Board of Directors
Gaurav Aggarwal, M.D.
Principal, Panorama Capital
Dr. Aggarwal is a Principal at Panorama Capital and focuses on life sciences investments. He currently serves on the board of directors of Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Flowcardia and Hyperion Therapeutics, and was previously on the board of directors at PIramed and Microscience Investments Limited. Dr. Aggarwal was closely involved in the firm’s investments in Amarin Corporation and Presidio Pharmaceuticals. He was previously employed by KBL Healthcare Ventures, most recently as Vice President, where he also focused on venture capital investments in biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Dr. Aggarwal was involved with KBL's investments in Avalon Pharmaceuticals, ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Neuronetics, and Spinal Concepts, and was a board observer at each company. He was also involved with KBL's investments in Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Corixa Corporation and Scynexis. From 1997 to 1999, Dr. Aggarwal was in the venture capital group at Wasserstein Perella & Co. Dr. Aggarwal received his M.D. from Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons and his B.S. in Business Management from Cornell University.
Jim Healy, M.D., Ph.D.
General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
Jim Healy, M.D., Ph.D., General Partner, joined Sofinnova in the spring of 2000. In the words of one entrepreneur, Jim has an “unparalleled work ethic.”
Prior to joining Sofinnova, he had experience with both pharmaceutical products and research platforms. In the pharmaceutical industry he held a manufacturing position at Bayer Pharmaceuticals (Miles) and helped guide the discovery group at ISTA Pharmaceuticals prior to its initial public offering. He also has experience with research tools and platforms through his involvement at the Human Genome Center at Lawrence Berkeley Labs.
Dr. Healy has authored or co-authored numerous research articles and reviews, including three papers published in Nature. He began his private equity career at Sanderling.
Dr. Healy earned B.A.s in Molecular Biology and Scandinavian Studies from the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated with Distinction in General Scholarship, Honors, and received the Departmental Citation. He received his M.D. from Stanford School of Medicine through the Medical Scientist Training Program, and earned his Ph.D. in Immunology from Stanford University, where he was a Beckman Scholar and received a bursary award from the Novartis Foundation.
Jake Nunn
Partner, NEA
Jake joined NEA in 2006 as a Partner. He focuses on later-stage specialty pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical device investments. Jake is a director of Transcept Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: TSPT), TriVascular2 and Aciex Therapeutics. Jake worked at MPM Capital as a Partner with the MPM BioEquities Fund, where he specialized in public, PIPE and mezzanine-stage life sciences investing. Previously, he was a healthcare research analyst and portfolio manager at Franklin Templeton Investments. Jake was also an investment banker with Alex. Brown & Sons. He received an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an AB in Economics from Dartmouth College. Jake holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation, and is a member of the CFA Society of San Francisco.
H. Daniel Perez, M.D.
Venture Partner, Bay City Capital
Dr. Perez is a Venture Partner of Bay City Capital since January 2007. Prior to joining the firm, Dr. Perez was President and CEO of Berlex where he led the R&D efforts, initiated multiple human clinical trials, and oversaw the execution of numerous collaborations, licensing deals, spin-outs and acquisitions, until leaving the company in 2006, upon its acquisition by Bayer. Dr. Perez is on the Board of Directors of Cleveland Biolabs (a public company, CBLI), Board of Directors of Presidio Pharmaceutical (a privately held company), the Scientific Advisory Board of Cardium (a public company, CDTP, CXM ), the Advisory Board for the Gladstone Institutes at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He was a member of the Board of Directors of BayBio, until December 2008.
Dr. Perez received his medical degree in Buenos Aires, Argentina and completed his medical training at Beth Israel-Mount Sinai in New York City, as well as a fellowship in rheumatology and immunology at New York University (NYU). He joined the faculty at New York University (NYU) as an Assistant Professor of Medicine and was recruited to the UCSF in 1980. Dr. Perez was on the faculty at UCSF, as a Professor of Medicine, before joining industry in 1993. Dr. Perez has published extensively, has been elected to multiple scientific societies and nominated to the National Academy of Sciences.
Bijan Salehizadeh, M.D.
General Partner, Highland Capital Partners
Based in Highland’s Menlo Park office, Dr. Salehizadeh partners with entrepreneurs and management of medical devices and biotechnology healthcare companies. He represents Highland on the board of Hyperion Therapeutics and OpGen, and is or has been actively involved in Highland’s investments in BAROnova, Conor Medsystems (IPO; acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Magen BioSciences and Predictive Biosciences. Dr. Salehizadeh also previously served as a member of the Kauffman Fellows program.
Prior to joining Highland, Dr. Salehizadeh spent several years in marketing and strategic planning at Medtronic Vascular, a world leader in medical technology. Before Medtronic, he was the Director of Business Development for HealthCentral, a venture-backed start-up that went public in 1999.
During his medical training, Dr. Salehizadeh conducted research in minimally invasive heart valves and left ventricular assist devices, and his work was published in several peer-reviewed scientific journals. He also served as a researcher at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute where he investigated coronary artery disease. Dr. Salehizadeh received his A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University, M.S. in Health Policy and M.D. in Medicine both from Columbia University, and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Don Santel
Chief Executive Officer, Hyperion Therapeutics
Donald J. Santel most recently served as Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of CoTherix, Inc. (Nasdaq: CTRX), a cardiovascular pharmaceutical company, where he led the sale of the company to Actelion (SWX: ATLN) for $420 M in cash in January 2007. Mr. Santel co-founded CoTherix in February 2000. Mr. Santel also serves on the board of Anthera Pharmaceuticals and Arete Therapeutics.
Prior to joining CoTherix, Mr. Santel was employed by or consultant to several medical device companies from January 1998 through February 2000, including Reflow, Inc., a medical device company he sold to Foxhollow Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: FOXH) in September 1999. From 1992 to 1997, Mr. Santel held various positions at Cardiac Pathways Corporation (Nasdaq: CPWY), a medical device company later acquired by Boston Scientific, including Vice President of Marketing and International Sales and Vice President of Clinical Engineering. He began his career at Medtronic, Inc., serving in various development and marketing roles from June 1982 through 1991. Mr. Santel holds a B.S.E. in biomedical engineering from Purdue University and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Lota Zoth
Ms. Zoth was most recently Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of MedImmune, Inc. where she had oversight of finance, information technology, and public affairs. Prior to MedImmune, she was Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller for PSINet Inc and Vice President, Corporate Controller, and Chief Accounting Officer of Sodexho Marriott Services, Inc. Earlier in her career, Ms. Zoth served in various finance executive roles at Marriott International and PepsiCo, Inc. after spending almost a decade at Ernst & Young as an audit executive. Ms Zoth is a CPA and holds a bachelor of business administration degree, summa cum laude, in accounting from Texas Tech University .