Board of Directors
Bob Higgins, General Partner, Highland Capital
Bob has more than 25 years of experience in venture capital and has served as a director of many public and private companies. He is a former director of the National Venture Capital Association and President of the New England Venture Capital Association. In addition, Bob has been recognized by the prestigious Forbes Midas List as one of the top venture capitalists in the industry, and has earned the 2008 HBS Healthcare Alumni Achievement Award. Bob has been an investor in many successful healthcare service, medical device and biotechnology companies. Before co-founding Highland, Bob was a general partner at a Boston-based venture capital partnership. Immediately prior to entering venture capital, he spent four years as the Executive Director of the John A. Hartford Foundation. He also was the Chief Executive of the Clark Foundation and the Burden Foundation. Bob is a former Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and an Assistant to the head of the international division of the U.S. Treasury. Bob graduated from Harvard College, with an A.B. in History, and received his MBA from Harvard Business School. Bob is involved in many activities related to venture capital, healthcare and social enterprise. Currently, he is a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and the Advisory Board of the Harvard - MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology. Also, Bob has been a faculty member at the Harvard Business School since 2001. At HBS, he teaches a second year course called Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital in Healthcare, and at KSG, he teaches a course called Entrepreneurship in the Private, Public, and Social Sectors. Additionally, Bob is a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a Board Member of the NHP Foundation, a National Board Member of The Smithsonian Institution, and an Overseer of The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Jim Scopa, Managing Director, MPM Capital
Mr. Scopa is a Managing Director in MPM's San Francisco office, having joined the firm in 2005. Previously, Mr. Scopa spent 18 years advising growth companies in biopharmaceuticals and medical devices at Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown and Thomas Weisel Partners. At Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown he served as Managing Director and Global Co-Head of Healthcare Investment Banking. At Thomas Weisel Partners he served on the Investment Committee for TWP's Health Care venture fund as well as Co-Director of Healthcare Investment Banking. He received an A.B. from Harvard College (Phi Beta Kappa), an M.B.A from Harvard Business School and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is also a Board Member at Conatus Pharmaceuticals, Solasia Pharma, and TriVascular.
Dr. Beth Seidenberg, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Beth joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in May 2005 to work in the life sciences area. For the past 20 years, she has focused her career on introducing new innovative treatments for AIDS, arthritis, asthma, cancer, psoriasis, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological and renal disorders. She introduced 10 innovative products to market and achieved over 40 regulatory approvals (including new indications and formulations) on a worldwide basis. These products have been successfully commercialized and have generated several billion dollars of revenue. Prior to joining KPCB, Beth was Senior Vice President, Global Development, and Chief Medical Officer at Amgen, Inc., the world’s largest biotechnology company. During Beth’s three years there, her responsibilities included: all stages of clinical research, regulatory affairs, safety, health economics/reimbursement and medical affairs. Prior to joining Amgen, Beth was a senior executive in research and development at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company and Merck & Co., Inc. She began her career in basic and clinical research at the National Institutes of Health specializing in immunology and infectious diseases. Beth received her BS from Barnard College magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa; and her medical degree from the University Of Miami School Of Medicine, alpha omega alpha. Her post-graduate training was completed at Johns Hopkins, George Washington School of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Nancy Stagliano, Chief Executive Officer
Nancy Stagliano, Ph.D. joined iPierian as Chief Executive Officer in September 2011 with an accomplished career as a biotech leader spanning all aspects of the industry, from discovery research and strategy to global medical affairs and corporate communications. Prior to joining iPierian, Dr. Stagliano was CEO of CytomX Therapeutics, a company where she was co-founder and a lead inventor on the patents for CytomX’s Probody platform. In earlier roles with CytomX, she served as the COO of CytomX LLC, which launched CytomX Therapeutics as well as Cynvenio Biosystems. Before moving to California, Nancy joined the Cambridge, Massachusetts, biotechnology industry in the late 1990s, where she had an eight-year tenure at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and consulted to several local startups. Dr. Stagliano received her BS in Electrical Engineering and her MS in Biomedical Engineering, both from Drexel University in Philadelphia. She obtained her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Miami, followed by three years as an independently-funded research fellow at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where she studied mechanisms of brain injury after stroke.
Dr. Peter Van Vlasselaer, Executive Chairman
Peter Van Vlasselaer, Ph.D. served as iPierian’s Interim CEO from April to August 2011, and has served as iPierian’s Executive Chairman since September 2011. He has over 20 years of experience in the industry and has been involved in the start-up of four biotechnology companies. Most recently he was the founding CEO of Arresto Biosciences which was acquired by Gilead Sciences in December 2010. Previously, Peter was the CEO of Avidia, Inc. from May 2004 until it was acquired by Amgen in October 2006. Prior to that he was involved in the start-up of InterMune where he served as Senior VP of Technical operations from November 1999 until May 2004. In 1993, he was involved in the start-up of Dendreon where he served as Vice President of Development until 1999. Between 1990 and 1993, Dr. Van Vlasselaer was a staff scientist at the Center for Nuclear Energy in Mol, Belgium. To date he has contributed to the development of several small molecule and biologic products in therapeutic areas such as cancer, inflammation, infectious diseases and fibrosis. Dr. Van Vlasselaer obtained a bachelor degree in zoology and a PhD in immunology from the University of Leuven in Belgium. He conducted post-doctoral research at Stanford University and at DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, CA. He has authored several peer reviewed scientific articles and book chapters and is the inventor on more than 30 patents.
Krishna Yeshwant, M.D., Partner, Google Ventures
Dr. Krishna Yeshwant is a physician, programmer, and entrepreneur who has been working with Google Ventures since its inception. He first joined Google as part of the New Business Development Team. Prior to Google, he helped start an electronic data interchange company that was acquired by Hewlett-Packard (HP) and a network security company that was acquired by Symantec (SYMC). He also co-authored the business plan for Diagnostics For All, which won both the Harvard Business School and MIT $100k business plan competitions. Previously, Krishna published several book chapters and journal articles in the field of computer guided surgery, completed research in tissue engineering, and developed and licensed multiple surgical devices. He has worked with the technology transfer offices of MIT, Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital. Krishna has a BS in Computer Science from Stanford University. He also earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is completing his residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.