By Lucy Parkinson, VP of Investor Research, LSN
Corporate venture capital represents a significant source of early stage funding for life science companies, but many entrepreneurs have questions about how to engage with these investment arms of major companies and what happens after investment. When approaching a corporate venture fund, it is crucial to know their strategy – do their investments align solely with the strategy of the parent company, or are they a vehicle to invest in other areas of interest? Does partnering with a corporate venture fund lead to a future partnership with the parent company? At RESI, our Corporate Venture Capital panel will give the audience an overview of how corporate venture funds invest, and what a startup might get out of a relationship with a corporate VC, in addition to potential capital.
While a lot of attention is given to the corporate venture investing of major pharma firms in early-stage companies, this panel features corporate VCs from multiple sectors of healthcare technology. These investors are looking at early-stage opportunities across the life science technology sectors of drugs, devices, diagnostics and digital health, and will explain to RESI’s audience how they execute their strategic mandates.
The panelists are:
Michael Baran (Executive Director, WRD and Principal, Pfizer Ventures)
Michael Baran, MBA, PHD, is Executive Director, WRD and Principal at Pfizer Ventures. Mike is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. He currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in Accelerator NYC, AnTolRx, Biodesy, eFFECTOR, and MISSION Therapeutics.
Prior to his current role, Mike held responsibilities in R&D portfolio strategy as well as managing scientific affairs for the R&D President’s office at Pfizer. Mike joined Pfizer from Nexomics Biosciences, a structural biology biotech company which he co-founded in 2006. Prior to his involvement at Nexomics he worked within the NIH Protein Structure Initiative’s Northeast Structural Genomics Consortium coordinating protein structure production efforts, including bioinformatics, protein expression/purification and 3D protein structure determination.
Mike received his BA in Biochemistry from Syracuse University, holds a MBA from Rutgers Business School, and a PhD in Biochemistry from Robert Wood Johnson Medical School / Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Dave Neustaedter (Vice President, Medtronic Ventures)
As Vice President of Venture Capital at Covidien and now Medtronic, Dave has led 10 minority investments to-date, with top tier financial returns and resulting in multiple portfolio companies acquired by Covidien and Medtronic. Dave works closely with Medtronic’s leadership and business development teams regarding new minority investments and was also a primary architect of Covidien’s white space growth strategy. He currently serves as a Director for SetPoint Medical, PQ Bypass and MD Revolution and is a Board Observer for several other companies.
Prior to Medtronic, Dave was responsible for business development, strategy and finance for a small division of Stryker focused on white spaces and new technology platforms. Earlier in his career, he was a healthcare-focused strategy consultant, supporting numerous clients with key decisions regarding internal product development and acquisition opportunities across the medical device, diagnostic and biopharmaceutical industries.
Dave received an MBA from Yale and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of British Columbia and completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Sean Cheng (Senior Investment Manager, Philips Health Technology Ventures)
Sean is currently an Investment Manager at Philips Ventures, a portfolio of promising health tech companies including Babyscripts, Xealth, Mytonomy, as well as a fund-of-funds to fulfill the Philips Healthtech strategy. He is interested in early-stage investment opportunities in digital health, medical devices and therapeutics.
Previously, Sean held positions at the Boston Consulting Group, the U.S. FDA, and NASA. Sean also serves on the Board of Directors of The Professional Center for Child Development, Board of Advisors at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Advisory Council of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. Sean holds a PhD in Engineering Design from the University of Cambridge in England, where he developed expertise in medical device design and optimization algorithms.
Claire Leurent (Bio Sector Investment Director, Samsung Ventures)
Claire Leurent is a biologist by training. She joined the pharmaceutical industry to work on drug development in several capacities over the past 13 years. Initially on late phase development with Wyeth Pharmaceutical (Paris office) as a Senior Clinical Scientist contributing to global phase 3 registration trials, NDA dossier submission and new product launch. Then on early stages with Pfizer Neuroscience out of its R&D headquarters in Groton CT, and later from Pfizer’s Kendall Square campus in Cambridge MA, where she led teams in designing and conducting clinical plans from First in Human to Proof of Concept studies for small molecules, biologics and digital biomarker technologies.
Jeffrey Moore (President, MP Healthcare Venture Management)
Jeff Moore joined MPH in 2008. Previously, Dr. Moore was a Kauffman Fellow with the early stage healthcare venture capital firm Research Corporation Technologies (RCT). He has held various business and scientific roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Scriptgen. He received his DPhil from Oxford and postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School, studying biochemistry, infectious disease and immunology. He received his MBA as a Sloan Fellow at MIT.
