Donald Nicholson
Independent Chair
Don is a medical scientist and entrepreneur with deep experience in biotech and large pharma.
He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of Kymera (KYMR) and Generation Bio (GBIO), and is Chair of the Board of Directors of Disc Medicine, Jnana and NodThera. Prior to these roles, Don was CEO of Nimbus Therapeutics, and spent 25 years at Merck in various roles including as VP & Head of Worldwide Discovery for several therapeutic areas including immunology, respiratory, endocrine, bone, muscle, urology & anemia. Don holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Western Ontario, and trained as a Medical Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the University of Munich in Germany.
Camilla Hansen
Novo Holdings
Camilla Hansen is Partner at Novo Holdings. She joined the firm in 2018.
Camilla serves as director on the boards of Muna therapeutics, Limmatech, Hoba Therapeutics, Precirix, Centauri Therapeutics, AMR Action Fund and is a board observer on Paratek. Camilla is a partner in the Seed Investments team at Novo Holdings and is also heading up the REPAIR Impact Fund. Prior to joining Novo Holdings, Camilla spent 10 years in business development in early academic start-ups, maturing biotechs and established commercial corporations. Camilla holds a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry and a Master of Pharmacy degree from Copenhagen University.
Henrijette Richter
Sofinnova Partners
Henrijette Richter is Managing Partner at Sofinnova Partners. She joined the firm in 2014.
Henrijette’s investments and board involvements include Mozart Therapeutics, Muna Therapeutics, Nitrase Therapeutics, Nodthera, Twentyeight-Seven Therapeutics, Asceneuron, Delinia (sold to Celgene), and iOmx Therapeutics. Prior to Sofinnova, she was part of the team that founded Novo Seeds in 2007, and as an Investment Director, was instrumental in the creation, financing and building of companies such as Orphazyme (ORPHA.CO; ORPH), Avilex Pharma, EpiTherapeutics (sold to Gilead), and Lysogene (LYS, Euronext Paris). Henrijette holds a combined Ph.D. and Industrial Scientist degree in Molecular Biology from the University of Copenhagen and Novo Nordisk A/S, and did a postdoctoral fellowship at the MIT Center for Cancer Research in Massachusetts.
Cillian King
LSP
Cillian King is an Investment Manager at LSP, one of Europe’s leading Life Sciences investors, and is fully dedicated to the LSP Dementia Fund.
Prior to LSP, he was an Investment Manager at Swanbridge Capital, a venture fund focused on early-stage life sciences companies, where he led seed investments into biotech companies and served on the Boards of Allero Therapeutics and Pan Cancer T. Cillian holds a PhD in Molecular Neurosciences from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and completed a research fellowship at MIT.
Rez Halse
Droia Ventures
Rez is a Partner with Droia Ventures. He has over 25 years of experience in the life-science industry across a broad range of therapeutic areas and drug modalities.
Before Droia he held investment roles at RA Capital, MRL Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Merck, and MGB Ventures. At Merck, he was also Vice President and Head of Merck’s Pacific Business Development and Licensing hub, where he was responsible for BD activities in the US (West Coast) and Asia Pacific region, after having lead Merck’s BD efforts in Europe. Rez previously also held senior operating roles at large pharmaceutical and start-up life-science companies in both the UK and the US.
Eileen McGuire
Polaris Partners
Ellie is Managing Partner of the Polaris Innovation Fund. She joined Polaris in 2017 where she focuses on biotech investments and company formation.
Ellie currently serves on the Boards of Satellite Biosciences, Montis Biosciences, and Candesant Biomedical. Ellie is an expert in residence for the Harvard Office of Technology Development. Prior to co-founding the Polaris Innovation Fund, she was the Head of Business Development at Lyndra Therapeutics, and held leadership and consulting positions in business development, operations and strategy in several life science companies including Arsia Therapeutics and XTuit Pharmaceticals.
Laia Crespo
Sanofi Ventures
Laia joined Sanofi Ventures in 2018 as a Partner. She focuses on biotech investments and company creation.
Prior to Sanofi, she served as Investment Director for Ysios Capital, where she led investments and served on the board of multiple early-stage biotech companies. Earlier in her career, Laia was part of the European New Business Development team of Janssen-Cilag, a pharmaceutical company part of the Johnson & Johnson group, where she assessed commercial and scientific licensing opportunities. Previously she worked as a researcher in the UK in companies such as Spirogen (now AstraZeneca), Medivir and UCB-Celltech. Laia’s active investments include Eligo Bioscience, Muna Therapeutics, NodThera, OMass Therapeutics, QurAlis, T-Therapeutics and Therini Bio. Previous investments and board roles include Lava Therapeutics (LVTX). Laia graduated in Chemistry from the University of Barcelona, where she also completed a Master in Science and a Ph.D. with honors. Laia holds an M.B.A. from Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, where she focused on biotechnology, healthcare and finance.
Rita Balice-Gordon, PhD
Chief Executive Officer
Rita brings 30 years of experience in neuroscience research, drug discovery and development from senior leadership roles in biopharma and a distinguished academic research career.
Prior to joining Muna, she led small molecule, biologics and gene therapy programs in neurologic, neurodegenerative and rare genetic diseases at Sanofi, psychiatry and pain programs at Pfizer, and was Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.