Board of Directors

Brook Byers — Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB)

Mr. Byers has been a venture capital investor since 1972. He has been closely involved with more than 50 new technology-based ventures, over half of which have already become public companies. He formed the first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KPCB to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare, and biotechnology sectors. KPCB has invested in and helped build over 110 life sciences companies which have developed hundreds of products to treat major underserved medical needs for millions of patients. Mr. Byers is currently on the Board of Directors of numerous companies, including CardioDX, Five Prime Therapeutics, OptiMedica®, Pacific Biosciences, Tethys and XDx. For more on Mr. Byers, please click here.

Josh Green — Mohr Davidow

Mr. Green has more than 30 years of experience working with companies from start-up phase to large public companies, and has helped many management teams focus their energy on building value for the enterprise and its stakeholders. Mr. Green is a General Partner of Mohr Davidow with experience in a broad range of industries including many life sciences companies and has assisted various entrepreneurs to define their markets and products.   Throughout his career Mr. Green has guided entrepreneurs and helped to build some of the most successful emerging growth companies in Silicon Valley including the Internet search engine Yahoo!, the biotechnology company Geron Corporation, the medical device company Target Therapeutics Inc., the telecommunication/networking company Cerent Corporation and the semiconductorcompany Xilinx, Inc.  Mr. Green graduated magna cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the UCLA School of Law where he was on the Law Review. For more on Mr. Green, please click here.

William Hagstrom — President and Chief Executive Officer, Crescendo Bioscience

Mr. Hagstrom has over 25 years of leadership experience in the healthcare industry. Prior to joining Crescendo Bioscience, he was President of Alpha BioPartners, a strategic consulting firm for early-stage biotechnology companies. While at Alpha BioPartners, Mr. Hagstrom co-founded Altheus Therapeutics and Biolytx Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he served as President and CEO of UroCor, a specialty diagnostic services company focused on urological cancers, which he built from start-up through market launch, product expansion and penetration of over 35% of the U.S. urology market. Mr. Hagstrom has also held a variety of management positions in large, multinational healthcare companies including Becton, Dickinson and Company, American Hospital Supply and Baxter International.

Leon Chen, Ph.D. — Skyline Ventures

Dr. Chen has worked in the life sciences industry for the past ten years as an entrepreneur, operator and venture capitalist. He was a co-founder of KAI Pharmaceuticals where he helped build and evolve the company from an early stage research platform to one with a pipeline of products in cardiovascular disease, pain management and renal dialysis. KAI was acquired by Amgen in early 2012. As a Partner at Skyline Ventures, Dr. Chen focuses on new and existing investments in therapeutics, life science tools and diagnostics ranging from early stage platform technologies to growing operating businesses. In addition to Crescendo Bioscience, he serves on the Board of Directors for Sutro Biopharma and Genocea Biosciences. Dr. Chen has a BA from UC Berkeley in Biochemistry, a Ph.D from Stanford University in Molecular Pharmacology and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Gary Kurtzman, MD — Managing Director, Safeguard Scientifics (NYSE:SFE)

Dr. Kurtzman has more than 25 years of experience as an entrepreneur, board member, financier and operator. At Safeguard, Dr. Kurtzman leverages his medical expertise to empower businesses to enhance their products, expand their services, and identify strategic partnership opportunities. Dr. Kurtzman has realized value for companies through a series of successful IPOs, M&A and turnaround transactions—most recently Shire’s acquisition of Safeguard’s partner company Advanced BioHealing for $750 million, in cash; and Eli Lilly’s acquisition of Safeguard’s partner company Avid Radiopharmaceuticals for $300 million, up front, with an additional $500 million payout dependent upon the achievement of future regulatory and commercial milestones. Dr. Kurtzman’s previous experiences include leadership roles at BioAdvance, Pluvita Corporation, Genovo, Avigen, and Gilead Sciences. Presently, Dr. Kurtzman is a lecturer in the Health Care Systems Department at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania where he teaches entrepreneurship in life sciences. In addition to Crescendo Bioscience, he is also a member of the board at Safeguard’s partner companies Alverix, Good Start Genetics, Medivo and PixelOptics.

Lawrence B. Leisure — Managing Partner, AccelusHealth Partners, LLC

Mr. Leisure is the Managing Partner at AccelusHealth Partners, LLC which provides advisory and consulting services to managed care and life sciences companies. He is also an Operating Partner at KPCB. Prior to co-founding AccelusHealth Partners, he had a thirty year career in healthcare, serving in a number of senior consulting and industry roles at UnitedHealth Group, Kaiser Permanente, Accenture, Price Waterhouse and Towers Perrin. In addition to Crescendo Bioscience, Mr. Leisure serves on the Board of Directors for Direct Dermatology, Oasis Outsourcing and Tethys Bioscience. For more on Mr. Leisure, please click here.

Jack L. Oliver III — Senior Advisor, Barclays and Senior Advisor, Bryan Cave LLP

Mr. Oliver is a Senior Advisor to Barclays, providing senior relationship management for top clients across investment banking, capital markets, and private wealth management. Additionally, he is a Senior Advisor of Bryan Cave LLP, an international law firm. Mr. Oliver served as National Finance Vice-Chairman for Bush-Cheney 04 and Victory 2004, managing the campaign’s $240 million national finance plan. Prior to that, Mr. Oliver was Deputy Chairman of the Republican National Committee. Mr. Oliver also works closely with the non-profit sector, having served for two years as Co-Chairman of the ONE Campaign, an organization to raise public awareness about global poverty and disease in developing countries, among other initiatives. In addition to Crescendo Bioscience, Mr. Oliver is on the Board of Directors for E-Health Corporation and Innovus, Inc. For more on Mr. Oliver, please click here.

George M. Rehm — Managing Partner, aeris CAPITAL AG

Mr. Rehm is a Managing Partner of aeris CAPITAL AG in Switzerland and has over twenty five years experience as a lawyer and executive in international licensing, technology transfer, investment and privatization transactions, involving the US, Europe and Asia, prior to commencing his current career in private equity. Currently, he holds board seats in numerous portfolio companies. Mr. Rehm remains of counsel to the Munich, Heidelberg and Berlin law firm of Weitnauer Partners. He received his BSFS from Georgetown University, and a JD from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Ralph Snyderman, MD — Founder and Chairman, Proventys™, Inc.

Dr. Snyderman is Chancellor Emeritus, Duke University and a James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University. He served as Duke’s Chancellor for Health Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine from 1989 to July 2004. Dr. Snyderman oversaw the development of the Duke University Health System, one of the nation’s most successful integrated academic health systems, and served as its first President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Snyderman is also the founder and chairman of Proventys, a healthcare technology company that develops risk assessment and clinical decision support tools to support personalized medicine and was a venture partner at New Enterprise Associates, based in Menlo Park, California. Dr. Snyderman serves on the Board of Directors for Liquidia Technologies, National Health Museum, Targacept, Inc., Trevena, Inc., XDx, Inc., and the Washington College Board of Visitors and Governors.