Board-of-Directors
CEO & Founder

Fintan Walton

In 1992 Dr Fintan Walton co-founded CONNECT Pharma, a predecessor company to PharmaVentures focused on assisting pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide in partnering, the licensing of intellectual property and M&A. In 1997 this company became PharmaVentures.

Over a period of nearly three decades Fintan 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.

In 1996 he also founded PharmaDeals, the leading database and publishing business related to dealmaking 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.

Dr Walton majored in Genetics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland where he also gained a Ph.D researching cell proliferation in yeast. 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).

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

Steve 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.

Corporate-Advisory
Managing Director

Mark Andrews

For over 25 years Mark has been active in the Life Science industry. After starting in academic research in Cambridge, Mark has gone on to build a career in Life science investment and M&A Advisory.

As an active Life Science investor Mark was active as a Principal at Inventages in both Switzerland & London as well as at the DEWB Venture Capital in Jena, Germany during which time he managed numerous investments and took positions on the boards or took up board observer rights on the vast majority. His experience spans across the investment cycle, from sourcing through investment negotiation, hands-on portfolio management driving towards exit negotiation.

Additionally Mark was a member of the Corporate Finance M&A Life Science sector team at BDO in London where he was a core member of the team and worked with clients especially in the out sourced pharma services and medical devices sectors.

The appointment of Mark will enable PharmaVentures to strengthen our cross-border M&A and fundraising capabilities.

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 BD Director

Summer Park

Summer is a Business Development Director, with experience in business consultancy and public sector strategy. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, she took part in developing the governmental growth plan for New Zealand’s start-up ecosystem. Summer has also won and worked on numerous projects to solve technical, market, and supply chain related problems for technology businesses, and has experience in digital marketing.

Prior to embarking on her career, Summer played a pivotal role in fundraising for and expanding the operations of Chiasma – a premium student-led organisation – of which she is now a Board Member. Summer holds a Master of Biomedical Sciences (First Class Honours) from The University of Auckland, which studied the effects of the small molecule kinase inhibitor PR610 on melanoma.

Summer is a native English and Korean speaker.

Corporate-Advisory
Associate

Mark Ashworth

Mark joins PharmaVentures as an Associate, bringing experience from healthcare consulting, pharmaceutical R&D and academic research.

As a strategic consultant prior to joining the company, Mark worked on projects encompassing market access, real-world evidence, regulatory assessment and competitor analysis for some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. Mark also has experience working in R&D for GlaxoSmithKline in the UK and DSM in the Netherlands, as well as a stint working in IP & technology transfer for the University of Manchester. Whilst completing his postgraduate studies, Mark was successful in several entrepreneurial competitions and has experience in establishing and securing funding for a technology startup.

Mark graduated MBiolSci (1st Class Hons) in Molecular Biology from the University of Sheffield, and obtained a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Manchester, where he researched novel enzyme engineering approaches for the production of high-value molecules.

Mobile: +44 (0) 7919 153 767

Corporate-Advisory
Associate

Vanessa Carle

Vanessa joins PharmaVentures as an Associate, bringing experience from drug discovery R&D, technology commercialisation, and the start-up ecosystem. Prior to joining PharmaVentures, Vanessa worked at EPFL as a co-PI on a translational project, aiming to develop and commercialise a novel and safer anticoagulant therapy. At the same time, she was in charge of identifying out-licensing partners for two additional drug development projects from the academic group. Vanessa also has experience in mentoring early-stage healthcare spin-off projects, acquired while collaborating with accelerators like MassChallenge Switzerland and Bench2biz.

Vanessa holds a BSc in Biotechnology from the University of Pavia (Italy), an MSc in Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (Germany) and a PhD in Chemical Biology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL, Switzerland).

Corporate-Advisory
Associate

Qize Ding

Qize joins PharmaVentures as an Associate and brings experience from Pharmaceutical R&D and academic research, as well as equity research experience.

Qize was an Equity Research Associate covering global pharmaceutical and retail industries in the Investment Research department at Citigroup. Qize has also worked at University of Oxford and Adaptimmune Therapeutics, where as a Research Scientist, he focused on inflammatory diseases and cancer therapeutics.

Qize has a BSc in Biochemistry, MSc in Immunology and Ph.D in Cancer Research from Imperial College London.

Mobile: +44 (0) 7741 626 038

Corporate-Advisory
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

Pratik Goyal

Pratik joins PharmaVentures as an Associate. He has over 5 years of experience in the investment banking space in India. Prior to PharmaVentures, Pratik was covering generic formulation, API, CRO and CDMO businesses in India and advising them on M&A, private placement, and IPO transactions.
Pratik has completed MSc in Management from London Business School, and prior to that he graduated from BITS Pilani in India with double bachelors in Electronics Engineering and Economics.

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
Business Analyst

Fabio Tommasini

Fabio joins PharmaVentures as a Business Analyst.

Prior to joining the company, 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.

MarComms Executive

Emma Butler

Emma joins PharmaVentures as the Marketing and Communications Executive bringing skills in marketing strategy, communications, digital advertising, and content creation. Prior to joining the company, Emma worked alongside data analysts at a healthcare intelligence provider where she built effective relationships with key internal stakeholders and external contacts while developing and coordinating the marketing strategy of the company. Before commencing her professional career, Emma completed a BA (Hons) degree in Event & Leisure Marketing at Bournemouth University where she studied experiential marketing, digital communication, research design and analysis and consumer behaviour.

Business Researcher

Akansha Sharma

Akansha joins PharmaVentures as a Business Researcher, bringing experience from consultancy, pharmaceutical R&D and academic research.

Prior to joining the company, Akansha was working as a Business Analyst in a consulting firm in New Delhi, India and worked on projects assessing marketing insights and competitive intelligence for some of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies.

Akansha also worked as a Research Fellow at International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, where she studied drug resistance in human malaria parasite proteins involved in folate metabolism, using structural and biochemical methods.

Akansha is fluent in Hindi and English, she holds a master’s degree in Lifescience from Dayalbagh Educational Institute.

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
Regional Advisor

Morten Fæster

Morton joins PharmaVentures as a new member of the Advisory Board based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Bringing over 20 years’ business development experience from working at multiple big and specialty pharma companies such as Nycomed-Takeda, AstraZeneca and Grunenthal. Morten has a strong track record of partnering and deal-making.

Morton is an experienced life science executive with a demonstrated history within all aspects of Business Development & Licensing in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology industries. He is an expert in many realms of in- and out-licensing including search, evaluation, business cases, term sheets and negotiation, across both early- and late-stage deals. Morten also brings experience in M&A and alliance management, having worked closely with many companies across Europe, North America and Asia.

Morton graduated with an MBA from Heriot-Watts University (Edinburgh, UK) and BBA from Copenhagen Business School.

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
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 obtained his PhD in Pharmacology at King’s College, London in 1981, and an MBA at the Open Business School in 2003.