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 VP & Head of Worldwide Discovery for several therapeutic areas, such as immunology, respiratory, endocrine, bone, muscle, urology, and 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, and 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 PhD in medicinal chemistry and a Master of Pharmacy degree from the University of Copenhagen.
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 PhD 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.
Luc Dochez
Droia Ventures
Luc is a Managing Partner at Droia Ventures since early 2020.
Luc currently serves as Droia’s representative on the Boards of Montis Biosciences (Chairman), Vaderis, Volastra, QurAlis, Vico Therapeutics (Chairman), and Alesta (Chairman). Prior to joining the VC world, he was an executive for over 20 years in several biotech companies. Luc was a cofounder of Vico Therapeutics and acted as their CEO until 2020. He is also a cofounder of Pharvaris. Luc was Chief Executive Officer of Tusk Therapeutics from May 2015 until its acquisition by Roche in September 2018. He joined Tusk from Prosensa Holding N.V., where he served as Chief Business Officer and Senior Vice President of Business Development for a period of seven years until its acquisition by BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. Earlier in his career, Luc served as Vice President of Business Development at TiGenix, Director of Business Development at Methexis Genomics, and a consultant at Arthur D. Little. Luc holds a PharmD degree and a postgraduate degree in business economics from the University of Leuven (Belgium) and an MBA from Vlerick Management School (Belgium). He also serves on the Board of Directors of PanTera (Chairman), Cascador Health (where he is a cofounder), and a not-for-profit organization.
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 cofounding 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 Pharmaceuticals.
Laia Crespo-Martin
Sanofi Ventures
Laia joined Sanofi Ventures in 2018 as a Partner. She focuses on biotech investments and company creation.
Prior to Sanofi, Laia 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 at companies such as Spirogen (now AstraZeneca), Medivir, and UCB-Celltech. Laia’s active investments include Eligo Bioscience, Granite Bio, Muna Therapeutics, NodThera, OMass Therapeutics, QurAlis, SpliceBio,
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.