Mike Powell, Ph.D.
Karl Handelsman
Ken Haas, J.D.
Markus Goebel, M.D., Ph.D.
William Rohn
Troy Wilson, Ph.D., J.D.
Board Observers
David Kabakoff, Ph.D.
Jonathan MacQuitty, Ph.D.
Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
Michael F. Powell, Ph.D.
General Partner, Sofinnova Ventures
Dr. Powell is Managing General Partner at Sofinnova Ventures. Before Sofinnova, he was Group Leader at Genentech, developing novel protein and peptide therapeutics. He was one of the team members that spun out VaxGen, an AIDS vaccine and infectious disease company. Prior to Genentech, he was Director of Product Development for Cytel, a company based on discovering antagonists to the major histocompatibility complex to ameliorate autoimmune disease. Prior to Cytel, he was a Scientist and Project Team Leader at Syntex Research. Dr. Powell was Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas, an editorial board member of J. Pharm.Sci. and other scientific journals, is currently the Board President of the Aids Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, and Vaccine Advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and One World Health. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1981 and was one of the first individuals in the biotech industry to be named a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.
Karl D. Handelsman
Managing Director, CMEA Ventures
Karl Handelsman joined CMEA Ventures in 1999 and has been involved with numerous CMEA investments, including Ambrx, Ensemble Discovery, Ilypsa, Intellikine, Kalypsys, Maxygen, Phenomix, Rigel, Syrrx, Tetraphase, and Xenoport. Prior to joining CMEA, Karl was one of the first employees of Tularik, Inc., a drug discovery company, where his business development role spanned corporate partnering, technology licensing, and operations. Karl was also one of the first employees of the Whitehead Institute, a premier research organization within Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and he worked in business development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. Karl holds graduate degrees from both MIT and Harvard Medical School.
Ken Haas, J.D.
Venture Partner, Abingworth Management
Ken Haas has spent 25 years in the management of both early-stage and public high technology and biotechnology companies. He was part of the founding management team at IntelliGenetics, one of the world's first bioinformatics companies and, from 1992 to 2001, was CEO of IntelliCorp, a publicly-traded enterprise software company. At the beginning of his career he practised as an attorney in the business and technology group of Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe. He is currently Co-Chair of the Advisory Council to the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford. Ken received his BA from Harvard College, an MA from the University of Sussex, a J.D. from Harvard Law School and attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. He has been with Abingworth since 2004 and is based in Menlo Park.
Markus Goebel, M.D., Ph.D.
Managing Director, Novartis Venture Funds
Markus Goebel is a physician, certified in hematology/oncology; his experience in the healthcare industry spans 19 years. He worked as a Medical Director for Farmitalia Germany, leading to the registration of idarubicin (Zavedos®) and then joined Roche in Basel, Switzerland where he held positions in clinical development, registration and marketing, including a major alliance with Amgen on filgrastim (Neupogen®), as well as roles in strategy and portfolio management. Dr. Goebel joined Novartis Pharmaceuticals in 2000, serving as Global Head Nervous System BD&L Pharma and Global Head Pharma Corporate M&A. In 2004, he joined the Novartis Venture Funds in Cambridge as a Managing Director. He received an M.D. and Ph. D. in biochemistry from the Ludwig Maximilian’s University in Munich and a MBA from Henley Management College.
William Rohn
Bill Rohn has over 30 years of experience as a senior executive in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. He retired in January of 2005 from the position of Chief Operating Officer at Biogen-Idec, one of the larger global biotech companies, which was formed by the merger in 2003 of IDEC Pharmaceuticals and Biogen Inc. Prior to serving as COO of the combined company, Bill was the President and Chief Operating Officer of IDEC Pharmaceuticals, having joined the company in 1993 as Sr. Vice President of Commercial and Corporate Development. Before moving to the fledgling biotech industry in its early days, Bill spent over 20 years in the pharmaceutical sector in a variety of commercial operating roles of increasing responsibility with such companies as Abbott Laboratories, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., and Adria Laboratories (now part of Pfizer). Although he retired from a full-time operating role in 2005, Bill remains active in the biotech industry serving on the Board of Directors of one publically traded biotech companies (Cerus Corporation) and two private biotech companies (Cebix Inc. and Intellikine). .
Troy Wilson, Ph.D., J.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Troy Wilson serves as our President and CEO and is a co-founder of Intellikine. Dr. Wilson was formerly co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Ambrx, a biotechnology company focused on the optimization of protein-based medicines using non-natural amino acids as well as a co-founder of Wildcat Discovery Technologies. He previously served as Vice President, Business Development and General Counsel at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) in San Diego where he played a key role in the creation and launch of several spinout companies. Dr. Wilson received his Ph.D. in bioorganic chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and his law degree from New York University.
Board Observers
David S. Kabakoff, Ph.D.
Executive-in-Residence, Sofinnova Ventures
David Kabakoff joined Sofinnova Ventures as an Executive-in-Residence in 2007. Prior to that, he served as the President and CEO of Strategy Advisors, which he established in 2001 to provide business and strategic advisory services to life sciences companies. Prior to its acquisition by Cephalon, Inc. in June 2005, Dr. Kabakoff served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Salmedix, Inc., a company he co-founded in 2001 to develop novel oncology drugs. From 1996 to September 2000, David held executive management positions with Dura Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company, acquired by Elan Pharmaceuticals. Prior to joining Dura, David was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Corvas International, a biopharmaceutical firm focused on cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. He has also held senior management positions with Hybritech, Inc. David received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale University.
Jonathan MacQuitty, Ph.D.
Partner, Abingworth Management
Jonathan MacQuitty has more than 15 years of operational experience in life science companies and 10 years of venture capital experience. His directorships have included Adiana, Entelos, Guava, Gynesonics, Iconix, Labcyte, ParAllele BioScience and Sunesis Pharmaceuticals. He joined Abingworth in 1999 as President and Director of the company's US subsidiary, Abingworth Management Inc, and is based at the firm's offices in Menlo Park, California. Before joining Abingworth he was an adviser to a Japanese venture capital firm. Between 1988 and 1997 he was CEO of GenPharm International, a biotech company in which Abingworth invested. Before this he held business development positions at Genencor and Genentech. He has served on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organisation (BIO). Jonathan has an MA in Chemistry from Oxford University, a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Sussex and an MBA from Stanford University. Jonathan is responsible for Abingworth's Menlo Park office and focuses on West Coast deals.
Kevan Shokat, Ph.D.
Professor Shokat is a co-founder of Intellikine and serves as the Chairman of our Scientific Advisory Board. He is currently an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of California at San Francisco and Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Shokat is a pioneer in the development of chemical methods for investigating cellular signal transduction pathways—with a particular focus on protein kinases and lipid kinases. His laboratory uses a combination of chemical synthesis and protein engineering to create uniquely traceable and regulatable kinases, allowing the function of more than 100 different kinases to be uncovered across all disease areas including oncology, metabolism, and infectious disease. Professor Shokat has received numerous awards for his work, including being named a Fellow of the Pew Foundation, Searle Foundation, Sloan Foundation, Glaxo-Wellcome Foundation, and the Cotrell Foundation. He has also received the Eli Lilly Award, given to the most promising biological chemist in the country under the age of 37. Professor Shokat is active in the development and commercialization of inventions made in his laboratory. He is a co-founder of Cellular Genomics, Inc., a company focused in New Haven, Connecticut, as well as a member of several other Scientific Advisory Boards including the Scientific Advisor Network of the DDS of Invitrogen Corporation and the Scientific Research Board of Genentech.