Partners
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Corey Goodman, PhD
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Kurt von Emster, CFA
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Paul Brooke
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Robert Adelman, MD
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William Shen, PhD, MBA
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Behzad Aghazadeh, PhD
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Corey Goodman, PhD
Dr. Goodman is a renowned neuroscientist, entrepreneur, CEO, and corporate executive. Until May 2009, he was President of Pfizer's Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center, a new division focused on biologics and new models to harness external innovation and drug discovery, and a member of Pfizer's Executive Leadership Team. Dr. Goodman was co-founder of Exelixis and Renovis, and CEO of Renovis until its acquisition by Evotec. He is a former professor at Stanford University and UC Berkeley, co-founder of Berkeley's Wills Neuroscience Institute, and currently an Adjunct Professor at UC San Francisco. Dr. Goodman is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. His honors include, amongst others, the Alan T. Waterman Award, the Canada Gairdner Award, and the March of Dimes Prize. He is a member of California Council on Science and Technology, and advises several university innovation centers and disease foundations. He is Chair of the Board of several companies, including Limerick BioPharma, Oligasis, and Second Genome, and a member of the Board of several others, including NeuroTherapeutics and Mirna. Dr. Goodman is located in venBio's San Francisco office.
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Kurt von Emster, CFA
Mr. von Emster is a 20-year Wall Street veteran, having founded and managed six global life sciences funds. As a Managing Director at MPM Capital from 2001 until 2009, Mr. von Emster founded and managed the MPM BioEquities Fund, a cross-over fund investing in public and private life sciences companies. Mr. von Emster also spent 11 years at Franklin Templeton, most recently as the founder and Portfolio Manager of the Morningstar five-star rated Franklin Biotechnology Discovery Fund, a $2B life science fund. Mr. von Emster is responsible for seven private company investments in his career and is an independent board member of Facet Biotechnology, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals, and Metabolex, as well as a former observer of Acceleron Pharmaceuticals. Mr. von Emster is located in the San Francisco office.
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Paul Brooke
Mr. Brooke has over 30 years of experience in life science analysis, investing, and management. Mr. Brooke was the Global Head of Health Care Research and Strategy for Morgan Stanley and headed up Morgan Stanley Research, Strategy, and Economics in the Pacific Basin including Japan. He was also responsible for health care investing for Tiger Management. He is a Director of ViroPharma, Incyte, Cheyne Capital International and Manning and Napier. He has also served on numerous other boards including WebMD, Transform, and Novirio. Mr. Brooke has played an active role in managing the growth of many companies in the biotech sector. Through his role as Chairman and CEO of Ithaka, he structured the purchase of Alsius Corp and successfully sold its assets to Zoll Medical in 2008. He was an advisor to MPM Capital and a Member of the Board of Directors of the MPM BioEquities Fund. Mr. Brooke is a Managing Member of PMSV Holdings (an investment firm), and a former Managing Director of Tiger Management. Mr. Brooke is located in venBio's New York office.
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Robert Adelman, MD
Dr. Adelman has a 24 year history of founding, investing in, and managing companies in the life sciences. Before joining venBio, Rob had a seven year tenure as a Private Equity Partner at OrbiMed Advisors. There he was part of a team that invested $1.1B in both public and private companies across three venture capital funds. Dr. Adelman has founded a number of biotechnology companies including Operon Technologies (sold to Qiagen in 2000), Sientra ,Inc, and most recently Roka Bioscience (a spin out of Gen-Probe, Inc). Rob has served on the Boards of Volcano Corporation, Aryx Therapeutics, Cerimon Pharmaceuticals, and ViewRay, Inc. In addition, he currently serves on the Board of Sientra, Inc. Dr. Adelman is located in the New York office.
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William Shen, PhD, MBA
Dr. Shen has over 10 years of operating and investing experience in the life sciences. Before joining venBio in September of 2010, Will led business development at PhaseBio Pharmaceuticals. Prior to PhaseBio, Will was part of the biotech investment team at Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation (JJDC), the venture capital arm of J&J. At JJDC, Will completed three venture investments in which JJDC was the lead investor; in addition, he managed JJDC's biopharmaceutical investment portfolio on the East Coast and held board-level positions at a number of companies. Before JJDC, Will spent more than four years at Alexza Pharmaceuticals where he directed R&D of three lead programs. In addition, he assisted Alexza in raising more than $80M in two rounds of venture financing. Dr. Shen received a PhD in Biophysics from Stanford University. He also holds a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with majors in Finance and Health Care Management.
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Behzad Aghazadeh, PhD
Dr. Aghazadeh has over 15 years of experience in the healthcare sector as an investor, management consultant, and scientist. Before joining venBio in 2011, Behzad was with Sio Capital Management, a New York-based global long/short equity healthcare fund. Previously, Behzad was an analyst with AllianceBernstein, a $400B asset management firm, where he covered US and European healthcare stocks for Bernstein Value Equities. Prior to Bernstein, Behzad was a Principal in the healthcare practice of Booz Allen (now Booz & Co.). During his six years at Booz, Behzad served clients across multiple healthcare verticals as well as consulted for the FDA on strategic and operational issues. In addition, he helped launch and was the co-lead of the firm's Pharma R&D effectiveness platform. Dr. Aghazadeh received a PhD in Biophysics and Biochemistry from Cornell University, and a Masters in Physics from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, Germany. Dr. Aghazadeh is located in venBio's New York office.