Board-of-Directors
CEO & Founder

Fintan Walton

Dr Fintan Walton founded PharmaVentures, a premier transaction advisory firm and a leading international company in partnering, M&A deals and strategic alliances. 

Over a period of three decades, Fintan has built PharmaVentures into a global player in supporting transactions for blue chip corporations and emerging innovator corporations. In that time, the firm has delivered more than 1,000 transaction related assignments for companies in 38 countries. Clients have included major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as diversified chemical corporations, medical device, generic and OTC companies. Its clients have also included major banks, investment/merchant banks, as well as private equity and venture capital groups. 

Dr Walton majored in Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where he also gained a Ph.D. Prior to his entrepreneurial activities at PharmaVentures, Fintan had built his R&D and commercial experience in biotechnology within management positions at Bass and Celltech plc (1982-1992). 

In 1996, he also founded PharmaDeals, the leading database and publishing business related to deal making data and analytics. Thousands of customers from around the world either bought or subscribed to these PharmaDeals publications. The PharmaDeals business was sold to IMS Health (now IQVIA) in Aug 2012.

Board-of-Directors
Non-Executive Director

John Buxton

Having obtained an Honours degree in Law from the University of Reading and then qualified as a Barrister-at-Law, John Buxton has been working in the corporate advisory/M&A world for more than 25 years.

During that period, he has advised upon a very wide range of transactions, including domestic UK deals, cross-border deals, public and private company transactions, and stock market flotations. His previous roles include Head of Corporate Finance at Coutts & Co., Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at Teather & Greenwood PLC, and National Head of Corporate Finance at Numerica Group PLC.

His focus during the last 17 years has been almost entirely upon the provision of advice to family/privately-owned companies and entrepreneurs.

In addition to the services which he provides, John’s lengthy experience in the advisory world means that he has a considerable network of contacts in the legal, accounting, tax advisory, banking and private equity professions, enabling him to offer guidance and recommendations to clients where their needs fall outside his area of expertise.

John holds a number of non-executive roles within privately-owned and family companies. These roles afford him a different perspective on how such companies are run and the issues which confront the owner-managers on a regular basis. John is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Henley Business School at the University of Reading.

Corporate-Advisory
Managing Director

Adrian Dawkes

Adrian is a Managing Director at PharmaVentures and has been with the company since 2007. Adrian led multiple consultancy, licensing and M&A mandates. Notable deals include licensing transactions between MedGenesis and Pfizer, Esteve and Mundipharma, and M&A for a UK diagnostics business with Bruker and the sale of NanoSight to Spectris plc.

During his professional career, Adrian has significant multi-discipline expertise spanning research and development through to sales, marketing and business development. He has held senior positions with Johnson & Johnson, drug discovery platform company Acumen Bioscience and the Healthcare Consultancy company Execute Technologies. Adrian has over 30 years in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and in vitro diagnostics sectors.

Adrian holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Immunochemistry.

Corporate-Advisory
Managing Director

Stephen Waterman

Stephen is a Managing Director of PharmaVentures. He joined PharmaVentures in 2012, after a long career in Healthcare Investment Banking. At PharmaVentures, Stephen has originated and worked on a number of strategic advisory, licensing and M&A mandates, assisting his clients find the optimal solutions to their challenges and opportunities.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Stephen worked as an equity research analyst at Teather & Greenwood, Commerzbank and Elixir Securities covering a range of domestic and international pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Subsequently Stephen moved into Corporate Finance roles within Elixir Securities and Matrix Securities, where he advised a number of public and private diagnostic, therapeutics and medical technology companies on fundraising and M&A.

Before embarking on a career in the City, Stephen was instrumental in establishing Evaluate Pharma as one of the pre-eminent competitive intelligence tools in the healthcare industry. He holds a PhD in Neurology from the University of Cambridge.

Although he has a broad spectrum of experience across many sub-sectors of the Healthcare space, Stephen currently has a focus on Contract Research Organisations, Diagnostic, Medical Technologies and Therapeutics companies.

FINANCE
FINANCE DIRECTOR

John Harvey

John comes to PharmaVentures from the pharmaceutical industry and has previously worked in a number of senior finance roles in the technology and biotech sectors.

Formerly Vice President of Finance at a local pharmaceutical company, Prosidion Ltd in Oxford, John also worked for some years further afield. As Vice President, Corporate Controller at Allied Telesyn International, John worked in Seattle gaining valuable experience of international financial management & reporting.

John graduated from St Andrews University with a degree in economics. He later trained as a Chartered Management Accountant, an auditor with Ernst & Young and a financial analyst with Dell.

Executive Assistant
to CEO

Kim du Preez

Kim du Preez joins PharmaVentures as Executive Assistant to the CEO. Kim began her career as EA to the head of Equity Capital Markets at Deutsche Bank and from there has gained vast experience across various industries such as IT, consultancy, Education and Logistics working for Senior level executives. Kim holds qualifications in Marketing and Information Technology from the University of South Africa.

Corporate-Advisory
Snr. Marketing Manager

Lisa Holloway

Lisa Holloway joins PharmaVentures as Senior Marketing Manager, bringing over 25 years’ experience across a range of marketing management roles. Lisa began her career in the life science and healthcare industry at PharmaVentures. Her marketing experience expands across various industries such as food, automotive, nuclear, oil and gas, motorsport and defence for companies involved in performance engineering, aerodynamics and thermodynamics. Lisa holds qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and a certificate in Legal Practice from OCFE/Coventry University.

Corporate-Advisory
Vice President

Kate Moore

Kate has been an advisor or key player on the following PharmaVentures M&A mandates:

• Sanofi divestment of Slovak manufacturing site to Wood&Co (2013),
• Merck divestment of R&D facility to BioCity (2012),
• Canadian Biotech out-licensing to mid-size European Pharma Co. (2011),
• Sanofi divestment of 2 R&D sites to Covance (2010),
• UCB sale of 3 manufacturing sites to Aesica (2010) and
• Dr Reddy’s in-licensing of consumer health brands from Vitabiotics (2010).

Kate has more than 15 years of experience in the biotechnology industry and a successful track record in negotiating in and out licensing deals, conducting market evaluations and technical and commercial due diligence.

Kate holds an undergraduate degree from Oxford University and a PhD in Molecular Biology from University College London. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, her previous positions include marketing and research at BD Biosciences, BioCarta and Prolifix. More recently, Kate was the Director of Business Development at TopoTarget.

Mobile: +44 (0) 7960 508 429

Corporate-Advisory
Vice President

Jansen Jacob

Jansen is a healthcare transactions professional with nearly 20 years in the life science sector with expertise in M&A, licensing, business strategy, commercial due-diligence and deal structuring. At PharmaVentures, Jansen has played a key role in the divestment of manufacturing and R&D businesses on behalf of top 10 large pharmaceutical companies, resulting in multi-million dollar deals. Over the years he has also worked on a diverse range of assignments including licensing, valuation and strategy projects.

Fluent in Malayalam and Hindi, Jansen holds a chemistry degree from Gandhiji University, a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Sussex and an MBA from Oxford Brookes University. 

Corporate-Advisory
Senior Director

Asif Shahinsha

Asif is a Senior Director at PharmaVentures. He brings diverse experience in investment banking and healthcare. At PharmaVentures, Asif is part of the Corporate Finance and M&A advisory team and helps clients find the optimal solutions to their challenges and opportunities.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Asif was managing director at Thirty Four Ltd, a healthcare focused corporate finance advisory boutique that focused on pharma, digital health, med-tech and healthcare services. He has advised clients in the UK, Sweden, The Netherlands and the US, operating in digital mental health, rapid diagnostics, Alzheimer’s diagnostics, digital-first oncology services platform on capital raising, IP monetisation and partnerships.

Prior to Thirty Four, working at Sapien Capital, and at Wedge Alternatives before that, he has led several sell-side transactions in the UK, US, Portugal and India. He has also spent five years working for Citigroup and Smith Barney in India and the US. Over the years, he has built successful relationships with founders, VC/PE investors and corporate M&A teams.

Asif graduated with a BSc in Physics from Bharathidasan University and an MSc from London School of Economics and Political Science.

Corporate-Advisory
Snr. Associate

Kyriakos Tzafestas

Kyriakos joined PharmaVentures as an Associate.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Kyriakos was a life sciences consultant working with biotech companies and early-stage technologies on projects encompassing market analysis, competitive intelligence, opportunity assessment, commercialisation roadmaps, patent landscaping, valuations, and business development for research collaborations and licensing opportunities. Kyriakos has also served as the Industry Programme Manager for the Royal Society, overseeing their research translation programme and advising public policy on Research & Innovation.

Before commencing his professional career, Kyriakos completed a Master of Biotechnology (Distinction) at the University of Glasgow and obtained a PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of York.

Corporate-Advisory
Associate

Luke is an Associate at PharmaVentures with 3 years of experience in life sciences consulting. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, he supported pharma/biotech clients of all sizes on various topics, including competitive intelligence, market opportunity assessment and business development. He has in-depth knowledge of a pharmaceutical product lifecycle and is experienced in helping life sciences companies to develop corporate or brand strategies to succeed in the markets in which they compete.

He obtained his PhD in Bioengineering from Imperial College London, where he applied computational modelling approaches to understand gene regulatory networks. He is also a native Korean speaker and has a strong passion for connecting life sciences companies across Asia and the West.

Corporate-Advisory
Associate

Fabio Tommasini

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Fabio worked as an Associate Consultant at Prescient Healthcare Group, focussing on competitive intelligence in oncology and haematology.

Fabio has been awarded a PhD in Tissue Engineering at University College London. During his studies, Fabio led the London Chapter of a Global Accelerator programme for seed-stage companies focussed on life sciences, digital health, clean-tech and advanced engineering, at Innovation Forum and joined Waimangu Ventures as an intern, backing the venture capital and consulting functions of the firm.

Fabio also holds a MSc in Molecular Medicine at Imperial College London and a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Verona.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Enrique Bendito-Moll

Enrique joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst with over 4 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, he conducted his multidisciplinary PhD research at one of GlaxoSmithKline’s research centers (UK). He developed a platform that accelerated early drug discovery efforts in the field of Protein Degradation. In parallel, he led the implementation of a Europe-wide internal development programme for employees. Enrique is fluent in Spanish, Catalan and English. He holds a PhD in Chemical Biology (GlaxoSmithKline/University of Strathclyde, UK) and a master’s degree in Pharmacy (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain).

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Rebeca Garcia

Rebeca is a Business Analyst, with experience in management consultancy and technology transfer.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Rebeca worked in a boutique management consultancy advising life sciences companies. Prior to this, she was part of the commercialisation team at Imperial College London focusing on the creation of patents, licensing agreements and start-ups for scientific discoveries, such as a mRNA technology currently in development to accelerate low-cost COVID-19 vaccine. After finishing her academic studies, Rebeca did an internship at the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Chicago, grasping the fundamentals of technology transfer and at Samsung Electronics UK in a business development role.

Rebeca holds a bilingual degree in Biotechnology from the University San Pablo CEU (Spain) with a year abroad in the UK, and a Certificate in Business of Biotechnology from the University of Chicago (USA). Rebeca is fluent in Spanish and English and can speak French and Italian.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Andreas Katsiamides

Andreas is a Business Analyst at PharmaVentures.

He has experience in Molecular Biology and Medical Diagnostics. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Andreas worked in competitive intelligence consulting firms, supporting with commercial/competitor due diligence and opportunity and threat assessments across a range of therapy areas including oncology, personalised healthcare, and infectious and rare diseases.

Andreas holds a BSc in Molecular Genetics and Pharmacology and a PhD in Molecular Neurobiology, both from the University of King’s College London (UK).

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Frankie Wong

Frankie joined PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst with a broad range of experience covering technology commercialisation, life science and startup.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, he developed a COVID lateral flow test and an invasive medical device for commercialisation at an applied research institute in Hong Kong. He pitched the projects to major IVD players and advised on their production, IP protection, regulatory requirements as well as commercialisation strategy.

He holds a BSc in Chemistry and a PhD in Bioengineering, both from the Hong Kong Baptist University. During his studies, he applied DNA and nanomaterial engineering to develop drug, diagnostic tool and biomaterial. Using the therapeutic project he developed, he won first place in an entrepreneurial competition at the University of California, Berkeley. He is fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese.

Database Coordinator

Shona Nassimbwa

Shona Nassimbwa joins PharmaVentures as a Database Coordinator, bringing experience from various industries including transport and logistics, medical devices and toxicology, and education. Within these industries Shona has gathered experience with databases and Customer Relationship Management systems, providing key analytical support, reviewing and updating processes. Her interests are information technology, evaluation of departmental processes and learning and development. Shona holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Philosophy from Oxford Brooke University. She also holds a City & Guilds qualification in Education and Training from Abingdon and Witney College.

Corporate-Advisory
Expert Advisor

Nigel Borshell

Nigel joined the team back in 2008 and brings to PharmaVentures’ clients specialist expertise in valuation methodologies, deal structuring modelling and pricing, and has extensive experience in major global pharmaceutical corporation site divestments in the USA and across Europe.

With a strong background in senior international commercial management roles in both diagnostics and biotechnology firms, Nigel brings insight into a breadth of life science industry sectors gained at drug testing specialists Syva Company, at Hoechst, US diagnostics leader Dade Behring, and as European Business Development Director for the California-based molecular biology company Cepheid.

With over 35 years experience in Life Sciences Nigel is the author of numerous Pharmaceutical/Biotech Industry reports, papers and articles, including most recently:-

The Royalty Rate Report 2012: A Comprehensive Assessment of Valuation in the Pharmaceutical Sector; Cartwright & Borshell; ISBN: 978-0-9568270-2-9 Print

Approaches to Valuation of Pharmaceutical Licensing Deals; Ahmed & Borshell; Published by PharmaDeals 2012, ISBN 978-0-9568270-6-7 Print

Valuation benefits of structure-enabled drug discovery: Borshell & Congreve; Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, March 2011, Volume 10.

Pharmaceutical royalties in licensing deals: No place for the 25 per cent rule of thumb; Borshell & Dawkes, Journal of Commercial Biotechnology,Vol 16, No 1 (2010).

Corporate-Advisory
Regional Advisor

Paul MacLeman

Paul joins PharmaVentures as a member of the Advisory Board based in Australia. Bringing over 25 years’ board and executive experience across the life sciences, agricultural and not-for-profit sectors. His experience ranges from strategy formulation to capital raising, business development, technology commercialisation and sales & marketing.

Paul’s work portfolio spans working as a Vice President in Animal Health at Agenix Ltd, Managing Director at Hatchtech Pty Ltd and Chief Executive Officer at Genetic Technologies Ltd. Paul is currently Chair of AdAlta Limited, Livac Pty Limited, and is Non-Executive Director of Sypharma Pty Limited. He has also launched a variety of products in Australia, the US and Asia, founded life sciences start-ups in the biologics area and worked in investment banking.

Paul graduated with a Bachelor of Veterinary Science from the University of Sydney. In addition, Paul also completed a postgraduate certificate in engineering at Swinburne University of Technology and Master of Business Administration degree at Macquarie University.

Corporate-Advisory
Regional Advisor

Sue MacLeman 

BPharm, LLM, MMkt, FAICD, FATSE, FACPP

Sue joins PharmaVentures as a member of the Advisory Board based in Australia.

Sue has more than 30 years’ experience as a pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology executive with senior roles in corporate, medical, commercial and business development. Sue has served as CEO and Board member of several ASX and NASDAQ listed companies in the sector and is currently Chair MTPConnect (Medical Technology and Pharmaceuticals Industry Innovation Growth Centre) , Chair – Oventus Medical Ltd (ASX: OVN), Chair – Anatara Lifesciences (ASX:ANR),  Chair -Tali Digital Ltd (ASX:TD1), Non-Executive Director of Palla Pharma Ltd (ASX:PAL), and Non-Executive Director of veski. Sue is also appointed to several academic and government advisory committees, including CSIRO Health and Biosecurity Advisory Committee, Prime Ministers Digital Expert Advisory Committee, DMTC Medical Countermeasures and various COVID-19 taskforces.  Her broad commercial experience is underpinned by graduate qualifications in pharmacy and post graduate qualifications in corporate governance, commercial law, business administration and marketing. Sue is a Fellow and Chair Health Technology Forum ATSE, Chair Policy Forum ATSE and Fellow/Graduate of AICD.

Corporate-Advisory
Regional Advisor

Aki von Roy

Aki von Roy has over 30 years’ experience in big pharma and 16 years in biotech and has been involved in over 18 start-up or merger ventures as director or investor. These include Founder CEO of Proacta and CoDa Therapeutics and founding director of Corra Life Sciences (USA), Biomatters (NZ) and White Biotech (AUS).

Aki is the former European president of Bristol-Myers Squibb, where he was responsible for US$ 2.2 billion in sales, more than 7,500 employees and some 40 subsidiaries. In 1997, he retired from BMS to establish RvR Associates, a private investment firm specialising in health and related matters.

Former chairman of both private and publicly traded companies such as Genesis R&D, Phylogica, Vital Foods and Phytomedics Aki is now a Venture Partner at BioPacificVentures and an advisor to Direct Capital. He was previously a partner of Inventages (US$ 1.5 billion life science fund).

Corporate-Advisory
Senior Advisor

Frank Dollard

Frank has a 40-year track-record of success and innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry working for Glaxo, BMS and Pliva. His main experiences cover Manufacturing, Quality Management, Commercial, Supply-Chain and Procurement (Strategic Sourcing) within the ethical & generic pharmaceutical and devices industry. He has formed and led teams in Europe/USA/Latin America and the Pacific Rim. Frank is a chemistry graduate from the University of Liverpool. Since joining PharmaVentures, Frank has opined on multiple divestment projects, including the recent sale of Novartis’ manufacturing plants to Siegfried.

Corporate-Advisory
Regional Advisor

Christopher Berry

Dr Christopher Berry previously worked on R&D Transactions within Sanofi R&D, where he was responsible for building research collaborations (ranging from material transfer agreements through to multi-scaffold drug discovery deals) in the areas of anti-infectives, biologics, and regenerative medicine, as well as for the Asia-Pacific Therapeutic Unit. In addition he was also responsible for opportunity scouting in the UK across all therapeutic areas. He had over 14 years experience in research alliance building and alliance management. He was previously Head of Thrombosis and Haematology in Synthélabo Recherche (one of Sanofi’s predecessor companies), which was the culmination of 16 years in discovery research which began in 1984 when he joined Synthélabo’s Pain and Inflammation group, after a brief flirtation with academic research. He is a member of the panel of KHIDI (Korean Health Industry Development Institute) Key Opinion Leaders in their business development support section. He obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at King’s College, London in 1981, and an MBA at the Open Business School in 2003.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Pierre Duda

Pierre joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst bringing experience from life sciences asset valuations and pharmaceutical marketing.

Prior to joining the company, Pierre was working as a Financial/Business Analyst in a consulting firm in Münich (Germany) and worked on market models, revenue forecasts, risk analysis, development plans, and cost estimates, incorporated in financial and licensing models. Pierre also had the opportunity to manage out-licensing projects for in-development stage assets.

Also, Pierre had a career in marketing holding the position of Junior Product Manager in France for two companies, Imaxio (now Osivax) and Abbott Diabetes Care.

Pierre studied pharmacy at Lyon University (France) and holds a Masters’s degree from Grenoble Business School (France) in Biopharmaceutical Management. Pierre is fluent in French, English, and Polish and can speak German.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Fotis joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst.

Prior to joining the company, Fotis worked as a Competitive Intelligence Analyst providing analysis on the competitive landscape of a number of autoimmune diseases as well as generating drug approval forecasts and syndicated industry reports.

Fotis has also worked as a Pharma & Healthcare Industry Analyst for a large financial group where he forecast the pharmaceutical and healthcare market size on a country-by-country basis, along with analysing wider industry trends and assessing their potential impact on pharma and biotech companies.

Fotis holds a BSc in Chemistry from Aristotle University in Thessaloniki and an MSc in Drug Development Science from King’s College London.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

JungHyun is a Business Analyst with experience in project management and CDMO business development.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, she worked at one of the largest Korean pharmaceutical companies in supporting Big Pharma/biotech clients on CDMO projects as the key account manager. She oversaw cost proposals and negotiation, and provided in-depth support for early clinical R&D projects and commercial production.

She holds a BSc and MSc in Biological Sciences from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). During her studies, she utilised computational tools for complex NGS data to study 3D chromatin structure in the context of gene regulation in disease and development. She is fluent in English and Korean.

Corporate-Advisory
Business Analyst

Ross Jenkins

Ross joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst, with previous experience in diagnostic start-ups and commercialisation.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Ross worked at a multiplex immune-diagnostic start-up in New Zealand focused on both human and animal health. During this time he was involved across all areas of the business from communications, manufacturing, quality/regulatory affairs, and market analysis. 

Ross holds a BSC(Hons) in Biotechnology and, a PGDip and Masters in Bioscience Enterprise from the University of Auckland.

Corporate-Advisory
M&A ASSOCIATE

Akanksha Manglani

Akanksha joins PharmaVentures as an M&A Associate. She worked for BDO as Senior M&A Associate, Corporate Finance and Investment Banking. She worked with a wide range of companies to create deliverables, provide strategic advice, and participate in Negotiations and Deal Closures. At Grant Thornton, she introduced new research techniques to help create a research arm dedicated to Private Equity Funds. As a consultant, she has analysed global pharmaceutical industry trends providing a variety of solutions to overcome major challenges in the industry in partnership with Deloitte Sydney.

Akanksha holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Bath.

Corporate-Advisory
Snr. Business Development Associate

Jessie (Sangmin) You

Jessie is an Associate with experience in drug development across different product life cycles from pre-clinical to post-marketing.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Jessie worked at Pfizer, Celgene and ILIAS Biologics across different functions in medical affairs and regulatory/clinical project management, supporting product launch and reimbursement, managing post-marketing surveillance studies, investigator-initiated trials, research collaborations, competitive intelligence and IND filing.

Jessie holds a BSc in Chemistry, a MSc in Pharmaceutical Sciences, and a PharmD, all from the University of Rhode Island (USA).

Corporate-Advisory
BUSINESS ANALYST

SeungHwan Song

SeungHwan joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst with a broad range of experience covering the biopharmaceutical industry, healthcare policy and IT healthcare.

Prior to joining PharmaVentures, SeungHwan worked at Samsung Bioepis, one of the biggest biosimilar companies, as a manager of the corporate planning team where he worked on market analysis, business development and developing new business area. He also participated in the IT strategy group, aiming to develop the technology roadmap and lead the digital transformation. He has experience in the public institute in South Korea, leading projects regarding healthcare policy and regulation.

SeungHwan holds a BSc in Health Science from Korea University, an M.Eng in Technology Management/Corporate Strategy from Seoul National University.