Board of Directors
Gaurav Aggarwal, M.D.
Partner, Panorama Capital
Dr. Aggarwal is a Partner at Panorama Capital and focuses on life sciences investments. He currently serves on the board of directors of Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Hyperion Therapeutics and Nextwave Pharmaceuticals, and was previously on the board of directors at Flowcardia, 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, where he also focused on venture capital investments in biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Dr. Aggarwal was involved with KBL's investments in Achillion Pharmaceuticals, ISTA Pharmaceuticals, Neuronetics, and Spinal Concepts, and was a board observer at each company. He was also involved with KBL's investments in 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.
David W. Gryska
Mr. Gryska has more than 20 years experience in the healthcare industry. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Celgene Corporation from December 2006 to August 2010, where he was responsible for all finance functions, corporate communications, and strategic planning. Prior to joining Celgene he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Scios, Inc., where he was responsible for all finance functions, manufacturing, business development and corporate communications. The company was acquired by Johnson & Johnson for $2.5 billion in February of 2003. From 1993 to 1998, he served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Cardiac Pathways, a medical device company which was later acquired by Boston Scientific Corporation. Prior to Cardiac Pathways, Mr. Gryska spent eleven years at Ernst & Young, where he rose to partner and was responsible for managing audit and consulting services for healthcare companies. He holds a B.A. in accounting and finance from Loyola University and an M.B.A. from Golden Gate University. Mr. Gryska has served on the Board of Directors of various private and public healthcare companies and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Seattle Genetics.
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.
Rob Hopfner, PhD, MBA
Investment Partner, Bay City Capital
Rob Hopfner, BSP, PhD, MBA, is an Investment Partner at Bay City Capital and has been with the firm since August 2002. Before joining Bay City Capital, Dr. Hopfner worked in DuPont Pharmaceuticals’ Business Development & Strategic Planning group and at Ag-West Biotech, a Western Canadian seed-stage biotech venture capital firm. Dr. Hopfner focuses on biopharmaceutical investments and is involved in a number of portfolio companies including Altheos, Inc., Hyperion Therapeutics, Aciex Therapeutics, and PTC Therapeutics. He is a director of Altheos and Hyperion and observes on the boards of Aciex and PTC. Dr. Hopfner holds a PhD in Pharmacology and a BS in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan and an MBA with specializations in Entrepreneurship, Finance and Strategy from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His biomedical research was focused on vascular and endocrine pharmacology and he completed post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hopfner won numerous awards during his research career, including the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal Award in 2000, and published several articles in top medical journals based on his work. Dr. Hopfner started his career as a pharmacist.
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.
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.
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 .