About

Rana Al-Hallaq, PhD is Partner and Head of Operations at Pfizer Ventures and Vice President, Worldwide Business Development. Rana is responsible for identifying, evaluating, making and managing equity investments aligned with the future directions of Pfizer. She currently has responsibility for Pfizer’s investments in Autifony Therapeutics, Biograph55, Enara Bio, Montis Biosciences, Nucleome Therapeutics, ReCode Therapeutics, RefleXion Medical, and Vivet Therapeutics. She is also responsible for managing investments in the Dementia Discovery Funds, the Health Enterprise Partners Fund, and the Wellington Venture Investments Fund. Rana serves as Vice Chair on the New York BIO Board of Directors. Prior to her current role, Rana was a Transactionalist in Worldwide Business Development at Pfizer where she was responsible for negotiating and transacting licenses, acquisitions, and partnerships across therapeutic areas. Rana joined Pfizer in 2015 as an Early Candidate Clinical Lead where she advised early clinical programs in CNS to ensure alignment with business strategies. Prior to joining Pfizer, she held roles at Allergan (formerly Actavis, formerly Forest Laboratories), first in Clinical Development Psychiatry as scientific and operational lead on Phase 2 and Phase 3 studies, and later in Business Development where she assessed and executed on a number of acquisitions and licenses across therapeutic areas. She began her training as a research fellow at the National Institutes of Health. Rana graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a BA in Biology from Hamilton College and holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Georgetown University Medical Center.

Bauke is a Principal in the Biotechnology team at M Ventures. He serves on the boards of Immunitas Therapeutics, iOnctura, NanoSyrinx, Pictor Labs and Synaffix,. Before joining M Ventures, he was with Jefferies International in the Healthcare Investment Banking group in London (UK). During his time at Jefferies he advised on several financings and M&A transactions across the biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical devices sectors. Bauke has a PhD in Cancer Studies from King’s College London (UK) and an MSc in Technical Medicine from the University of Twente (The Netherlands).

Mark joins from Evelo Biosciences, where since 2016 he served as Chief Scientific Officer and President of R&D. Previously, Mark held senior pharmaceutical and biotech roles including VP of New Medicines Therapeutics at UCB S.A, Senior Vice President of Immunoinflammation at GSK, and CEO of Hexagen, Lorantis and Biotica. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the BioIndustry Association. Mark holds a PhD in Genetics from the University of Cambridge.

John C Davis, Jr, MD, MPH, MS, FACP, FACR currently serves as a member of the board of directors and chair of the science committee at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco and Seattle and president of Norte Health Consulting, LLC in Cambridge, MA. He also was most recently the interim chief medical officer at Sonoma Bio. He continues to serve as a strategic advisor and scientific advisory board member of several companies including Human Immunology Biosciences (HiBio), Oak Hill Bio, Graphite Bio, and multiple earlier companies and biotech- focused venture capital groups. He previously served on the board of directors for Rheos Medicines and the scientific advisory board at Magenta Therapeutics.
He served as Head of Research and Development and Chief Medical Officer at Magenta Therapeutics in Cambridge, MA. In this role he was instrumental in driving the company forward as Magenta offered its IPO and becoming a clinical stage company. He has continued to build and grow the research and development organization across multiple platforms and multiple therapeutic areas including gene therapy, rare metabolic diseases, and blood cancers. Prior to joining Magenta, Dr. Davis was Senior Vice President and Head of Early Clinical Development at Pfizer Inc. where he oversaw multiple functional groups across global sites. In his role at Pfizer, he was responsible for bringing 17 groups under one organization across multiple therapeutic areas of focus on a global basis. Prior to his role at Pfizer, Dr. Davis served as Vice President and Global Therapeutic Area Head of Immunology across research and marketed products at Baxalta which was acquired by Shire. Dr. Davis held multiple leadership roles at Genentech and ultimately was Head of the Inflammation and Cardiovascular/Metabolism Group in the Early Clinical Development Group at Genentech.

Dr. Davis spent many years on faculty at The University of California San Francisco leading international clinical research programs in autoimmune disease and became Professor of Clinical Medicine. He continues to see patients, teach, and serve as volunteer faculty at the Boston VA Medical Center. He is a Fellow of The American College of Physicians and The American College of Rheumatology. He has authored over 120 publications and book chapters and has help international leadership positions in his areas of research focus in autoimmune disease.

Dr. Davis earned an MD from the University of Maryland summa cum laude. Dr. Davis trained in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at The University of California San Francisco. He continued training in clinical research and rheumatology at The National Institutes of Health NIAMS Intramural Program. He holds a Masters of Public Health Degree in Epidemiology from the University of California Berkeley, and a Master of Science Degree in Anatomy from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

Russell spent three decades at GSK where he held positions of increasing responsibility, including President of the International Pharmaceuticals Division, and membership of GSK’s Corporate Executive Team. He was also President of SR One, GSK’s Corporate Venture Group between 2008 and 2010. During his tenure at GSK Dr Greig developed deep experience across several functions including expertise in research and development, business development, strategic transactions and commercial operations.
In 2010 Russell formed his own company and became chair of multiple biotechnology companies. He is currently the Chair of BiomX (Israel/USA) and listed on the NYSE, eTheRNA (Belgium/USA) and Cardior (Germany). In addition, he was Chair of Sanifit (Spain; acquired by Vifor Pharma in 2021), Board Director and Chair at Ablynx (Belgium; acquired by Sanofi in 2018), board director of Tigenix (Belgium: acquired by Takeda in 2018), and Chair of Syntaxin (UK: acquired by Ipsen in 2013) and Novagalis (France: acquired by Santen in 2011). Russell holds a BSc and PhD in Biochemistry from The University of Manchester (UK), and a Fulbright Scholarship awarded by the US Government.

Jon is a co-founder of Rosetta Capital Limited, a venture capital firm focused on life science and medical technology sectors, where he has served as a Partner since January 2009. He has more than twenty years of investment experience in the life sciences industry. He started his investment career at Rothschild Asset Management before co-founding BioScience Managers Ltd in 2001. He has also served as a partner of Seroba Life Sciences Limited. Dr Hepple has held board director and observer roles in portfolio companies such as Aprea Therapeutics, Covagen AG, Opsona Therapeutics Ltd., Catalyst Biosciences, Glycomimetics, Inc., NovImmune SA and Tranzyme Pharma. He received his PhD from Cambridge University for cancer research.

Jim is a Founder of Nucleome Therapeutics and a Professor of Gene Regulation at the University of Oxford. His research combines experimental, computational and machine learning based approaches to functionally interpret the non-coding genome and its role in human diseases. His group has developed numerous cutting-edge technologies and tools used world-wide.

Nadiya is a Senior Director, Venture Investments, at J&J Innovation – JJDC, Inc. Prior to joining JJDC, Nadiya was a Principal in the Biotechnology team at M Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Merck KGaA Darmstadt, Germany, where she led investments across both Healthcare and Life Sciences and held Board seats in a number of portfolio companies.

Before transitioning to venture investing, Nadiya was a Manager in the Health & Life Sciences practice at global strategy consulting firm Oliver Wyman. In this role, she advised corporate healthcare clients, health systems, pharma, and digital health companies on strategic transformation across EMEA, Asia Pacific, and Emerging Markets, and supported M&A deals through pre-transaction assessments of value and risk.

Nadiya holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford, B.Sc. in Organic Chemistry and dual M.Sc. degrees in Enzymology and in Nanobiomaterials & Nanobiotechnology from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

Mark is a Senior Investment Manager, Life Science Direct Investments at British Business Bank, where he focuses on investing in life science businesses. He has several decades of experience across leading investment houses including Merlin Biosciences, Imperial Innovations, Mercia Asset Management, Northern Gritstone and, most recently, DBW. Throughout his career, Mark has supported businesses from early-stage development through to significant commercial growth, including Biovex, which was acquired by Amgen for $1bn, and Vectura, which reached a market capitalisation of more than £650m. More recently, he led deals at Adsilico, Phagenesis, RecourseAI and Imperagen. Mark helped deliver a 5x DPI from the Rising Stars Growth Fund, an early-stage technology fund, where he delivered trade sales and IPOs.