BIOADVANCE - Key Persons
Ms. Schilberg has more than 30 years of experience working with academic technologies and start-up companies in the life sciences sector. Under her leadership as CEO from 2002-2021, BioAdvance committed over $50 million to almost 100 seed-stage companies and technologies focusing in areas including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and infectious diseases. Those companies have leveraged over $3.75 billion in subsequent capital from venture capital, grants, collaborations, M&A activity and product revenues.
Ms. Schilberg is, or has served as a board member or observer for several BioAdvance portfolio companies including Protez, Avid, Immunome, Jenrin Discovery, Merganser, Novira Pharmaceuticals, Ossianix, Mebias Discovery, One Health, Keriton, ENB Therapeutics and Palvella Therapeutics. Ms. Schilberg also serves on various boards or advisory boards, including the Alliance for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), the Drexel-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Life Sciences & Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Medicine Research Council Meeting, the University City Keystone Innovation Zone, and the University City Science Center's Phase 1 Ventures.
Before joining BioAdvance she served as a senior executive with four emerging life sciences companies and prior to that was a partner at Morgan Lewis.
David Shin, MD, is a trained physician and engineer who brings over 20 years of investment management and executive operating experience to BioAdvance. His career includes deep focus in both therapeutics and software development for the life sciences, which enables him to support a diverse group of companies in the BioAdvance portfolio.
At Catalytic Life Sciences, a biotech consulting firm, Dr. Shin assisted private-stage, therapeutics clients with company strategy, business development, and preparations for fundraising. At Limelight Bio, as Chief Operating Officer, he was instrumental in establishing complementary gene therapy platforms that later became the foundations for two new companies. Prior to Limelight, Dr. Shin was VP of Strategy at Alpine Biosciences, a nanotechnology platform company focused on the delivery of large molecules, which was eventually sold to Oncothyreon in 2014.
In 2008, Dr. Shin helped launch Ayer Capital, a long-short, healthcare hedge fund based in San Francisco. During this time, he managed investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, and device companies for the fund.
After his clinical training, Dr. Shin's initial industry experience was in software and services for drug development. He held a leadership role at InnaPhase Corporation, a venture-backed company in Philadelphia which was acquired by Thermo Fisher in 2004. He remained there as Director of Technology in the Informatics division, which was responsible for integrating data across the entirety of Thermo's product and service offerings.
Dr. Shin earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania where he also trained in ophthalmology. During residency, his research and publications centered on computer vision and augmented reality applications for ophthalmology.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Entrepreneur - in - Residence
- Visionary Physician
Deneen is a visionary physician executive grounded in clinical medicine, scientific research, and new business development. She thrives on finding opportunities and modernizing how we access, pay for, and experience the healthcare system. Deneen is persistent in pursuing good ideas, passionate about engaging with teams in discovery and execution. She is valued for her direct style, natural curiosity and intuition, and unfaltering energy as she brings clarity to goals and makes strategy actionable. She is an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioAdvance where she sits on the investment committee. Most recently, Deneen was the EVP for Research and Development for UnitedHealth Group where for 16 years, she led the ideation, successful execution, and profitable exit of multiple businesses, leveraging data and general-purpose technologies into transformative applications and care delivery models. Previously, Deneen was the Founder and CEO of MYnetico, a digital health platform, that was acquired by UHG in 2006. Earlier, she was the Chief Medical Officer of ARIA Health Care System and of Health Partners of Philadelphia. She began her career serving as a resident in Pediatrics, fellow in Hematology & Oncology, and attending physician at CHOP.
Deneen currently serves on the governance boards of Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LSE: HIK), Sensei Biotherapeutics (NASDAQ: SNSE) and Canary Medical as well as the advisory board of The Center for Health Incentives & Behavioral Economics at Penn Medicine. In 2022 she was a Modern Healthcare's Top Innovator; in 2014, an Emmy® Award winner; and in 2013, a CES® Innovation Design & Engineering Innovation Honoree. Deneen received her MD from the Temple University School of Medicine and BS in Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Physician
- Scientist
Dr. Gregory Harriman is an accomplished physician, scientist and biomedical executive having over 25 years of experience with increasing responsibilities in academic medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. He has held leadership positions in both small and large biopharmaceutical companies, having global responsibilities in research and development of pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices and cell therapies, which has given him a thorough understanding of the requirements for development of drugs, biologics and cell therapies, from discovery through regulatory submissions. He has led successful regulatory submissions in the U.S. (both NDAs and BLAs), EU (MAAs) and Japan (NDAs) and has presented to FDA Advisory Committees and the EMEA. In previous positions at IVAX, Centocor and J&J, he led clinical R&D groups responsible for development of both drugs and biologics, including Remicade® (infliximab).
Dr. Harriman founded Main Line Ventures, an investment and consultancy company focused on identifying innovative and pioneering life sciences opportunities. He was a member of Robin Hood Ventures, an Philadelphia-based angel investing group, and worked closely with the life sciences community in the Philadelphia area to identify and fund biotech companies and to advance translational medical research. He was previously a research professor at Drexel and an advisor to its Coulter Translational Medicine Program which provides funding for therapeutic, medical device or diagnostic projects that have significant potential to be successfully developed and commercialized. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the BioAdvance portfolio companies, Opsidio, Ribonova and Treventis, and was previously a Board member for Novira, Immunome, GenPro and Annovis.
He attended the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate and received his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego. He trained in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital and completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the NIH. He is board-certified in internal medicine, infectious diseases and clinical & laboratory immunology. He had a successful academic career at the NIH and Baylor College of Medicine, publishing over 40 scientific papers, obtaining R01 and U01 grant funding from the NIH as well as private foundation funding, and conducting innovative research in immunology, vaccines and immune-mediated diseases. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of several other professional medical organizations.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Managing Director
- Life Science Investor
Dr. Shahram Hejazi is a life science investor and entrepreneur with general management experience in both early-stage ventures and large global companies. As Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Hejazi is responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of BioAdvance. His areas of investment focus are research tools, devices, diagnostics and digital health. He serves on the boards of Halo Labs Inc., WellTrackOne Inc., Talex Medical LLC, Bainbridge Health LLC, RightAir Inc., Oncora Medical Inc., Wellsheet Inc. and Keriton Inc. He is the Chairman of Philadelphia Pediatric Device Consortium at CHOP. Dr. Hejazi is also the 2014 James Wei Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Princeton University, where he is a part-time faculty and teaches a well-regarded course on the topic of venture capital.
Previously, Dr. Hejazi was the President of Kodak's life science division (later called Carestream Molecular Imaging), where he had global responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing and service. While holding this position, Dr. Hejazi led the system business to successful double-digit annual growth and directed the launch of a new imaging agent business.
Before Kodak, he was the CEO of Zargis Medical Corporation (an early stage medical device company that spun-off from Siemens), where he led the company's efforts in areas ranging from raising capital and technology development to completion of several clinical trials, FDA approval and product launch- the company was later sold to 3M. Prior to Zargis, Dr. Hejazi was the Head of the Strategic Business Development group at Siemens where he was instrumental in establishing Siemens first corporate venture fund. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hejazi held R&D management positions within the diagnostic imaging and nanotechnology fields at Kodak and IBM, respectively. In addition to his Board responsibilities at BioAdvance, Shahram is also the Chairman of the advisory board of Integral Molecular Inc. His past Board responsibilities includes FDA Industry Advisory Panel Member for Molecular and Clinical Genetic Devices, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Bioscan Inc., Alpha Innotech Corp. Shahram is the author of over 10 scientific publications and has a PhD in electrical engineering with emphasis in biophysics (SUNY at Buffalo) and an executive business education (Stanford University).
Frederick "Rick" Jones, M.D., M.B.A. is a Partner. Dr. Jones has over 30 years in the life science industries, serving in roles as physician, executive, consultant, director and investor. At BioAdvance he is responsible for investments in therapeutics and medical devices and serves on the Board of Envara and RightAir.
Previously Dr. Jones was a Director at Broadview Ventures, a Boston-based philanthropic venture fund focused on breakthrough technologies in cardiovascular disease. At Broadview Ventures, Dr. Jones has served as Director on the board of Aeromics and Nido Surgical, and as Observer on the boards of Aria CV, Ischemia Care and Remedy Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Broadview Dr. Jones served as CEO of Anchor Therapeutics, a venture-backed company, which was developing a platform based on peptide modulators of GPCRs. Prior to Anchor, Dr. Jones held executive positions with Devgen NV (Ghent, Belgium) and BioRexis (acquired by Pfizer). Dr. Jones began his industry career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, initially in Global Medical Affairs and subsequently in Global Business Development.
Dr. Jones is a board-certified internal medicine physician who practiced in the US Navy, the Lahey Clinic (Burlington, MA) and at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his BA, MD and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Entrepreneur - in - Residence
Marie Lindner, MD worked in executive roles in pharmaceutical, biotech, venture capital, start-up and medtech companies with experience across therapeutic areas and modalities and between business and clinical development over 30 years. She was recruited to start a team at Novartis Pharmaceuticals, focused on finding new trends in science and medicine. Dr. Lindner now retired, maintains several consultancies and serves on several boards.
Before Novartis, Marie led gasteroenterology licensing at Shire, after five years as a Venture Partner at BioAdvance, a startup biotech VC group, serving on 8 startup boards. Previously she worked in business/clinical development at five other medium/large biotech/pharma companies, co-founded two startups and played a senior role in a cell therapy company.
Dr. Lindner was board certified in internal medicine and clinical nutrition, was a resident in general surgery and internal medicine and a fellow in atherosclerosis/lipid metabolism/nutrition. She was a faculty member at Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
As program director at BioAdvance, Ms. McCoy is responsible for the maintaining the organization's outreach to applicants and for internal facilitation of the funding application and review process. Ms. McCoy is also responsible for a variety of research and analysis initiatives at BioAdvance - organizing and maintaining a variety of internal databases focused on quantifying regional growth, summarizing BioAdvance portfolio company progress, organizing data related to venture capital metrics. Previously Ms. McCoy worked with QED in Malvern, PA as research and information manager. QED provided advice and counsel to life sciences companies and organizations. Ms. McCoy completed the Rutgers University Mini-MBA program in 2015. She holds a BA in psychology from Millersville University and is currently working on her Master of Arts degree in counseling.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Entrepreneur - in - Residence
Mike has over 35 years of experience at leading and managing drug discovery and development teams at both large pharmaceutical and small biotech companies. He is an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioAdvance where he sits on the investment committee and does outreach to local research institutions to help bring interesting investable science to BioAdvance's attention. Mike was Head of Research at a drug discovery accelerator called BioMotiv and Executive in Residence at Koutif Therapeutics. Mike is CSO at Mirata Pharmaceuticals where he leads drug discovery and non-clinical development, President of Lark Pharmaceutical Consulting where he advises biotech companies on drug discovery and development strategy and sits on the board of a drug delivery company call Ophidion. Prior to joining BioAdvance, Mike was CSO and Sr. Vice President of Research at Trevena Inc., where he was a member of the executive team and was responsible for the drug discovery and non-clinical development functions within the company. Prior to Trevena, Mike was Vice President of Biology at Centocor R&D where he was responsible for the therapeutic discovery strategy and execution in immunology, oncology, tissue remodeling and biomarkers, and Director of Musculoskeletal Diseases at GlaxoSmithKline, where he managed a portfolio of drug discovery projects targeting osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Mike started his industry career as a Senior Investigator at Merck Research laboratories, where he was a drug discovery leader. He has published over 130 peer reviewed papers, reviews and book chapters and is a co-inventor on 11 patents. Mike received his B.S. in Microbiology from the Pennsylvania State University and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and Microbiology from the Case Western Reserve University Medical School. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at The University of Washington.
Mr. Driscoll brings twenty years of finance expertise in both multi-national corporations and venture-backed life sciences firms to BioAdvance. His career has focused on financial management reporting and consolidation, budgeting and forecasting, treasury management, and internal financial controls.
Prior to joining BioAdvance Mr. Driscoll was controller with BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corporation (acquired by Pfizer Corporation). He also served as controller with Targeted Genetics Corporation (formerly Genovo, Inc.), and he held financial management positions with Nexell Therapeutics, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Pfizer and ICI Americas. Mr. Driscoll holds a Masters of Science in financial management and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Drexel University.