Director Biographies
William Gerber, M.D.
William G. Gerber, M.D., is a Partner at Bay City Capital and joined the company in September, 1999. He was most recently President and Chief Executive Officer of Epoch BioSciences, which was acquired by Nanogen, Inc. in December, 2004. Prior to joining Epoch, Dr. Gerber served as President and Chief Executive Officer of diaDexus LLC, as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, as President of Chiron Diagnostics, and as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the PCR Division with Cetus Corporation. Dr. Gerber is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Pathway Diagnostics and a member of the Board of Directors of Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc., Aviir, Inc. and Sangamo Biosciences. He also served on and was President of the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, State of California. He received his M.D. and B.S. degrees from University of California, San Francisco Medical Center after attending Dartmouth College.
topDavid Hale
David Hale is Chairman & CEO of Hale BioPharma Ventures, a private company focused on the formation and development of biotechnology and specialty pharma companies. He is a co-founder and is currently Executive Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer of Somaxon Pharmaceuticals. He was previously President and CEO of CancerVax Corporation which merged with Micromet, Inc., a cancer therapy company, from October 2000 through May 2006, when he became Chairman of the combined companies.
Mr. Hale is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in the founding and/or development of a number of biotechnology and specialty pharmaceutical companies. After joining Hybritech, Inc., in 1982, the first monoclonal antibody company, he was President & Chief Executive Operating Officer and became CEO in 1986, when Hybritech was acquired by Eli Lilly and Co. From 1987 to 1997 he was Chairman, President and CEO of Gensia, Inc., which merged with SICOR to become Gensia Sicor, Inc., which was acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals. He was a co-founder and Chairman of Viagene, Inc. from 1987 to 1995, when Viagene was acquired by Chiron, Inc. He was President and CEO of Women First HealthCare, Inc. from late 1997 to June 2000, prior to joining CancerVax in October 2000.
Prior to joining Hybritech, Mr. Hale was Vice President and General Manager of BBL Microbiology Systems, a division of Becton, Dickinson & Co. and from 1971 to 1980, held various marketing and sales management positions with Ortho Pharmaceutical Corporation, a division of Johnson & Johnson, Inc.
Mr. Hale is Chairman of Santarus, Inc., and Metabasis Therapeutics, Inc. which are publicly held companies. He also serves as Executive Chairman of privately held SkinMedica, Inc. and is a co-founder and director of Verus Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Conatus Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Mr. Hale also is a co-founder and serves on the Board of Directors of BIOCOM, is a member of the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), and the Biotechnology Institute. Hale also serves on the Board of Directors of the San Diego Economic Development Corporation, the Burnham Institute and Rady Children’s Hospital of San Diego. He is a co-founder of the CONNECT Program in Technology and Entrepreneurship and currently serves as Chairman of the Board.
topPaul Klingenstein
Paul Klingenstein has been a venture capital investor for most of his professional career. Beginning at Warburg, Pincus in the early 1980s, he joined Accel Partners in 1986 and helped, through the next decade, to build a leading venture capital firm. After a brief period as an advisor to the Rockefeller Foundation, he formed Aberdare Ventures in 1999.
During this period he has invested in more than 50 companies, the majority of which are now public, or have been merged into public companies. These investments comprise mostly early-stage domestic businesses, but also include later-stage, public, and non-U.S. companies, and management buyouts.
His current and former boards include Ablation Frontiers, Ample Medical, Anacor Pharmaceuticals, Aviir, Aviron, Conatus Pharmaceuticals, EP Technologies, EnteroMedics, Glycomed, Idun Pharmaceuticals, Isis Pharmaceuticals, Nevro Corporation, Pharmion, Posit Science, U.S. Behavioral Health, VertiFlex, Viagene, and Xomed Surgical Products. He has served on the boards of various educational and non-profit institutions including the African Wildlife Foundation, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Juma Ventures, the Marin Country Day School and the Taft School. He received an A.B. from Harvard and an M.B.A. from Stanford.
Patrick Lee
Patrick Lee is a General Partner at Advent Venture Partners. He has a well-established commercial and transactions track record in healthcare, pharmaceuticals and medical products. After gaining a B.A. in biology from Vassar and an M.B.A. from Stanford, Mr. Lee worked with management consultancy Booz Allen & Hamilton and Baxter International. He was Group Vice President for mergers & acquisitions at Rhône Poulenc S.A. in Paris prior to joining Advent.
His responsibilities at Rhône Poulenc included transactions with established and emerging companies including the merger that created Aventis. Prior to that he held a variety of executive positions in business development, new products and marketing management at the company. Since joining Advent, he has developed investment opportunities in pharmaceutical and medical devices businesses, in various stages of their development.
topSteven J. Mento, Ph.D.
See Biography Under Management.
topMarc Perret
Marc Perret is a General Partner at Gilde Healthcare Partners (Utrecht, The Netherlands). Mr. Perret is involved with fund raising, fund management, as well as investment activities. He represents or represented Gilde Healthcare Partners on the boards of portfolio companies, such as Belgium-based Crop Design (sold to BASF), France-based Innate Pharma (listed on EuroNext) and France-based Neuro3d (merged with Evotec AG).
Prior to joining in October 2000, Mr. Perret gained operational and international experience during 17 years at the Novartis [Ciba] Group, in business development, restructuring, as country division head and ultimately as M&A Head of one of Novartis’ divisions. His track record includes a $ 1 billion acquisition of a Merck & Co. division, direct involvement in the multi-billion merger and listing of Switzerland-based Syngenta, and several smaller biotechnology deals.
Mr. Perret is an engineer from Ecole Centrale de Lyon and received an M.B.A. from HEC Group / Stanford GSB.
topHarold Van Wart, Ph.D.
Dr. Van Wart serves as Metabolex, Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors since January 2003, and President since April 2001. Dr. Van Wart served as Chief Operating Officer from December 2002 to January 2003 and Senior Vice President, Research and Development from October 2000 to December 2002. From 1999 to 2000, Dr. Van Wart was Vice President and Therapy Area Head for Arthritis and Fibrotic Diseases at Roche Bioscience, a biopharmaceutical company. From 1992 to 1999, he was Vice President and Director of the Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Syntex Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company acquired by F. Hoffman La Roche in 1994. From 1978 to 1992, Dr. Van Wart served on the faculty of Florida State University. Dr. Van Wart obtained his Ph.D. from Cornell University.
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