Faculty & Inventors • Resources
Experts in Residence (XIRs)
Find the advice you need.
Venture capitalists, executives and legal experts are just a phone call away
Our network of Experts in Residence (XIRs) offers a powerful resource for Harvard innovators working to commercialize a technology, navigating the launch of a startup, or seeking corporate partners.
Our XIRs have a wealth of experience in: company formation and leadership, intellectual property strategy, legal transactions, product development, regulatory affairs, marketing, corporate partnerships, and much more!
To engage with an XIR, simply contact us at OTD, and if we can't answer your questions ourselves, we will promptly set up a phone call.
Alternatively — or additionally — if you're looking for in-depth, ongoing guidance on launching a startup, consider meeting with one of our Entrepreneurs in Residence (EIRs).
Meet Our XIRs
Peter Barrett, PhD
Partner, Atlas Venture
Peter Barrett is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and faculty chair of the key advisory board of the Blavatnik Fellowship. He is also Partner at Atlas Venture...
Peter Barrett, Ph.D., is an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School and faculty chair of the key advisory board of the Blavatnik Fellowship Program. He is also Partner at Atlas Venture, an early stage life science venture capital firm. Since 2002, Peter has been involved in the creation of several novel therapeutic and drug discovery platform companies. Prior to Atlas, he was co-founder, executive vice president and chief business officer of Celera Genomics, which announced the first successful sequencing of the human genome in 2001
Peter is currently chairman of Obsidian Therapeutics, Zafgen (NASDAQ:ZFGN), Cadent Therapeutics and Synlogic (NASDAQ:SYBX) and sits on the boards of Indalo and Perkin Elmer (NYSE:PKI). He is also a member of the research council at Boston Children’s Hospital and the board of Living Independently Forever.
Peter received a BS in chemistry from Lowell Technological Institute (now UMass, Lowell) and a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Northeastern University.
Kevin Bitterman
Partner, Atlas Venture
Kevin Bitterman focuses on creating and investing in companies that translate groundbreaking science into innovative medicines. Kevin serves on the boards of Akero Therapeutics and Navitor Pharmaceuticals. He was the founding CEO of Editas Medicine...
Kevin Bitterman focuses on creating and investing in companies that translate groundbreaking science into innovative medicines.
Kevin serves on the boards of Akero Therapeutics and Navitor Pharmaceuticals. He was the founding CEO of Editas Medicine (NASDAQ: EDIT), Morphic Therapeutic and Visterra (acquired by Otsuka), and co-founded Genocea Biosciences (NASDAQ: GNCA). He previously served as a director of Kala Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: KALA), Neuronetics (NASDAQ: STIM), Taris Biomedical (acquired by Allergan) and Vets First Choice among other ventures. Prior to joining Atlas Venture in 2017, Kevin was a partner at Polaris Partners, where he had been a member of the healthcare team since 2004.
Kevin is active in the local life science and healthcare start-up community, serving on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) and as Board Chair of the New England Venture Capital Association (NEVCA). He received a BA in biology, summa cum laude, from Rutgers University before completing his PhD in genetics at Harvard Medical School. He has published numerous scientific articles and is an inventor on several issued patents.
Alexis Borisy
Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science-based organizations...
Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science-based organizations. Alexis joined Third Rock Ventures in 2009 to focus on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. He has played key roles in launching and building several of Third Rock's portfolio companies.
Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its chief executive officer and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ. He has raised billions in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Trained in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard where he was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, Alexis was honored as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review Innovator of the Year. He was also chosen as the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and was honored as a Presidential Scholar.
Laura Brass
Senior Investment Partner, Novartis Venture Fund
Dr. Laura Brass is a senior investment partner at NVF in Cambridge, Mass. Prior to joining NVF, Laura was a Managing Director at MPM Capital...
Dr. Laura Brass is a senior investment partner at NVF in Cambridge, Mass. Prior to joining NVF, Laura was a Managing Director at MPM Capital, and prior to that, she was a member of the founding management team and SVP of Business Development for TriNetX, a healthcare IT company focusing on big data analytics for clinical research. Before TriNetX, Laura was a Director of Business Development at Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development and at its Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. She led commercialization strategy, start-up creation, deal structuring, and negotiations for a portfolio of over 250 biotech, synthetic-chemistry, engineering, software, device, and stem-cell technologies developed at Harvard. Laura has also held roles in business development and IP strategy at Elixir Pharmaceuticals, and was CEO of Aferon, Inc., an early-stage antiviral start-up company. Laura holds a B.A. in Philosophy and a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.
Jeff Bussgang
General Partner, Flybridge
Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. His investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in blockchain, consumer, e-commerce...
Jeff is a General Partner at Flybridge Capital Partners. His investment interests and entrepreneurial experience are in blockchain, consumer, e-commerce, machine learning, and mobile start-ups. He also serves as a part-time Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School and teaches a class on entrepreneurship and lean start-ups called Launching Technology Ventures. In this capacity, he has co-authored over twenty HBS cases and notes regarding startup management and entrepreneurship. Jeff also runs The Graduate Syndicate, a micro-seed fund that Flybridge created to invest in startups co-founded by recent Harvard graduates.
Hemmie Chang
Partner, Foley Hoag
As Chair of Foley Hoag's Licensing & Strategic Alliances Practice, partner Hemmie Chang regularly handles high profile intellectual property matters...
As Chair of Foley Hoag's Licensing & Strategic Alliances Practice, partner Hemmie Chang regularly handles high profile intellectual property matters. Her career-spanning dedication to clients and significant influence on the life sciences industry earned her an induction into the LMG Life Sciences Hall of Fame in 2019.
Hemmie brings to her clients her strategic business perspective and legal acumen from her two-plus decades of experience within the bio pharmaceutical, medical device, gene and cell therapy and genomics sectors. She advises both established and emerging companies on a wide variety of licensing matters, from development to marketing deals - all of which involve a broad range of intellectual property assets, from patents to trade secrets, brand names to copyright.
Hemmie is also Co-Chair of the Life Sciences Group and active within the firm’s Business Department and Technology practice groups. She earned her JD at Harvard Law School.
Ann DeWitt
General Partner, The Engine
Ann is a General Partner on the investment team at The Engine. Ann was most recently at Sanofi, where she held senior roles...
Ann is a General Partner on the investment team at The Engine. Ann was most recently at Sanofi, where she held senior roles in business development and strategic venture investment. Prior to Sanofi, she was at Flagship Ventures. Ann started her career in R&D at 3M Company, working across fields of materials, biology, engineering. Ann holds an MBA from Harvard and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from MIT. She serves on the Board of Women in the Enterprise of Science and Technology and on the Life Science Council of Springboard Enterprises.
David Fallace
Advisor, Polaris Partners
David is an advisor in the Boston office at Polaris Partner and splits his efforts with founders focused on healthcare, information technology, and biotechnology...
David is an advisor in the Boston office at Polaris Partner and splits his efforts with founders focused on healthcare, information technology, and biotechnology.
Before joining Polaris Partners, David served as managing director at The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF), overseeing diversifying strategies. Previously, he served as director of investments for special opportunities at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, where he managed a $10-billion opportunistic portfolio including its direct biotech venture investments. Prior to Alaska, he spent time working at the quantitative investment research firm Haugen Custom Financial Systems and at GF Private Equity Group.
Bill Geary
General Partner and Co-founder, Flare Capital Partners
Bill is a General Partner and cofounder of Flare Capital Partners, a team of proven healthcare technology venture capital investors delivering strategic industry resources, experience and insight to partnering entrepreneurs...
Bill is a General Partner and cofounder of Flare Capital Partners, a team of proven healthcare technology venture capital investors delivering strategic industry resources, experience and insight to partnering entrepreneurs. Prior to helping start Flare Capital Partners in 2013, Bill was with North Bridge Venture Partners since inception in 1994.
During Bill's more than 20-year tenure investing in young and emerging healthcare technology companies, he has served on the boards of numerous industry-leading companies, actively helping and working closely with founders and management. His current and prior firm's healthcare investments include Aetion, Bright Health, Circulation, ClearDATA, Curisium, HealthReveal, Health Verity, higi, Iora Health, Valence Health (Evolent Health), VisitPay, Welltok, Humedica (Optum Analytics), Explorys (IBM), Rise Health (Best Doctors/Teladoc), Connance, MC10, Phase Forward (Oracle), Pharmetrics (IMS Health), NaviNet (Nant Health) and eBenX (ADP).
Jodi Gernon
Director, Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship, Harvard Business School
The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School champions entrepreneurship at HBS and works closely with faculty, students and alumni of HBS to foster entrepreneurship...
The Arthur Rock Center for Entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School champions entrepreneurship at HBS and works closely with faculty, students and alumni of HBS to foster entrepreneurship both at the school and with alumni around the world. Jodi and her team oversee the student programs including the Rock Accelerator, the Rock Summer Fellowship program to support students founding companies and joining startups, and the New Venture Competition. Jodi also oversees the Rock 100 program, designed to support alumni founders who are scaling their ventures.
Jodi brings over 25 years of marketing and leadership experience working with successful startups such as Physician’s Online and Mediconsult.com (both sold to WebMd), Mothernature.com (IPO 1999) and Revenio (sold to Vignette) and Fortune 500 companies such as Pepsi, GE, and CR Bard. Jodi has also worked with founders at many early-stage ventures in both the U.S. and Canada. Jodi is an advisory board member of WPI’s new Fosse Innovation Center and the Nantucket Conference, and is an advisor to several startups. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BS in Electrical and Biomedical Engineering from WPI.
Franceca Gino
Professor, Harvard University
Francesca Gino is the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School...
Francesca Gino is the Tandon Family Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School. She is also formally affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, with the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative at Harvard, and with the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Gino teaches Decision Making and Negotiation in the MBA elective curriculum and in Executive Education programs at the School. She co-chairs an HBS Executive Education program on applying behavioral economics to organizational problems and another on Driving Profitable Growth. She has also been teaching a variety of PhD courses, on Micro Topics in Organizational Behavior, Behavioral Approaches to Decision Making and Experimental Methods.
Michael Gladstone
Principal, Atlas Venture
Michael Gladstone is a Principal at Atlas Venture, a leading biotech venture capital firm. Michael was a member of the founding teams of several Atlas-originated companies...
Michael Gladstone is a Principal at Atlas Venture, a leading biotech venture capital firm. Michael was a member of the founding teams of several Atlas-originated companies, including Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), Surface Oncology (NASDAQ: SURF), and IFM Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by BMS). He serves as a board member of Akrevia Therapeutics and as a board observer for IFM Therapeutics, LLC and Kyn Therapeutics. He was previously a board observer for Delinia (acquired by Celgene), Replimune (NASDAQ: REPL), and AvroBio (NASDAQ: AVRO). Prior to joining Atlas in 2012, Michael worked at L.E.K. Consulting, and he previously conducted HIV vaccine research at Harvard Medical School.
Maia Harris
Partner, Pepper Hamilton LLP
Maia H. Harris is a partner at the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP, where she focuses her practice on intellectual property issues including licensing and counseling...
Maia H. Harris is a partner at the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP, where she focuses her practice on intellectual property issues including licensing and counseling, as well as enforcement when necessary. Ms. Harris’ work spans a full spectrum of technologies and industries, from semiconductors to surgical methods and devices and digital health. Her clients are just as diverse, including emerging, private, and public companies, as well as universities and research institutions. Ms. Harris is also one of several members of her firm who, together, focus on providing a full suite of IP services specific to the needs of universities, research institutions, and related start-ups, including IP strategy, prosecution, and licensing.
Rosana Kapeller
Entrepreneur in Residence, GV
Rosana Kapeller is an Entrepreneur in Residence at GV, focused on the intersection of therapeutics and machine learning. She brings over 25 years of scientific leadership and entrepreneurial experience to her role...
Rosana Kapeller is an Entrepreneur in Residence at GV, focused on the intersection of therapeutics and machine learning. She brings over 25 years of scientific leadership and entrepreneurial experience to her role.
Prior to joining GV, Rosana was the founding Chief Scientific Officer of Nimbus Therapeutics, where she led the company’s initiative to apply advanced computational technologies to the design and development of novel therapeutics. During her tenure at Nimbus, she assembled a strong scientific team that validated the company’s platform and advanced multiple promising programs. Before Nimbus, Rosana served as VP of Research at Aileron Therapeutics. Early in her career, she worked at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, and consulted for Third Rock Ventures and Atlas Venture.
Rosana is a member of the board of directors of Cedilla Therapeutics and of the HBS Blavatnik Fellowship Key Advisory Board. She earned her M.D. from Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Tufts University.
Sophie Kornowski
Senior Partner, Gurnet Point Capital
Dr. Sophie Kornowski joined Gurnet Point Capital in 2018 from Roche, a leading healthcare company based in Switzerland, where she was Executive Vice-President, global Head of Partnering...
Dr. Sophie Kornowski joined Gurnet Point Capital in 2018 from Roche, a leading healthcare company based in Switzerland, where she was Executive Vice-President, global Head of Partnering. In this role, Dr. Kornowski developed and maintained over 200 external partnerships with research institutions, biotech, pharma, and healthcare information technology companies worldwide. During her tenure, Roche Partnering completed over 50 deals per year. Sophie was a member of Roche Extended Global Executive Committee and a member of the boards of Chugai. Previously, for five years Dr. Kornowski was General Manager of Roche France, a major affiliate of the Roche group.
Earlier in her career Dr. Kornowski spent 11 years in various leadership roles at Merck in the United States, France, and Israel and in the early years of her career worked at Abbott and Sanofi, in France and the United States. Dr. Kornowski has a Doctorate in Pharmacy from Rene Descarte University in Paris and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth.
Yakov Kutsovsky
CSO and Vice President of R&D, Cabot
Yakov Kutsovsky is Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Development (R&D) of Cabot. Previously, he served for 12 years as Cabot Chief Technology Officer...
Yakov Kutsovsky is Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research and Development (R&D) of Cabot. Previously, he served for 12 years as Cabot Chief Technology Officer. Yakov joined Cabot in 1996 in the R&D group. Since then, he has held several key positions in the R&D organization working on products and process development, including research project leader, R&D director in fumed metal oxides business and global director of R&D. Prior to joining Cabot, Yakov worked as a researcher at the Institute of Catalysis in the Russian Academy of Science.
Yakov has played a significant role in the development of multiple Cabot product and manufacturing innovations and has practical experience developing and commercializing new materials across multiple applications. Yakov has led development of the technology platforms portfolio, including advanced carbon materials, that supported technology and business roadmaps. He has also led development and implementation of the roadmap for digital platforms to accelerate materials development.
Yakov has more than 40 papers, granted and pending patents that cover a broad range of technical areas. Yakov earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota and a MS in Chemical Physics from Novosibirsk State University in Russia. Yakov is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Material Research Society, and American Chemical Society. Yakov served on Advisory Boards at the Department of Energy, Environmental, Chemical Engineering and McDonnell International Scholars Academy at Washington University in St. Louis and the Department of Chemistry, MIT.
Bill Marino
Senior Product Manager, Adobe
The founding CEO at Uru (acquired by Adobe), Bill now serves as Senior Product Manager in Applied Science and Machine Learning...
The founding CEO at Uru (acquired by Adobe), Bill now serves as Senior Product Manager in Applied Science and Machine Learning at Adobe. There, his focus is on productizing deep learning, computer vision, NLP, and other machine learning technologies for well-known products like Photoshop and Acrobat. Bill also serves on Adobe's Sustainability Committee and the Technical Advisory Group for its Content Authenticity Initiative.
Previously, Bill served as Data Science Fellow at online publisher Mashable and as an Affiliate at Princeton University's Center for Information Technology Policy. Bill has a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, a JD from Columbia School of Law, and a Computer Science M.Eng. from Cornell University.
Ellie McGuire
Partner, LS Polaris Innovation Fund
Ellie McGuire is a Partner of the LS Polaris Innovation Fund. She has held leadership and consulting positions in business development, operations, and strategy in multiple life science companies...
Ellie McGuire is a Partner of the LS Polaris Innovation Fund. She has held leadership and consulting positions in business development, operations, and strategy in multiple life science companies including Arsia Therapeutics, XTuit Pharmaceuticals, and Lyndra.
McGuire currently serves on the Board of Directors to Mellitus, and is a Board observer to Gauss Surgical and Suono Bio. In addition, she is a member of the Fred Hutch Evergreen Fund Advisory Committee.
Prior to co-founding the LS Polaris Innovation Fund, McGuire was the Head of Business Development at Lyndra, where she was also a member of the founding team. She was recently awarded the Up and Coming Woman of the Future Award by WEST. McGuire studied neuropsychology at Colby College prior to attending Tuck School of Management Business Bridge Program.
Terry McGuire
Partner, Polaris Partners
Terry McGuire is a founding partner of Polaris Partners and has 30+ years of successful early-stage investing experience in healthcare and technology companies. As a venture capitalist...
Terry McGuire is a founding partner of Polaris Partners and has 30+ years of successful early-stage investing experience in healthcare and technology companies. As a venture capitalist, Terry has co-founded three companies. He has invested in nearly 50 companies which have addressed the needs of more than 60 million patients. Mr. McGuire holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, an MS in engineering from the Thayer School, Dartmouth College, and a BS in physics and economics from Hobart.
Chrissy Meyer
Partner, Root Ventures
Chrissy has spent the past decade taking hardware products from early concept through high-volume production. After getting her MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, she led several projects at Apple and Square...
Chrissy has spent the past decade taking hardware products from early concept through high-volume production. After getting her MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford, she led several projects at Apple and Square. She was also a founding team member at Pearl Automation, a vehicle technology startup. She has developed products that have shipped tens of millions of units, and she has spent over a year on the ground in Asia working closely with manufacturers and suppliers. Chrissy recently joined Root Ventures, a seed-stage hard tech venture capital firm, as a partner. At Root, she invests in deeply technical teams that are solving problems in robotics, hardware, industrial automation, AI, and machine learning. Outside of work, Chrissy is a sleep-deprived mother to a six-month old daughter.
Mark Nardone
Executive Vice President, PAN Communications
Mark Nardone is the Executive Vice President of PAN Communications with 25+ years of experience in marketing and PR. He oversees the firm’s strategic direction across brand marketing and business development efforts...
Mark Nardone is the Executive Vice President of PAN Communications with 25+ years of experience in marketing and PR. He oversees the firm’s strategic direction across brand marketing and business development efforts. Mark’s ability to engage audiences and remain dynamic was the driving force behind PAN’s move to integrated marketing communications.
Mark is passionate about growth marketing. He provides brands with seamless transitions into their next stage of growth by creating compelling ideas and developing integrated approaches to move those ideas through the market. Mark is an active contributor to several publications, including MarketingProfs, CMO.com, and PRWeek, offering his expertise in areas such as customer experience, marketing strategy, measurement and content marketing.
Eric Paley
Partner, Founder Collective
Eric Paley is a Partner at Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund located in Cambridge, MA and New York...
Eric Paley is a Partner at Founder Collective, a seed-stage venture capital fund located in Cambridge, MA and New York. Eric led Founder Collective's investments into numerous companies including Uber, Cruise Automation, Makerbot, Embark, Crayon, Bookbub, Integral Ad Science, and The TradeDesk (Nasdaq: TTD). Previously, Eric founded Brontes Technologies, a 3D imaging company, which was acquired by 3M. Eric has been named to the Forbes Midas List of top venture capitalists for the past four years, and in 2018 and 2019 was also the top-ranked seed investor on the list. Eric has served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Harvard Business School and is a frequent contributor to Techcrunch.
Andy Payne
Angel investor, entrepreneur
Andrew Payne is an experienced angel investor, executive, inventor and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building software businesses...
Andrew Payne is an experienced angel investor, executive, inventor and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building software businesses. He's been an investor, board member and/or advisor to many startups, including Care.com, HubSpot, GrabCAD, Kayak, FanSnap, Pebble, and Onshape.
He served as a Principal at Computational Biology Corporation (CBC) (acquired by Agilent) from 2004-05. He founded Revenio in 1999 and served as its CEO and President. He co-founded Open Market in 1994, where he co-invented and co-designed its commerce architecture and led its first product development efforts.
Andrew worked at Digital Equipment Corporation in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the research staff at DEC’s Cambridge Research Lab. He was part of the DEC team that designed the Alpha architecture and built the first implementation.
He holds 25 patents and guest lectures at MIT, Olin, Harvard Business School, and Brandeis.
Michal Preminger
Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, East North America
Michal is Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, East North America. In this role, she leads the innovation center team, located in Boston, to build, advance, and manage the External R&D portfolio of co-investments...
Michal is Head of Johnson & Johnson Innovation, East North America. In this role, she leads the innovation center team, located in Boston, to build, advance, and manage the External R&D portfolio of co-investments spanning across pharmaceutical, consumer health and medical devices.
Until 2018, Michal served as the Executive Director of Harvard University’s Office of Technology Development (OTD) Harvard Medical School site, where she was responsible for development and commercialization of technologies emerging from research at HMS laboratories and for the strategy and execution of all industry collaborations. She negotiated agreements with major biopharma, life sciences, food and cosmetics companies to advance the translation of discoveries into products and create a revenue-generating product pipeline, and worked with scientific founders and investors to create new startup companies.
Stan Reiss
General Partner, Matrix Partners
As a general partner at Matrix, Stan focuses on early-stage investments across technology sectors and works with companies including Hyper9 (acquired by Solarwinds), QPID Health (acquired by eviCore)...
As a general partner at Matrix, Stan focuses on early-stage investments across technology sectors and works with companies including Hyper9 (acquired by Solarwinds), QPID Health (acquired by eviCore), Acacia Communications (ACIA), Xtalic, RightHand Robotics, and LogRocket. He started his career as a chip designer for National SemiConductor and as a Consultant at McKinsey before joining Matrix as an investor. Stan has a degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell, a Masters' in Electrical Engineering and Operations Research from MIT, and an MBA from Harvard.
David Resnick
Partner, Nixon Peabody LLP
David Resnick is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice at Nixon Peabody. He works with both startup and established life sciences companies, as well as major U.S. research institutions...
David Resnick is a partner in the Intellectual Property practice at Nixon Peabody. He works with both startup and established life sciences companies, as well as major U.S. research institutions, to develop comprehensive patent strategies to protect their IP. His practice focuses on strategic portfolio management, patent prosecution, transactional matters and associated client counseling, managing portfolios of some of the leading U.S. research institutions and domestic and international corporations. David has extensive experience with microbiome-related technologies, pharmacogenomics, disease biomarkers, proteomics, tissue engineering, gene therapy, regenerative medicine, drug delivery systems, stem cells, angiogenesis modulation, cancer vaccines, oncology, immune modulation, medical devices, and diagnostics.
Carmichael Roberts
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Material Impact
Carmichael Roberts, PhD, is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact, a fund that seeks out transformative technologies and builds them into enduring companies that solve real-world problems...
Carmichael Roberts, PhD, is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Material Impact, a fund that seeks out transformative technologies and builds them into enduring companies that solve real-world problems. The fund's strategy is based on his successful career as an entrepreneur-investor in “materials,” blending a unique business model of licensing university technology and commercializing it through targeted partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. His current investments include Soft Robotics and Zero Mass Water.
Carmichael is also member of Breakthrough Energy, a mission-oriented group committed to changing the world by creating and building companies that address the threat of climate change and long-term sustainability of the planet. As part of their work, Breakthrough Energy intends to invest over $1B over the next 20 years to help scale products for energy, transportation, agriculture, and construction, with a focus on big concept projects that promise the largest possible benefit to the earth’s future.
Carmichael serves on the boards for the National Venture Capital Association, the Consumer Technology Association and Massachusetts General Hospital Physician Organization. Carmichael is a trustee of Duke University. In 1999, he was named by MIT’s Technology Review as one of the world’s top 100 young entrepreneurs.
Michael Schrader
CEO and Co-founder, Vaxess Technologies
Michael Schrader is the founding CEO of Vaxess, a Gates Foundation– and VC-backed company bringing healthcare out of the clinic and into patients’ lives, whether at home or around the world...
Michael Schrader is the founding CEO of Vaxess, a Gates Foundation– and VC-backed company bringing healthcare out of the clinic and into patients’ lives, whether at home or around the world. Vaxess has a pipeline of immunotherapies and vaccines on the MIMIX platform, which combines self-administration and high-temperature stability with enhanced efficacy. Prior to Vaxess, Michael spent time at Google, Toyota, and Honda where he helped bring a range of products to market and earned fifteen patents. Michael received his B.S. in Engineering from Purdue and his M.B.A. from Harvard.
Amy Schulman
Senior Lecturer, Harvard Business School
Amy Schulman is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where she teaches Legal and Corporate Accountability. Ms. Schulman joined Polaris Partners in 2014, simultaneously assuming the role of CEO of Arsia Therapeutics...
Amy Schulman is a Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School where she teaches Legal and Corporate Accountability. Ms. Schulman joined Polaris Partners in 2014, simultaneously assuming the role of CEO of Arsia Therapeutics, a company acquired by Eagle Pharmaceuticals in 2016. In 2015, Ms. Schulman co-founded Lyndra, where she is CEO. She became CEO and Executive Chair of Olivo Laboratories in 2017, which sold its cosmetic business to Shiseido in 2018, and serves as Executive Chair of SQZ Biotech.
Prior to joining Polaris, Schulman was the general counsel of Pfizer, president of Pfizer Nutrition, and ran Pfizer consumer healthcare after the nutrition business was sold to Nestle in 2012. She is the recipient of numerous awards including: Scientific American’s “2015 Worldview 100 List”, Fierce Biotech’s 2014 “Top 15 Women in Biotech”, and Fortune Magazine’s 2013 “50 Most Powerful Women in Business”. She serves on the Board of Directors of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, and the Whitehead Institute.
Manny Stockman
Principal, Osage University Partners
At OUP, Manny Stockman invests exclusively in startups that have been spun out by university academics. His interests stretch across a broad area of technology from computing to enterprise software...
At OUP, Manny invests exclusively in startups that have been spun out by university academics. His interests stretch across a broad area of technology from computing to enterprise software, and he has been involved with OUP’s investments in SiFive, NuMat, Censys, and IonQ. Before joining OUP in 2015, Manny worked for several years at Lockheed Martin’s Skunkworks and ATL research centers, where he led multiple DARPA programs focused on cutting edge applications of applied physics technologies to solve DoD problems. He holds a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and Applied Physics from Princeton and a BSE from Duke in Mechanical Engineering.
Steve Tregay
Founder, President, and CEO, FORMA Therapeutics
Steven Tregay is the Founder, President and CEO of FORMA Therapeutics, based in Watertown, MA and Branford, CT. Prior to founding FORMA, Dr. Tregay was a Managing Director...
Steven Tregay is the Founder, President and CEO of FORMA Therapeutics, based in Watertown, MA and Branford, CT. Prior to founding FORMA, Dr. Tregay was a Managing Director for the $200M Novartis Option Fund. He led the fund’s investments in and served on the Board of Directors of FORMA Therapeutics, Adenosine Therapeutics (acquired by Clinical Data: FRX) and Cequent Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Marina Biotech: MRNA). Prior to joining the venture group, he was the Executive Director and Head of Strategic Alliances-Oncology, Ophthalmology and Technologies at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. He managed a team who were responsible for identification, negotiation and management of collaborations for the oncology and ophthalmology disease areas and all the technology areas. Prior to Novartis, he had roles in business development at Array BioPharma and research.
Dr. Tregay is a co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Compass Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology-focused start-up biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA. He also serves as a Board Member at LabCentral based out of Cambridge, MA. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. in organic chemistry from Harvard University and a B.S. from Davidson College.
David Walt
Professor, Harvard University
Dr. Walt is an internationally recognized expert in nanoscience and diagnostics and has invented numerous transformative technologies that have led to major commercial successes including Illumina and Quanterix...
Dr. Walt is an internationally recognized expert in nanoscience and diagnostics and has invented numerous transformative technologies that have led to major commercial successes including Illumina and Quanterix. He is Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, is a Core Faculty Member of the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor. His laboratory pioneered the development of microwell arrays, which revolutionized the field of genetic analysis. Dr. Walt’s laboratory also introduced the idea of digital protein detection by developing a high-throughput technology for performing single-molecule analysis. He is the Scientific Founder of Illumina and served on the Board of Illumina for 18 years. He is also the Scientific Founder and a Director of Quanterix Corporation, as well as a founder and Director of Ultivue, Inc.
Stacie Weninger
President of FBRI at F-Prime Capital Partners
Stacie Weninger is the President of FBRI. Prior to this position, she was the Senior Director of Science Programs for the Fidelity Foundations...
Stacie Weninger is the President of FBRI. Prior to this position, she was the Senior Director of Science Programs for the Fidelity Foundations. In 2005, Dr. Weninger served as the Project Manager and Senior Analyst for the Task Force on Women in Science at Harvard University. From 2001-2005, Dr. Weninger was a Senior Scientist at Cell Press for the journal Neuron. Before joining Cell Press, Dr. Weninger was a postdoctoral research fellow at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School with Dr. Bruce Yankner. She was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute predoctoral fellow in the Program in Neuroscience at Harvard University. While a graduate student and postdoctoral research fellow, Dr. Weninger was actively involved in undergraduate teaching, winning six teaching awards.
Dr. Weninger received a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University, and a B.S. degree in chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She currently chairs the Collaboration for Alzheimer’s Prevention; is President of Alzforum; serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Rugen Therapeutics; serves as a member of the Board of Directors for Zebra Medical Technologies, Aratome, Digital Cognition Technologies, and Target ALS; and she previously served as a founding member of the Board of Directors for Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI) as well as a member of the Board of Directors for Annexon Biosciences, BRI-Alzan, BRI-Tolan, Inscopix, and Q-State Biosciences.
Russ Wilcox
General Partner, Pillar VC
Russ Wilcox is a general partner at Pillar VC, where he invests in Boston-based seed stage companies related to software, IoT, digital health, quantum computing, home construction, robotics, agriculture and biology...
Russ Wilcox is a general partner at Pillar VC, where he invests in Boston-based seed stage companies related to software, IoT, digital health, quantum computing, home construction, robotics, agriculture and biology. Previously, he cofounded E Ink Corporation to commercialize electronic paper invented at the MIT Media Lab. E Ink conducted materials research and product development, closed design wins, scaled a factory and global supply chain, and shipped tens of millions of displays for the Amazon Kindle and other devices. After the sale of E Ink for $480 million in 2009, Russ co-founded Transatomic Power, advancing an invention for safer, cleaner, cheaper nuclear energy; and Piper Therapeutics, conducting preclinical studies for an immuno-oncology drug. He sits on the advisory board of Harvard’s Physical Sciences & Engineering Accelerator and was a Board Director for Harvest Automation, a developer of agricultural robots. Russ graduated with honors in Applied Mathematics from Harvard College and was a Baker Scholar at the Harvard Business School. He holds thirty-five issued U.S. patents. He is an Ernst & Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year and a Mass High Tech All-Star.
Krishna Yeshwant
General Partner, GV
Dr. Krishna Yeshwant is a physician, programmer, and entrepreneur who has been working with GV since its inception. He first joined Google as part of the New Business Development team...
Dr. Krishna Yeshwant is a physician, programmer, and entrepreneur who has been working with GV since its inception. He first joined Google as part of the New Business Development team.
Prior to Google, Krishna helped start an electronic data interchange company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard and a network security company that was acquired by Symantec.
Krishna has a B.S. in computer science from Stanford University. He also earned an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and completed his residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., where he continues to practice.
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