Leadership

Ed Jennings - Chairman

Ed Jennings, a biotechnology industry consultant, had a key leadership role in Genentech's commercialization of the first recombinant human growth hormone. During his 15 years at Genentech he also held a number of senior-level positions including Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Corporate Development. Most recently, Ed served as President, Chief Executive Officer and Board Member of Angiogenix, Inc., directing all scientific and business activities at the cardiovascular biotechnology startup company. Previously, he was the Chief Commercialization Officer at Pain Therapeutics, where he was responsible for the company's business development, marketing and sales functions, as well as leading the development of the company's commercialization strategy. Ed began his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Bristol Myers, where he managed sales and marketing functions for more than a decade.

Jeffrey L. Cleland, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer, Versartis

Jeff Cleland has 20 years of industry experience in research and development, including more than a decade at Genentech, Inc.  He held executive management positions at BaroFold, Novacea, and Targesome, and has managed directly all aspects of pharmaceutical development and late-stage research.  His experience in start-ups includes major roles in obtaining more than $70M of Series A through C venture capital as well as an exit via IPO.  Jeff also runs his own pharmaceutical and biotechnology consulting group for numerous start-ups and venture firms.  While at Genentech, Jeff served in product development and manufacturing roles. He held important leadership roles in the successful approval of two drugs, Herceptin® and Nutropin Depot®, as well as early work on Lucentis®, Avastin®, and Omnitarg®.  He holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Jeff has authored more than 100 articles and four books, and holds several issued patents.

Mike Dybbs, Ph.D.
Principal, New Leaf Venture Partners

Mike Dybbs joined New Leaf Venture Partners in 2009 and became a Principal in 2012. Prior to joining New Leaf, Mike was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group where he was a core member of their Health Care practice. At BCG, Mike lead projects in the biopharmaceutical industry across a range of functions and therapeutic areas. He also worked as an independent biotechnology consultant, performing such projects as identifying assets at both universities and medical centers, as well as evaluating spin-outs of discovery stage research programs. Mike graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an AB in biochemical sciences and received his PhD in molecular biology and genetics from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship. His research had been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Neuron, Science and Nature.

Kevin Johnson, Ph.D.
Partner, Index Ventures

Kevin Johnson is a Partner at Index Ventures working out of the London office.  Prior to that he was CEO of PanGenetics, an antibody development company based in the Netherlands, and one of the Index Ventures portfolio. Kevin was one of the team at Cambridge Antibody Technology (CAT), heading up research from 1994 onwards. In 1997 he was appointed to the Board, where he held the posts of Research Director and Chief Technology Officer.  Kevin led both the development of CAT's platform technologies, and also their application to the discovery of a number of human antibodies currently in clinical development, including the first such drug, Humira™ to reach the market.  He was also part of the management team that floated CAT on the London Stock Exchange (main market).  Kevin graduated in Molecular Biology from Edinburgh University and has a PhD in Pathology from Cambridge University.

Shahzad Malik
General Partner, Advent Ventures

Shahzad Malik joined Advent in 1999. He came with a strong grounding in science and clinical medicine. Prior to joining Advent he spent six years practising medicine, before joining the London office of management consultants McKinsey & Company. Here he served international clients in the Healthcare and Investment Banking sectors. During his time with Advent he has been actively involved with numerous investments in Europe and the United States in the biopharmaceutical and medical device arenas. Shahzad gained an MA from Oxford University, and a MD from Cambridge University. He subsequently specialised in interventional cardiology, whilst also pursuing research interests in heart muscle disorders both in the clinic and basic science laboratory.

Willem ‘Pim’ Stemmer, Ph.D.
Chairman, Amunix, Inc.

Pim has repeatedly invented technologies that have led to successful companies and products. In 2003, he founded Avidia after inventing its Avimer technology. In 1997, he founded Maxygen (MAXY) to commercialize the DNA Shuffling technology, now called Molecular Breeding, which led to the founding of both Verdia and Codexis (CDXS). Prior to Maxygen, Pim was a distinguished scientist at Affymax where he invented DNA shuffling technology. Before that, he worked on antibody fragment engineering at Hybritech. He completed post-doctoral work on phage display of random peptide libraries and antibody fragment expression in E. coli at the University of Wisconsin. Pim obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin for his work on bacterial pili/fimbriae involved in host-pathogen interaction. Pim has over 60 research publications and 96 issued US patents. His portfolio of patents from Maxygen was ranked as the #1 portfolio in pharma/biotech by M.I.T.'s Technology Review, and #2 in a review of the 150 largest pharma and biotech companies by The Wall Street Journal. Pim received the Doisy award, the Perlman award, and the NASDAQ VCynic award. Most recently, Pim was awarded the Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, to which he was elected in 2012.

Anthony Sun, M.D.
Partner, Aisling Capital

Dr. Sun joined Fund I in 2002 and currently serves as a Partner. Previously, Dr. Sun was an Adjunct Instructor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Sun received his M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine with A.O.A. honors. He received his M.B.A. from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University. In addition, he is Board Certified in Internal Medicine.