By Joey Wong, Investor Research Analyst, LSN
The Digital RESI November Conference is less than 2 weeks away! Digital RESI is the premier partnering conference experience for the early-stage entrepreneur and their strategic partners, featuring a match-based partnering platform in addition to educational and insightful content, such as workshops, pitch sessions, and live investor panels spanning the sectors of drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital health.
The Early Stage Therapeutics Investors panel will feature five investors with extensive experience in early-stage therapeutics to discuss their investment mandates and how their own investment process works.
Fundraising executives developing therapeutic assets will get an insightful look at the strategies used by early-stage therapeutic investors to assess companies at the earliest, riskiest stage of development. They can learn to position their companies as an attractive investment opportunity under the current investment landscape. The live session will feature:
Yaniv Sneor, Founding Member, Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (Moderator)
Yaniv Sneor is a (reformed) physicist, who made the transition into the business world after being bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. Yaniv has been involved in founding, growing, managing and re-engineering companies for the past 25+ years, in multiple industries. He ran companies of different sizes and at different life-stages, led re-structuring activities, purchased and sold multiple companies, and negotiated and integrated joint ventures and strategic relationships.Yaniv is one of the founders of MABA – Mid Atlantic Bio Angels (bioangels.net) a life science angel investor group. He is president of Blue Cactus Consulting (bluecactusconsulting.com), and CEO of Native State Therapeutics, a recently-formed biotechnology company, in the neurodegenerative space.
Sascha Berger, Partner, TVM Capital Life Science
Sascha Berger, PhD, joined the TVM Capital Life Science team in Munich in 2016. He is active in deal flow generation, investment due diligence, deal and exit transactions, investor communication as well as corporate finance aspects of the fund. Sascha has a strong financial background with almost ten years of professional transaction and strategy experience. He has a track-record of concluding 20 M&A transactions, five of those he led as responsible project manager in his previous role as Senior M&A Manager in a PE backed global corporation. He was a core team member in a successful EUR 2.5bn revenue cross-border merger and successfully coordinated global merger clearance procedures (USA, China, EU, Korea). During his studies he already supported TVM Capital Life Science part-time; he supported the IPO of a German technology company at Deutsche Bank and advised Private Equity funds at Deloitte in summer internships. He lived in Singapore and New York, co-founded a student initiative on Entrepreneurship in Munich and in his spare time enjoys triathlon and world travelling.
Sunil Shah, CEO, O2h Ventures
Sunil has been active in the early stage biotech community in the UK since the mid 1990’s, his respective thesis at Cambridge addressed issues in virtualised networks in science. In 2003, following a brief period at PA Consulting Group Oxygen Healthcare was formed providing discovery services to biotech and pharma. The company grew into a team of 350 employees and was acquired by Piramal Enterprises (NSE:PEL) in 2011-2013. o2h Ventures was co-founded by Sunil in 2013. In the last 4 years, it has co-founded four companies with UK based academics and entrepreneurs, provided consultancy services to five companies, held Chairman or Director level positions in nine companies, built up a portfolio of twenty early stage investments, and executed early stage drug discovery research projects for fifteen different companies.
Travis Whitfill, Partner, Bios Partners
Travis Whitfill is a Partner at Bios Partners. His background began in molecular biology and biochemistry at the MD Anderson Cancer Center and Duke University. He is the co-founder of several startup companies. He is on the board of several companies, including Incysus Therapeutics. He brings a strong background in entrepreneurship and business and was acknowledged as Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2018. He’s also the Senior Analyst at Bios Research. He also is an Associate Research Scientist in the Departments of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine at Yale. Mr. Whitfill has led numerous grant-funded projects, holds nearly a dozen patents, and has co-authored over 40 publications. Mr. Whitfill received degrees from Yale University (MPH) and Dallas Baptist University (BS) and is working on a PhD from University College London.
Z Haroon, Chairman and General Partner, Julz Co LLC
Julz Co is an investment management company focused on investing in early-stage healthcare companies in the area of therapeutics, medical devices, services and digital healthcare. The company has offices in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and Suzhou, China. Julz invests globally in companies that have novel and proprietary technology addressing a vital market need and are driven by experienced management teams.
Partnering at RESI is open! But there is still time to register to participate and join these investors at the next Digital RESI, November 17 -19. Don’t miss out on the many elements that make Digital RESI the leader in the early-stage deal-making ecosystem.
George has over 12 years’ experience of management, start-up consulting and investment in high technology sector. He has been selected as advisory member of innovation and entrepreneurship committee of Oversea Chinese Affairs Office of The State Council, innovation talent program of Ministry of Science and Technology, Chair Judge of Chunhui competition organized by Ministry of Education. George is the founder of Biohub International (formerly known as Bridgebio International). Biohub is one of the leading medical incubators in China and currently has set up innovation bases focusing on innovative medical treatment in Wuhan, Hangzhou, Zhengzhou, Wuxi and Chengdu. Biohub provides professional carriers for innovative start-ups, has built professional laboratories and CFDA certificated clean workshop, and set up a professional team to provide one-stop service for enterprises from start-up counseling, production system construction to registration declaration. Since the establishment of the innovation incubators, hundreds of innovative medical projects have been introduced, incubated and transferred covering biomedicine, medical devices, diagnostic reagents and medical services. Before founding Biohub, George co-founded Bioherms and grew it into a leading IVD company in China. Before Bioherms venture, he served as project manager and deputy department manager role of D&P wireless department of Huawei and led the R&D and pilot production of Huawei’s wireless switcher. 
Rachel is a Director of Business Development and Licensing at Medtronic. She has been with Medtronic for almost 9 years serving both its Respiratory, Gastrointestinal & Informatics division and more recently its Surgical Innovations division. As a Director of Business Development and Licensing, Rachel is focused on opportunities to bring additional innovation to Medtronic and its patients. These opportunities could consist of licensing, distribution, investment, acquisition, etc. Rachel has a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Miami in Miami, FL, and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Dr. Gershony grew up in Toronto, Canada and attended the University of Toronto where he graduated from medical school at age 23. He continued his training in internal medicine and general cardiology at the University of Toronto where he also served as Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Gershony continued his training in interventional cardiology, serving a fellowship at Emory University in Atlanta under the auspices of Dr. Andreas Grüntzig, the inventor of coronary and peripheral angioplasty. From 1993-1997, Dr. Gershony was Director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories and Interventional Cardiology at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center. For the past 20 years he has practiced interventional cardiology at John Muir Cardiovascular Institute in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is currently the Director of Cardiovascular Research, Education and Technology, and has established a successful Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) program. Dr. Gershony’s research interests include novel devices for complex coronary and peripheral angioplasty, percutaneous valve therapies and local drug-delivery to prevent restenosis. He has participated in numerous multi-center clinical trials as a Principal Investigator. Dr. Gershony is board certified in general cardiology and interventional cardiology and is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the Royal College of Physicians, the American Heart Association and the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions. Dr. Gershony has authored over 100 manuscripts and abstracts in the field of cardiology and is a regularly invited faculty lecturer to the preeminent U.S. and international interventional cardiology meetings.
Mishael Zohar, MD MBA, is an Associate at Orbimed Israel a leading healthcare investment firm, with $13 billion in assets under management, covering venture capital investments in biotech, medical devices, and diagnostic companies. Prior to joining OrbiMed he Co-founded and managed Orion.ID – a startup company that developed and designed medical applications for mental health early prevention and management. Before establishing Orion.ID Mishael was Co-partner & Head of the Training Division at M-TACS – a company that provides tactical medical solutions services worldwide. Mishael received his BMedSc and MD from Ben-Gurion University, Faculty of Health Sciences, as well as an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Harrison School of Business. Dr. Zohar is a researcher at the Julis-Rabinowitz Data Science institute at IDC, Herzliya focusing on medical big data.
Flora is the Founding Partner of Ivy Elite Capital. IEC is a venture capital firm investing in biotech and life science. Flora is mainly responsible for post-investment management, and the Government and investor relation management. She has an extensive global business experience in China, Canada and US. She took leadership roles in global leading marketing and consulting groups and provided business break-in and business strategies for biotech clients such as Johnson and Johnson , and LG Healthcare Solutions. Flora also has rich experiences in go-to-market strategies and investment consulting, and has a wide range of social resources and connections. Flora obtained her MBA degree from McCombs School of Business, the University of Texas at Austin.
