Garheng Kong, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., General Partner - Chairman
Dr. Garheng Kong is a general partner at Sofinnova Ventures. Prior to joining Sofinnova in 2010, Dr. Kong was a general partner with Intersouth Partners where he had board involvement with most of Intersouth's life science companies, including his role as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Cempra Pharmaceuticals Inc. Dr. Kong has full-cycle investing experience, successfully sourcing, syndicating, managing and exiting investments. He also served as interim CEO for two Intersouth portfolio companies. Prior to Intersouth, he worked at GlaxoWellcome and McKinsey & Company. He received his M.D., Ph.D., in Biomedical Engineering, and M.B.A. from Duke University graduating at the top of his medical and business school classes. He also holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. He is active in the community and currently serves on the board of directors of the North Caroline Medical Device Organization, the SEBIO organization, the Corporate Chaplains of America and has served on the Duke University Medical Center Institutional Review Board. Dr. Kong is a current member of the faculty at the Duke School of Business as a Senior Scholar.
I. Wistar Morris III, B.A., M.B.A.
I. Wistar Morris of Villanova, Pennsylvania, is a Director of Boenning & Scattergood, an Investment Securities firm. Previously, he served as Senior Investment Consultant for Pennsylvania Trust Company, and as President and Chairman of Morris Investment Management Company, Inc. He chaired the Investment and Finance committees as a Trustee of the Presbyterian Medical Center. He has been on the boards of 19 public and private companies. Morris received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
Richard Kent, M.D.
Richard Kent, M.D. is a partner with Intersouth Partners. Prior to joining Intersouth, he served as CEO of Serenex, Inc., a venture-backed biotechnology company acquired by Pfizer in April 2008. He spent more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry, in a number of senior positions with the Burroughs Wellcome and GlaxoWellcome, eventually serving as Senior Vice President of Global Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Office of GlaxoSmithKline. Rick has supervised dozens of INDs and more than 20 successful NDAs (and equivalent submissions in Europe and the rest of the world) in a wide range of therapeutic areas including CNS, Antivirals, HIV, Respiratory, Gastrointestinal, Anesthesia/Critical Care, Cardiovascular and Oncology. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley and his medical degree from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his medical training at Harvard (Peter Bent Brigham Hospital), Stanford University Medical Center and Duke University Medical Center, and was a member of Duke University's medical faculty. He is board certified in both internal medicine and cardiology.
Dov A. Goldstein, M.D., M.B.A.
Dr. Goldstein serves as a Partner of Aisling Capital. Previously, Dr. Goldstein was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Vicuron Pharmaceuticals until its acquisition by Pfizer for $1.9 billion. While at Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, he raised over $250 million dollars in an IPO, PIPE, follow-on and block trade transactions. He led the valuation and finance due diligence for the merger with Biosearch Italia (Nuovo mercato: BIO.MI), the first U.S. and Italian public to public company merger. He also ran the investor relations and press relations efforts for the company. Prior to Vicuron, Dr. Goldstein was Director of Venture Analysis at HealthCare Ventures. Dr. Goldstein currently serves as a director of ADMA Biologics, Inc. and BioRelix, Inc. He received his M.D. from Yale School of Medicine and completed an internship in the Department of Medicine at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital. He also earned an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and received his B.S. with honors from Stanford University.
John H. Johnson has more than two decades of biopharmaceutical and healthcare industry experience. John H. Johnson was appointed senior vice president and president of the oncology business unit, Eli Lilly and Company, effective November 1, 2009. Prior to this appointment, he had served as chief executive officer of ImClone Systems since August 2007 and was also a member of ImClone's board of directors until the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lilly in November 2008. Previously, he served as company group chairman of Johnson and Johnson's Worldwide Biopharmaceuticals unit and was responsible for the biotechnology, immunology and oncology commercial businesses, including Centocor, Ortho Biotech Products and the Worldwide Strategic Marketing Group. Mr. Johnson began his career at Pfizer and then joined Johnson and Johnson in 2000 to help lead the Company into the anti-infectives market. He left Johnson and Johnson in 2000 to join Parkstone Medical Information systems as president and CEO, returning in 2002 as worldwide vice president, CNS/Psychiatry. He was then appointed president of Ortho Biotech Products and subsequently became responsible for Ortho Biotech Canada until he was named company group chairman in 2005. Mr. Johnson earned a B.S. degree from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania.
P. Sherrill Neff
P. Sherrill Neff has served on our board of directors since September 2011. Mr. Neff founded Quaker Partners Management, L.P. in 2002 and has since served as a partner at the investment firm. From 1994 to 2002, Mr. Neff was President and Chief Operating Officer of Neose Technologies, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, and a director from 1994 to 2003. From 1993 to 1994, he was Senior Vice President, Corporate Development at U.S. Healthcare. Prior to that time, Mr. Neff was managing director at investment bank Alex Brown & Sons from 1984 to 1993 and a corporate attorney at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius from 1980 to 1984. Mr. Neff holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. Neff serves on the board of directors of Resource Capital Corporation (NYSE: RSO), as well as several privately-held organizations including Biolex Therapeutics, Inc., Neuronetics, Inc., Optherion, Inc., RainDance Technologies, Inc. and Regado Biosciences, Inc. Mr. Neff also served on the board of directors of Amicus Therapeutics (Nasdaq: FOLD) from 1996 until 2011.
Prabhavathi Fernandes, Ph.D., President and CEO
Board Observers
P. Sherrill Neff, J.D., Quaker BioVentures
Devang Kantesaria, M.D., Devon Park Bioventures
James Rosen, M.B.A., M.S.P.H., Intersouth Partners
Andrew Schiff, M.D., M.B.A., Aisling Capital
Terry Woodward, Ph.D., M.B.A., Ontario Teachers Pension Plan