Nicholas Galakatos, PhD, has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005.  He has over 21 years of industry and investment experience in the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2000. From 1997 to 2000, Dr. Galakatos was Vice President of New Business at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: MLNM) and a member of the Management Team.  During that time he co-founded Millennium Predictive Medicine and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he was Chairman. Prior to Millennium he was an Associate at Venrock Associates focusing on early stage biotechnology investments.  Prior to Venrock he was Head of Molecular Biology Research at Novartis (formerly Ciba).

Dr. Galakatos earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT and performed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Galakatos represents Clarus on the Board of Directors of Aerovance, Link Medicine, Nanostring, and Taligen. In addition, he is the Lead Director at Affymax (NASDAQ:AFFY) and is a Director of Aveo, and Portola.

Previous directorships include Caliper (NASDAQ: CALP), Critical Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRTX), Millennium Predictive Medicine (acquired by Millennium), Syrrx (acquired by Takeda), TransForm (acquired by J&J) and Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly).

ngalakatos@clarusventures.com

Dennis Henner, PhD, has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005. He has over 27 years of direct industry and investment experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2001.  From 1981 to 2001, Dr. Henner was an executive at Genentech (NYSE:DNA) where he held various positions including Senior Vice President of Research, and member of Genentech's executive committee. 

Dr. Henner received his PhD from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia and did postgraduate training at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.

Dr. Henner represents Clarus Ventures on the Board of Directors of CoMentis, Ferrokin, Pelikan Technologies, ProActa, and SARcode. In addition he is on the Board of Directors of Ceregene, and Kalobios.

Previous directorships include,Cellerant, Rinat (acquired by Pfizer), Synergia, and Tercica (spinout from Genentech; NASDAQ:TRCA).

Jeffrey Leiden, MD, PhD has more than 20 years of experience in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors.  Dr. Leiden was President and COO of Abbott Laboratories, Pharmaceuticals Products Group, and a member of the Abbott Board of Directors and the TAP Board of Directors from 2000-2006.  From 1987-2000 Dr. Leiden held several academic appointments including Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Chicago, the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  During his academic career, Dr. Leiden was involved in starting several biotechnology companies including Vical and Cardiogene.  He is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Leiden represents Clarus on the Board of Directors of Lycera, Inc., and Biolex Therapeutics, and is Chairman of the Board of Variation Biotechnologies and of TyRx, Inc.  Dr. Leiden is also a, a non-executive director and Vice ChaIrman of the Board of Shire plc and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of the Ravinia Festival and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Leiden received both his medical degree and PhD from the University of Chicago and an honorary MA from Harvard University

Robert W. Liptak has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005. He  has over 20 years of experience in investment management focusing primarily on the establishment and management of various investment management businesses, including  being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2001.  From 1995 to 2001, Mr. Liptak was a Partner with the Geometry Group, a diversified asset management firm focused on establishing investment management firms.  From 1992 to 1995, Mr. Liptak was Vice President of Finance for Global Asset Management (USA) Inc., and began his career in 1986 with Price Waterhouse where he was a Manager in their Capital Market’s Group.  

Mr. Liptak is a Certified Public Accountant and received his MBA from Columbia University.

Mr. Liptak represents Clarus on the Board of Directors of Globus Medical, Inc.

Nicholas Simon has been a Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005.  In addition, Mr. Simon has over 20 years of operating experience in the biopharmaceutical industry including Genentech (NYSE:DNA) from 1989 to 2000 where he was Vice President of Business and Corporate Development.  Mr. Simon is also on the Advisory Council at the Gladstone Institute, a private not-for-profit research institute affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco. 

Mr. Simon received a B.S. degree in microbiology from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Loyola College. 

Mr. Simon represents Clarus on the Board of Directors of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (ACHN), ARYx Therapeutics (ARYX), Avanir Pharmaceuticals (AVNR), Pearl Therapeutics Inc., and Sientra Inc. In addition he is also a member of the board of directors for Poniard, Inc. (PARD), QuatRx Pharmaceuticals, and Verus Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Previous directorships include Barrier ( acquired by Stiefel Laboratories, Inc.) CoTherix (NASDAQ:CTRX), Neosil, and Rigel (NASDAQ:RIGL).

Michael Steinmetz, PhD, has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005. He has over 24 years of direct industry and investment experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 1997.  From 1986 to 1997, Dr. Steinmetz was an executive at Hoffmann-LaRoche where he held various positions including Vice President of Preclinical Research and Development, and Global Head of Biotechnology. 

Dr. Steinmetz obtained his PhD summa cum laude from the University of Munich and held positions at the California Institute of Technology and the Basel Institute for Immunology.

Dr. Steinmetz represents Clarus Ventures on the Board of Directors of ESBATech, Oxford Immunotec, and Virdante. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors of Allozyne, Biovitrum (STO:BVT), CGI Pharmaceuticals, Macrogenics, TaiGen, and VLST Corp.  

Previous directorships include Acorda (NASDAQ:ACOR), Amphora, Arena (NASDAQ:ARNA), Atugen/SR Pharma (AIM:SPA), BioXell (SWX: BXLN), Caliper (NASDAQ:CALP), Coelecanth (acquired by Lexicon), Epigenomics (FRK: ECX), GPC Biotech (FRK:GPC), IDEA AG, Intracel Corp, and ISB Accelerator.

Kurt C. Wheeler has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm’s inception in 2005. He has over 25 years of direct investment and industry experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2000.  Mr. Wheeler was founder and CEO of InControl, a publicly traded medical device company which was sold to Guidant. Prior to founding InControl he was a Principal with the Mayfield Fund focusing on healthcare investing. Mr. Wheeler began his career with Elli Lilly. 

Mr. Wheeler holds a BA from Brigham Young University, and a MBA from Northwestern University.

Mr. Wheeler represents Clarus Ventures on the Board of Directors of Globus Medical, Inc., Inset Technologies, SFJ Pharmaceuticals, LP, and Zogenix. In addition Mr. Wheeler is on the Board of Directors of Alsius, Cardiac Dimensions, CHF Solutions, Cryocor (NASDQ:CRYO), Hemosense (AMEX:HEM), Neuromed Pharmaceuticals, SenoRx, Somaxon Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:SOMX) and Xoft.

Previous directorships include InControl (acquired by Guidant), Intratherapeutics (acquired by Sutzer) and Eyetech (NASDAQ:EYET).

kwheeler@clarusventures.com