Diagnostics & Therapeutics Judges
Alex Tkachenko, Ph.D., Industry Advisor, UCSF Catalyst Award Program
Alex Tkachenko, Ph.D., Industry Advisor, UCSF Catalyst Award Program
Alex Tkachenko, Ph.D., is co-founder of Siluria Technologies, a technology company that developed the world’s first economically attractive process for making transportation fuels and commodity chemicals out of natural gas, rather than oil. After leading the company for its first five years, Alex helped recruit an outstanding CEO, stepped down from the executive team, and is now working on his next adventure. Currently, Alex is a member of founding team of a seed-stage biotech company, working with venture investors, scientific founders and thought leaders to build a science-based CNS therapeutics venture. He is an industry advisor to the UCSF Catalyst Awards program, helping to translate UCSF’s early-stage research ideas into marketable products. In the 2013 awards cycle, the team that Alex advised won the largest award in the cycle, to develop a novel contrast agent for DECT imaging. Alex started his industry career with Genentech, where he led the development and implementation of Companion Diagnostics initiative. At Genentech, Alex was involved with development and commercialization of several breakthrough drugs targeted to specific patient subgroups, including Tarceva, Rituxan, armed Herceptin (now Kadcyla) and pertuzumab (now Perjeta). Earlier, Alex served as a squad leader in the Soviet Army and completed a tour of combat duty in Afghanistan. A Ph.D. biologist, Alex also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Alexander Schuth, M.D., Head of Technology Innovation and Diagnostics, gPartnering
Alexander Schuth, M.D., Head of Technology Innovation and Diagnostics, gPartnering
Alex Schuth is Head of Technology Innovation and Diagnostics in gPartnering. He and his team are responsible for identifying and executing collaborations and licensing transactions to access innovative technologies that will strengthen Genentech’s R&D capabilities. Prior to this position, Alex led Genentech’s partnering activities in the neuroscience field. Before joining Genentech in 2005, Alex worked for three years in the investment banking group at Merrill Lynch in London, specializing in capital market transactions in the health care sector. He is a physician by training and completed his medical degree at the Charite Medical School in Berlin, Germany. He also holds an MBA from the Wharton Business School.
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., Managing Director, Bay City Capital
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., Managing Director, Bay City Capital
Ashley Dombkowski, Ph.D., is a Managing Director with Bay City Capital, a $1.6B venture capital firm focused on life sciences. Prior to joining Bay City, she served as Chief Business Officer and Vice President of Operations for 23andMe, where she oversaw the company’s finance and operations activities and had responsibility for the company’s long term business strategy focused on database growth plans, R&D productivity, and profitability. Prior to joining 23andMe, she was a Managing Director with venture capital firm MPM Capital where she also served as a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. During her years at MPM she focused on developing innovative biotechnology, medical device, and healthcare IT companies, including companies such as 23andMe, Adolor, Alnara, BioVitrum, Epizyme, iPierian, Neosil, Nevro, Rigel, and Tercica. Dr. Dombkowski holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Rice University and received her B.A. in Mathematics from Wellesley College. She has been widely quoted in publications ranging from Nature to The Wall Street Journal and she has appeared in media outlets ranging from CNBC to TedMed. She was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal in 2010.
Brook Byers, Partner, KPCB
Brook Byers, Partner, KPCB
Brook Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than fifty new technology based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first Life Sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 110 Life Sciences companies which have already developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients. Brook was President and a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists. He is a currently a Board member of the University of California at San Francisco Medical Foundation, the New Schools Foundation, Stanford’s Bio-X Advisory Council and the Stanford Eye Council. In 2007, he was awarded the “UCSF Medal” as their honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In May, 2010, he received an Honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Tech.
Isaac Bright, M.D., Partner, Merieux Developpement
Isaac Bright, M.D., Partner, Merieux Developpement
Isaac Bright started his career as Market Development Associate for Pacific Consultants. After various assignments at CIBC World Markets, Isaac served as Corporate Development Associate and Director of Business Development for Medtronic from 2006 to 2009. In 2009, Isaac joined QuantaLife as VP Corporate Development & Molecular Diagnostics until its successful trade sale to Bio-Rad Laboratories in 2011. Isaac earned his Bachelor's degree in Biochemistry from Pepperdine University and his MD at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He also earned his MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Kim Kamdar, Ph.D., Partner, Domain Associates
Kim Kamdar, Ph.D., Partner, Domain Associates
Kim Kamdar is a Partner at Domain Associates, a Healthcare focused Venture Capital Firm. Present board memberships include Ariosa Diagnostics, Epic Sciences, Lithera, Obalon Therapeutics, ROX Medical, Sera Prognostics, Syndax Pharmaceuticals, and Tragara Pharmaceuticals, as well as observer status at aTyr Pharma. Dr. Kamdar was involved with Corthera until the Company was sold to Novartis in February 2010, BiPar Sciences until the company was sold to sanofi-aventis in April 2009, and Achaogen until the company held its IPO in March 2014. Prior to Domain, Kim was a Kauffman Fellow with MPM Capital. Prior to joining MPM, she was a research director at Novartis, where she built and led a research team that focused on the biology, genetics and genomics of model organisms to uncover small molecules that modulated signaling pathway networks. Kim is a founder of Aryzun Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company utilizing protein-protein interaction mapping for small molecule discovery with an initial focus on anti-infectives and oncology. Kim is the author of ten papers as well as the inventor on seven patents. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University and her Ph.D. in biochemistry and genetics from Emory University.
Paul Conley, Ph.D., Managing Director, Paladin Capital Group
Paul Conley, Ph.D., Managing Director, Paladin Capital Group
Dr. Conley leads new investments for the firm while serving as an active Director on many of Paladin’s portfolio company Boards. Paul joined the Paladin team after more than 15 years of previous R&D and entrepreneurial experience. As founding CEO of BrightScale, he led the commercialization of a patented multi-core microprocessor technology in the HDTV market. As founding CEO of Appfluent Technology, he led the commercialization of patented in-memory distributed database technologies in the enterprise IT market. Prior to taking the entrepreneurial route, he spent nearly a decade in multidisciplinary R&D roles in the areas of high-performance computing, applied physics and biomedical engineering, including postdoctoral positions at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Paul earned a PhD in Computational Physics and an MS in Bioengineering from UCSD, as well as an MS and BS in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia
Simon Greenwood, Ph.D., Investment Director, Roche Venture Fund
Simon Greenwood, Ph.D., Investment Director, Roche Venture Fund
Dr. Simon Greenwood is an investment director for the Roche Venture Fund with more than 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. In this role, he has led investments in companies such as Allakos, Biodesy, CytomX, DVS (acquired by Fluidigm), Epic Sciences, Maculogix and Stratos. Prior to his role at the Roche Venture Fund, Dr. Greenwood was the head of GenenFund, Genentech’s corporate venture fund, and he also held roles in research and business development at Genentech. Dr. Greenwood holds a Ph.D. in genetics and development from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar.
Stacy Feld, Senior Director, Consumer Scientific Innovation, Johnson & Johnson
Stacy Feld, Senior Director, Consumer Scientific Innovation, Johnson & Johnson
Stacy is Senior Director of Consumer Scientific Innovation at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California. Stacy leads Consumer sector efforts to identify, nurture, and on-board technical and strategic value assets, and identify potential synergies to leverage within the Consumer sector. Stacy has nearly two decades of diverse experience in the healthcare, life sciences and consumer sectors as a transactional attorney, business development executive, venture investor and business strategist.
Healthtech/IT Judges
Euan Thomson, M.D., Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures
Euan Thomson, M.D., Operating Partner, Khosla Ventures
Euan Thomson is an Operating Partner at Khosla Ventures, working with portfolio companies in healthcare. Prior to joining Khosla Ventures, Euan had more than 14 years of experience as a CEO, managing both private and public companies. Trained as a medical physicist, Euan devoted more than fifteen years to research, teaching, clinical practice, and administration within the United Kingdom health care system. At Khosla Ventures, Euan is working with most of the healthcare portfolio, including Quanttus, CellScope, ZyoMed, AliveCor, EyeNetra, Ginger.io and MEDgle. Currently Euan is serving as interim CEO at AliveCor, with responsibility for reviewing and setting future strategy. Euan is dedicated to the vision of data-driven healthcare and its potential impact on the quality of decision-making, efficiency and consumer empowerment.
Hong Truong, Associate, Kaiser Permanente Ventures
Hong Truong, Associate, Kaiser Permanente Ventures
Hong is responsible for venture investment analysis, evaluation and transaction execution. Before Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Hong spend three years at Analysis Group, an economic, financial and strategy consulting firm, focusing on the health economics and strategy practice. At Analysis Group, Hong worked with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to help clients develop strategies and related evidence to support anticipated evidence based review, especially in the context of coverage and reimbursement determination. Prior to Analysis Group, Hong was a public health researcher with work spanning nutritional epidemiology, health economics, and outcomes data analysis. Hong received her BSc in Human Biology and BA in International Relations from Brown University and MPH in Health Management from Yale University.
Jordan Shlain, M.D., Health Advisor, Aspen Institute
Jordan Shlain, M.D., Health Advisor, Aspen Institute
Dr. Jordan Shlain is a nationally recognized physician for his innovative approach to the delivery of healthcare. In addition to being a full time doctor and founder of Healthloop, he has been appointed commissioner by the Mayor to the SF Health Service Systems Board and sits on the board of the bi-partisian Washington, DC policy think tank, Hope Street Group. He has been named one of the top 100 health care innovators by HealthSpottr. In addition to being a frequent speaker at various conferences; Health 2.0, RockHealth, Economist Big Ideas, Futuremed and UC Berkeley’s Pre-Med 101, he consults with the investor community as a due diligence expert.
Mohit Kaushal, M.D., Partner, Aberdare Ventures
Mohit Kaushal, M.D., Partner, Aberdare Ventures
Mohit is the newest member of the Aberdare team, joining as a partner in 2013. Mohit has had an extensive career within clinical medicine, venture capital and health policy. He was most recently the inaugural Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of Business Development at West Health a unique set of entities focused on lowering health care costs through medical research, healthcare policy and investment. He developed the West Health Investment Fund strategy, sourced and led investments in Humedica (acquired by Optum Health), Change Healthcare, RxAnte and goBalto. Previously, Mohit was the Director of Connected Health with the Federal Communications Commission, where he established the agency’s first dedicated health care team. During his time in the Obama administration, he was also a member of the White House Health IT task force, a cross agency team focusing on implementing the technology aspects of Health Reform. Prior to this position, Kaushal was an investment professional at Polaris Venture Partners, and worked for Merrill Lynch’s Health Care Investment Banking Group and the World Health Organization. Kaushal holds an MBA from Stanford and an MD with distinction from Imperial College, London. In addition to his role at Aberdare Ventures, Mohit is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at George Washington University and serves on the curation team at TEDMED. He has been appointed to the Consumer Technology Workgroup of the Health IT Standards Committee and to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics advising HHS on Data Access and Use.
Noah Lewis, Managing Director, Healthcare, GE Ventures
Noah Lewis, Managing Director, Healthcare, GE Ventures
Noah Lewis specializes in MedTech and SaaS investing—with a focus on disease management business models integrating smart devices, software analytics and services. He founded GE Ventures portfolio operating practice and dedicates much of his time growing his previous investments including board positions at Ornim Medical, Veran Medical and Acutus Medical. Noah was named a “Top 10 Healthcare VC on Twitter”, is quoted by industry journals including Medical Device & Diagnostics Industry and MedCityNews and is a frequent expert speaker at investment and globalization forums including the MedTech Investing Conference, the China, India & U.S. Life Science Markets Summit and the Private Equity & Venture Capital Summit. Prior to entering Venture Capital, he led strategic planning for the $10B GE Healthcare Systems division and started his career in the technology industry at IBM. Noah holds an MBA degree from MIT and a BS degree from Skidmore College. Noah lives in San Francisco and goes cycling in the Marin countryside any chance he gets.
Vijay Lathi, Managing Director, New Leaf Venture Partners
Vijay Lathi, Managing Director, New Leaf Venture Partners
Vijay Lathi is a Managing Director and concentrates primarily on our information convergence and diagnostics investments. Vijay joined Sprout in 1998, and was part of the team that spun out of Sprout in 2005 to form New Leaf. Prior to joining Sprout, working as an analyst in the Healthcare Venture Capital Group at Robertson Stephens & Co. and Cornerstone Research, a consulting firm focused on financial and economic analysis for business litigation. Vijay graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University where he received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering, with an emphasis on the application of engineering to life science technology. Vijay is also a member of AiCHE.
