, Paris V and a Master Arts Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara.

He is currently Director, Industry Relations and Development and Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SSPPS) at the University of California San Diego.

Dr. Ettouati's role at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy is to develop and secure strategic collaborations, ranging from drug discovery to corporate sponsored fellowships for Pharm.D. students with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Before joining the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Ettouati spent twenty years in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry.

Dr. Ettouati has proven and extensive experience encompassing multiple functional disciplines in pharmaceutical executive management, in areas such as business development, licensing, marketing and new product planning strategy in biotech and pharmaceutical companies.

Dr. Ettouati served as CEO, President & Co-Founder, Director, GeneProt and Ceptyr early-stage drug discovery biotech companies. In addition, he was Chief Business Officer for several biotech firms such as Hawaii Biotech, responsible for all partnering activities; Vice President Business Development for Syrrx, Aurora/Vertex, Vice President Marketing at DepoTech and product management at Syntex (now Roche), ICI (now Astra-Zeneca). Finally, Dr. Ettouati had an established pharmaceutical consulting practice with many private and public clients.

Dr. Gertler provides counsel and analysis on franchise and therapeutic-area strategies, and corporate and business development activities. In addition, he advises clients on planning and execution of value-creating transactions across the spectrum of size and stage in the life sciences and medtech. His practice encompasses North American and European public and private commercial-stage and R&D-stage companies from mid to large cap; venture-backed companies; and investment firms focused on the life sciences.

Prior to founding Back Bay, Dr. Gertler served as Senior Partner and Managing Director of Leerink Swann Strategic Advisors, the consulting arm of Leerink Swann. He also led several investment banking groups: BioPharma Investment Banking at Leerink Swann and Health Care Investment Banking at Adams Harkness/Canaccord Adams. In this capacity, he advised on a significant number of equity, partnering and M&A transactions that total multi-billions in aggregate consideration.

Christopher Leo, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, has over 10 years of experience in providing strategic advisory support to life sciences clients.  Chris joined Back Bay from Genzyme, where he led strategic & competitive planning projects for the company’s $2 billion Rare Genetic Disease and $500 million Biosurgery business units. Chris supported both the brand teams on commercial issues related to strategic marketing and competitive positioning, as well as the R&D organization on the assessment of new market opportunities.  Prior to Genzyme, Chris was a Director with Leerink Swann’s Strategic Advisory group, where he led assignments comprising commercial, R&D, and growth strategies for both big pharma/med-tech and emerging growth clients. Chris was also a Principal in Wood Mackenzie’s life science consulting practice, and prior to that, was Director of the Belfer Cancer Genomics Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  Dr. Leo completed his doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from the College of the Holy Cross.

Stuart Kliman is a founding partner of Vantage Partners LLC, and heads up Vantage’s Alliance Practice Area.  As such, he has worked to help clients build and implement the processes, tools, skills and structures necessary to more effectively manage key alliance relationships.  In addition to the alliance space, Mr. Kliman has also worked extensively with organizations looking to engage in more value maximizing and integrated ways with key suppliers and customers. 

Mr. Kliman is a regular speaker and writer on issues of alliance and key supplier relationship management. 

Mr. Gambale has a broad based FDA regulatory and compliance background with over 20 years of experience.  He has developed and led both quality and compliance initiatives at top FDA regulated companies such as Novartis and Hospira. Chris' strong leadership has helped clients facilitate strategic planning sessions for small to large project based initiatives. He has been the driving force in support of his clients with FDA remediation, consent decree and 483 closure activities. Chris has demonstrated experience in assisting companies maintain their competitive edge by managing and advising them to streamline the QA and RA process in the most efficient and practical ways to achieve faster product registration and market approval. He has a discipline in Chemistry is an active member of ASQ.

Michael O'Donnell is a partner in the firm’s Palo Alto office, specializing in corporate and securities law. He has more than 30 years of experience providing general corporate representation to biopharmaceutical and other life sciences companies. He offers particular expertise in venture capital financings, public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, technology licensing, and corporate spin-out transactions. He represents numerous public and private biopharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostic, and instrumentation companies.

As Chair of Foley Hoag's Licensing & Strategic Alliances Practice Group, partner Hemmie Chang regularly handles high profile intellectual property matters. Clients routinely benefit from Hemmie's strategic business perspective and legal acumen from her two-plus decades of experience within the life sciences, energy and cleantech and technology sectors. She advises both established and emerging companies on a wide variety of licensing matters, from development to marketing deals - all of which involve a broad range of intellectual property assets, from brand names to copyright, patents to trade secrets. Hemmie is also very active within the firm’s Business Department and Life Science and Technology practice group.

Chris is an accomplished executive coach who previously spent 20 years in the drug development industry. He held positions in research, manufacturing, preclinical development, alliance management, and business development within Harvard Medical School, LeukoSite, Inc., and most recently Tolerx, Inc., where he was a founding scientist and later Sr. Director of Business Development. This diverse industry experience gives Chris a deep understanding of the drug development culture, process, and challenges scientists, managers, and senior executives face as they work to bring new treatments to patients. While he enjoyed being part of this important work, his true passion lies in developing people to be their best. As a certified professional coach and the founder of Shift Coaching Group, he combines these two interests to support top researchers and executives through executive coaching and professional training.

Rick Clark joined UCLA’s Office of Intellectual Property-Industry Sponsored Research in 2014.  Rick has over 20 years of experience in Life Sciences, having worked in several biotech companies, large pharma and technology transfer offices.  Most recently, Rick was in the Innovation Office at Partners Healthcare, supporting researchers at Mass General Hospital and McLean Hospital.  Prior, he was Business Development Manager at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, focused on partnerships with diagnostic companies to support AZ’s personalized medicine strategy.  Rick was Director, IP & Licensing, Life Sciences at Boston University from 2005 to 2011 with beginning to end responsibility for the Life Science portfolio.  He began his professional career in 1993 at Repligen Corporation before joining Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he transitioned from research to business development.  Then at start-up Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Rick handled partnership development and technology licensing.  Rick received a BS in Biotechnology from Rochester Institute of Technology, an MS in Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology from Brown University and an MBA from Northeastern University.

Anshul Thakral is General Manager of the global life sciences business unit at GLG, the world’s leading platform for professional learning.
 
Anshul has more than fifteen years' experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, as a general manager, management consultant, and entrepreneur. Before joining GLG, Anshul worked at McKinsey & Company, where he was an Associate Principal in the healthcare practice, counseling senior management and CEOs of global pharmaceutical and medical device companies on critical topics including growth, strategy, business development, go-to-market approach, commercial models, and product launches.
 
He received his undergraduate and masters degrees in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins University and earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Anshul is also a co-founder and board member of the Newark Mentoring Movement.

Dr. Jones is an immunologist focusing on oncology and therapeutic vaccine development. He is the PI on over $20 million awarded grants and contracts from the NIH and DOD to develop the Etubics Platform (Ad5 [E1-, E2b-] ) vectors and test them in clinical trials. He initiated the “first in man” FDA approved Phase I/II clinical trial using an Ad5 [E1-, E2b-]-CEA product to treat colorectal cancer patients. The trial results demonstrated the safety of the novel platform and better than expected overall survival. He leads the team that has constructed and developed eight platform disease targets and tested them in several different animal models and humans. He is named inventor on issued patents and an author of many peer reviewed scientific publications, most describing vaccine agents or treatment of cancers. On the business side, Jones has been the founder and CEO of three companies including Etubics Corporation. He has assembled a multi-center team of individuals with expertise in cancer immunotherapy, pre-clinical applications, GMP manufacturing, clinical trial design and experience and commercial manufacturing of large quantities of vaccines and immunotherapeutics. Together, they are bringing immunotherapy targets from the bench to the bedside and through the regulatory process.

Dr. Swindlehurst is a founder and CEO of NovoMedix.  She has over 25 years of experience in biotech and has held executive level positions at several start-up companies, including PanCel, MagneSensors, and NovaDx, as well as a management position at Hybritech.  Dr. Swindlehurst has led or participated in fund raising efforts that raised over $6M in venture financing and over $6M in non-dilutive grant funding.  She also successfully led corporate partnering efforts that resulted in marketed products in both the biotech and high tech industries.  Dr. Swindlehurst received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and Postdoctoral fellowship in Immunology from University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana; and her B.S. in Chemistry from University of California, Irvine.

Dr. Carter is CEO of Compliment Corp. He has founded five biotech companies in Seattle and worked for Corixa Corporation, now GSK Bio, where he led a new tuberculosis vaccine into human clinical trials. In 2004, he started and was the CEO of PAI Life Sciences, a bioinformatics company with proprietary drug discovery technology using artificial neural nets. This company has grants and contracts in the fields of biodefense, vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In 2005 he co-founded Dharma Therapeutics Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on drug delivery where he worked as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) prior to its Japanese parent company going public in Singapore. In 2009 he help start a company focused on improving cancer outcomes, Compliment Corp. He is on the board of two Seattle biotechnology companies and acts as a scientific advisor for vaccine and global health institutes as well as having two affiliate appointments at the University of Washington in the School of Medicine and in Global Health. He is inventor on over 160 patents and patent applications and has authored over 60 publications. Darrick received his Ph.D. from Oregon Health and Science University and his B.S. from Oregon State University.

Dr. Smith has over forty years of experience in the healthcare industry. He has been the founder of several biotechnology and medical reference laboratories, including NanoSmart Pharmaceuticals, Epinex Diagnostics, Allied Biotechnology International, and Associated Reference Laboratories. Throughout his career he has maintained an active interest in developing novel immunoassays and immunotherapies for autoimmune diseases and cancer, and holds several patents in the diagnostic and therapeutic field. Dr. Smith has a degree in cancer immunology from the University of Leeds School of Medicine, England.

David McCaleb started his year career at Merck with the launch of enalapril, then continued bringing blockbuster products to the pharmaceutical and biotech markets, launching several billion dollar products.  He established commercial operations at Amgen, Cephalon, Gilead and CV Therapeutics and also led a number of creative partnering deals, including Amgen-Roche and CVT-Quintiles.  Mr. McCaleb has participated in raising over a billion dollars in capital.

Meera Desai, Ph.D. has served as the Director of Alliance Management and Corporate Development for AcelRx Pharmaceuticals since May 2014.  Dr. Desai has more than 10 years of pharmaceutical industry experience with the majority of her career focused on drug development utilizing specialized drug delivery platforms.  Prior to her time at AcelRx, Dr. Desai held positions of increasing responsibility at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Inc, Nektar Therapeutics, and Johnson & Johnson / ALZA Corporation.  Dr. Desai holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Drew University and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Iowa State University.

Guy Miller, MD, PhD is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Edison Pharmaceuticals, Inc.  Edison is a science-driven company focused on understanding the molecular basis of biological energy. The company’s first products are drugs for rare childhood energy diseases. Dr. Miller holds a PhD in chemistry and an MD, with subspecialty training in critical care medicine. He completed his internship at University of Chicago in surgery, and residency, fellowship and was an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins. He is currently a member of the voluntary faculty at Stanford University Medical Center as an attending physician in medical-surgical critical care.

Nate Beyor, Ph.D., is Vice President of Corporate Development and joined in June 2015.  Previously, Dr. Beyor was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, where he was a leader in the operations practice for pharmaceutical and medical products clients, working directly with senior leaders across a range of functions including strategy, commercial, operations, and R&D.  Prior to McKinsey, he worked in multiple life science startups ranging from consulting services to medical devices.  Dr. Beyor received a Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008, where he developed microfluidic devices for pathogen detection, and he graduated from Yale University in 2001 earning a B.S. with distinction in Applied Physics and Biology.

Ray Ketchum is the Vice President of Research and Development for DianaPlantSciences.  Ray has devoted his career to working with many different types of plant cell cultures with a primary focus on medicinal plants and secondary metabolite analysis.  Ray worked for 20 years on all aspects of the production of the anticancer drug, paclitaxel, from plant cell cultures of yew trees (Taxus sp.).  His research encompassed nearly all disciplines of plant biotechnology including the establishment of plant cell cultures, selection and elicitation of cell cultures to produce high levels of paclitaxel in vitro, establishment for quantitative analysis of paclitaxel by HPLC/MS, establishment of methods for genetic transformation and engineering of Taxus plant cell cultures, and elucidation of steps in the paclitaxel biosynthetic pathway.   Prior to joining DianaPlantSciences, Ray received his B.A. in Botany and Biochemistry from Connecticut College, his Ph.D. in Botany specializing in Developmental Plant Physiology with Prof. Murray Nabors from Colorado State University, worked as  a post-doctoral researcher with Dr. Donna Gibson at USDA-ARS, Cornell University, worked as a visiting scientist with Prof. Mike Shuler in the College of Engineering at Cornell University, worked with Rod Croteau at Washington State University as an Assistant Research Professor, was Director of the Bioinformatics and DNA Sequencing Core at the University of Idaho.

Mr. Grunewald is President and CEO of Spotlight Innovation Inc. He is an entrepreneur and financial executive with backgrounds in the healthcare and biotechnology sectors, private equity and investment banking. Mr. Grunewald has been involved in all stages of the commercialization of healthcare intellectual property developed by premiere research and development institutions.

Prior to Spotlight Innovation, Mr. Grunewald served as Vice President with an institutional healthcare business incubator where he performed comprehensive operational roles in the formation and development of companies commercializing medical device, IT service and therapeutic drug IP.

Mr. Grunewald received a Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University, and served as a United States Marine Topographical Intelligence Specialist, receiving extensive military intelligence training from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

Dr. Kurtz is a founding member of the SBIR Development Center at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he serves as Program Director and Team Leader.  In his current role, he manages a portfolio of SBIR/STTR awards and coordinates activities in the areas of drug development, clinical diagnostics and other cancer-related technologies.  In 2009, Dr. Kurtz led the development of NCI’s Phase IIB Bridge award program, an initiative designed to incentivize partnerships between SBIR/STTR awardees and third-party investors, in order to accelerate the commercialization of technologies seeded with federal funding.  In 2014, Dr. Kurtz played a leading role in establishing the Innovation Corps (I-Corps™) at NIH Pilot Program, an intensive entrepreneurship training course that teaches NIH-funded SBIR/STTR awardees to use a hypothesis-driven method of customer discovery in order to develop a repeatable and sustainable business model.  Before coming to the NCI, Dr. Kurtz worked in industry developing high-throughput bioanalytical assays to support pharmacokinetic studies for the biopharmaceutical sector.  Dr. Kurtz received a BS in Chemistry from The University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.  He also holds an MIT Sloan Executive Certificate in Strategy and Innovation.

Stephen is the co-inventor and co-founder of Omniox. He was born and raised in Zimbabwe and obtained his B.S. from Yale University in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He spent 3 years at UCSD as a Research Associate in B cell Immunology before completing a PhD in Biological Chemistry at the University of Michigan. After post-doctoral fellowships at UC Berkeley and Genentech, Stephen worked in Market Analysis and Strategy at Genentech and then founded Omniox.

Neil Desai is Founder/CEO of AADi, LLC, a clinical stage start-up developing targeted mTOR therapeutics for oncology/cardiovascular applications and VP of Strategic Platforms at Celgene Corp.  He was formerly SVP of Global R&D at Abraxis Bioscience (Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired by Celgene in 2010 for approximately $3B) where he led the development of Abraxane®, the company’s flagship nanotechnology product. Dr. Desai is an inventor of the nanoparticle-albumin bound (nab®) drug-delivery platform and Abraxane, which is approved for metastatic breast cancer, non-small cell lung cancer and pancreatic cancer with sales of approximately $850M in 2014.  Prior to Abraxis, Dr. Desai held positons of increasing seniority at American Bioscience, Inc., VivoRx, Inc. and VivoRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (predecessor companies of Abraxis), where he worked on the early discovery and development of Abraxane, developed novel encapsulation systems for living cells and was part of the team that performed the world’s first successful encapsulated islet cell transplant in a diabetic patient. Dr. Desai has over 25 years of experience in novel therapeutic delivery systems with over 100 issued patents, over 40 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, and over 200 presentations at scientific meetings. He is reviewer for several scientific journals,  an active participant in FDA and EU Nanotechnology initiatives and a member of the Steering Committee for the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer. He holds board and advisory positions in various start-ups. Dr. Desai recieved a M.S and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, USA, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India.

Dror Ben-Asher co-founded RedHill Biopharma in 2009 and serves as the Company's CEO and Chairman. Dror has extensive managerial and transactional expertise, he was previously with ProSeed Capital, a European corporate finance boutique. Dror is a graduate of the University of Oxford (M.Jur.) and completed LL.M. studies at Harvard University, where he was a Fulbright Scholar focusing on the pharmaceutical industry and markets, an Olin Fellow for Law, Economics and Business, and an Economics Teaching Fellow at Harvard’s Economics Department. Dror received an LL.B. with distinction (First Class Honors) from the University of Leicester.