Archives: Team
Mike Rubin is the Founder and CEO of Northpond Ventures. Mike is a board director at DNAnexus, Scipher Medicine, and Sherlock Biosciences. Previously, Mike was the Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sands Capital Ventures, a global cross-industry venture capital business and affiliate of Sands Capital Management. Under his leadership, Sands Capital Ventures invested in a […]
Sharon Kedar is Co-Founder, Partner of Northpond Ventures. Northpond Ventures is a multi-billion-dollar science-driven venture capital firm based in Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, CA; and Bethesda, MD. Northpond has consistently been named one of the most active lead life science investors in venture industry rankings. It is deeply engaged in the academic ecosystem, having founded […]
Pat Smerkers is the Chief Financial Officer, Partner at Northpond Ventures. He is a board director at ChromaCode. Pat is responsible for deal execution, along with the financial, operational, and administrative functions of the firm including financial reporting and analysis, facilities, and IT. Previously, he was a Senior Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their asset management […]
Andrea Jackson is a Partner at Northpond Ventures. She joined Northpond in 2020 after 12 years of operating and finance roles in small and large scientific and technology companies. Andrea’s work at Northpond focuses on leading the people operations and portfolio management of the investment team. She is a board director at technology companies such […]
Ingo Chakravarty is an Operating Partner at Northpond Ventures. He is a board director at Camp4 Therapeutics, Encodia, Inflammatix, Scipher Medicine, Selux Diagnostics, Sherlock Biosciences, and SpeeDx. Ingo has 30 years of experience in building, scaling and leading high-performance teams and companies in the diagnostics and precision medicine sectors. He was recently President and CEO […]
Michelle is a Senior Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. She supports leadership and operations in Northpond’s Bethesda office. Michelle builds on 14 years’ experience as an executive assistant to business leaders in wealth and asset management, private equity, consulting and real estate development. Michelle earned a B.A. in strategic communications from Elon University.
Diana Bernstein is a Principal at Northpond Ventures where she focuses on biotherapeutics investments. Diana is a Board Director at Code Biotherapeutics, Mestag Therapeutics, and OMass Therapeutics. Previously, Diana was a Senior Associate at MRL Ventures Fund, the corporate venture fund of Merck & Co. (NYSE: MRK), investing in early-stage therapeutics companies. Prior to that, […]
Lucy Coassin is a Principal at Northpond Ventures. She is a board director at Hawthorne Health, Octave Bioscience, SimBioSys, Story Health, and Vital Biosciences, and a board observer at Inflammatix, Faro Health, Triumvira, and Vizgen. Previously, Lucy was Head of Pharma at Current Health (a Northpond portfolio company, acquired by Best Buy). She has 15 […]
Amber Comes is an Office Operations Manager at Northpond Ventures. Amber supports operations in Northpond’s San Francisco office. Previously, she was a Senior Design and Sales Consultant for a luxury boutique showroom, where she created and maintained a variety of client relationships. Earlier, Amber interned with Live Nation’s San Francisco office where she monitored all […]
Ashley Cowher is an Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. Previously, she was an Office Manager and Executive Assistant to the CEO and COO of a Cambridge, MA based biotech company. She also worked as an Executive Assistant to the Head of the U.S. Oncology Business Unit at Takeda Oncology supporting U.S. Operations, Sales, and Marketing. […]
Katie Dexter is a Senior Director of Human Resources at Northpond Ventures. She supports the development and implementation of HR policies and processes throughout the organization. Previously, Katie spent 18 years at Leidos (NYSE: LDOS), formerly Science Applications International Corporation (NYSE: SAIC), holding various HR roles throughout the organization. She most recently supported Leidos’ Intelligence […]
Alexis Fleming is a Manager of Investment Operations at Northpond Ventures. Alexis supports the firm’s investment and operations teams with a focus on providing actionable, data-driven investment insights. Previously, Alexis worked at Carnegie Institution for Science as the Building Operations & Special Events Manager, where her work included overseeing a renovation of the historical building […]
Nick Futrell is an Associate at Northpond Ventures. Nick supports Northpond’s origination, sourcing, diligence, and monitoring efforts. He is a board observer at SpeeDx and Vestaron. Previously, Nick was an Equity Research Associate at Wells Fargo where he covered the specialty pharmaceuticals sector, and before that, he worked with the life sciences team at Sands […]
Ben Hartheimer is an Associate, Portfolio Operations at Northpond Ventures. Ben supports portfolio data analysis, as well as internal and external reporting. Previously, he was a Valuations Analyst for The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG), working across two dozen global investment funds. Ben received a B.A. with distinction in Economics from Colby College.
Brandon Hoffmann is an Office Operations Manager at Northpond Ventures. Previously, he was an Executive Assistant at The Cohen Group, where he supported senior leadership consisting of retired military and defense officials, diplomats, and federal government personnel in business consultation and international relations. Earlier, Brandon was an Executive Assistant and Office Manager at Alcoa Corporation […]
Anjali Jagannath is a Vice President, Finance at Northpond Ventures. Anjali focuses on the corporate financial operations, reporting and analysis of the firm. Previously, Anjali was with EJF Capital for over nine years in various finance roles. Earlier, Anjali was a Supervisor at JPMorgan Chase. Anjali received a B.S. in corporate finance & accounting from […]
Grace Jung is a Senior Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. Grace supports leadership and operations in Northpond’s Bethesda office. Previously, she was a Special Assistant to the First Lady in the Governor’s Office of Maryland where she oversaw daily scheduling and aided in special projects with partner organizations. Earlier, Grace held roles in hospitality and […]
Ivan Learmont is a Vice President of Information Technology at Northpond Ventures. Ivan leads the firm’s multi-office technology infrastructure, supporting all staff and facilities. Previously, he was a Senior Manager at Deep Blue Communications, overseeing technology deployments for the hospitality team. Ivan spent 14 years at Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR), most recently as a […]
Andrew Lee is a Director at Northpond Ventures, specializing in biomanufacturing, life science R&D solutions, and environmental sciences. He is a board director at Culture Biosciences, Slingshot Biosciences, and EnPlusOne Biosciences as well as a board observer at 64x Bio, Ansa Biotechnologies, Refeyn, Sherlock Biosciences, and Sound Agriculture. Previously, Andrew was an Associate at Booz […]
Lily Li is a Director at Northpond Ventures where she focuses on life science tools and diagnostics. Lily is a board director at 1859, Ansa Biotechnologies, SpeeDx, and Vestaron, and holds board observer roles at ChromaCode, Delfi Diagnostics, Emulate, and Encodia. She was a board director at Personal Genome Diagnostics (PGDx) which was acquired by […]
Steve Liapis is a Director at Northpond Ventures where he focuses on biotechnology platforms and therapeutics and leads Northpond’s newco incubation efforts with the Wyss Institute at Harvard and the School of Engineering at MIT. Steve is Board Director at Kyverna Therapeutics, Opna Bio, Parthenon Therapeutics, and Totus Medicines, and is a Board Observer at […]
Wes Long is a Senior Analyst at Northpond Ventures. Wes supports data analysis, valuations, and reporting for the firm’s managed funds. Previously, Wes was a Senior Property Accountant for Easterly Government Properties (NYSE: DEA), where he focused on financial reporting and forecasting for real estate investments. Earlier, Wes was a Senior Auditor at Elliott Davis […]
Paxton Major is a Director at Northpond Ventures. He joined Northpond in August 2018 as a member of the investment team, helping lead investments in biopharma R&D tools, precision medicine, and digital health. Paxton is a board director at Kytopen, Molecule, QbD Vision, Teckro, and Torus Biosystems. Some of his active and past board observer […]
Maddie Maloney is a Senior Associate at Northpond Ventures. Maddie supports Northpond’s origination, sourcing, diligence, and monitoring efforts. Previously, Maddie was a management consultant at TRINITY Life Sciences where she worked with emerging and established biotech and pharmaceutical companies from pre-clinical development through peri-launch lifecycle management. Maddie also held research roles at the Gates Center […]
Mark Mitchell is a Senior Controller, Corporate at Northpond Ventures. Mark focuses on financial operations, reporting, and analysis of the firm and funds. Previously, Mark was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President at University HealthSystem Consortium (now Vizient, Inc.). Mark also held senior Controller roles at Resurrection Health Care and Midwestern University. Mark received an […]
Toni Paniagua is a Senior Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. Previously, she was the Executive Assistant to the co-founder and CEO of a Maryland-based commercial real estate investment firm. Toni has also supported C-suite executives in the financial services, aerospace, and consulting industries. She earned an M.A. in Political Science from the University of North […]
Hyewon Park is an Assistant Controller, Funds at Northpond Ventures. Hyewon focuses on financial operations, reporting, and analysis of the firm’s managed funds. Previously, she was a Senior Associate at CohnReznick LLP, an advisory, assurance, and tax services firm, where she focused on complex transactions and reporting, including private fund equities. Earlier, Hyewon was an […]
Maggie Persons is a Senior Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. She supports leadership and operations in Northpond’s Bethesda office. Previously, Maggie spent five years supporting strategy, events, VIP and media relations at Carfrae Consulting, a boutique communications agency in New York City. She received a bachelor’s degree in public relations from the University of South […]
Elias Quijano is a Senior Associate at Northpond Ventures and supports origination, sourcing, diligence, monitoring efforts of portfolio companies and new company incubation. Previously, Elias was co-founder and senior research advisor for Gennao Bio, a privately held genetic medicines company developing first-in-class, targeted nucleic acid therapeutics. Earlier, he was a Blavatnik Fellow at Yale, where […]
Daisia Robinson is an Administrative Assistant at Northpond Ventures. Previously, she was a family assistant and estate manager for Regal Domestics where she supported the operational needs of her clients. Earlier, she was a case manager for family resource centers where she coordinated education and youth development and developed service plans with clients to meet […]
Tim Schmidt is a Senior Director of Finance and Operations at Northpond Ventures. Tim supports operations, financial management, and reporting for the firm and funds. Previously, Tim was a Controller at Camber Creek, a real estate technology venture capital firm. Earlier, Tim was a Manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in private equity and debt valuations, as […]
Wendy Tan is an Executive Assistant at Northpond Ventures. Previously, she was an Administrative Business Partner with Alphabet, Google’s parent company, supporting senior executives in the CIO office. Prior to Alphabet, she was an Executive Assistant with Sony PlayStation supporting various executives. Wendy earned a B.S. in Business Management Economics from the University of California, […]
Monet Uva is an Office Operations Manager at Northpond Ventures. Previously, she was the Director of Recruitment and Culture at a business school outside London, where she focused on talent acquisition and staff engagement initiatives. Earlier, Monet held several positions in the world of travel and cultural exchange at Education First and planned conferences and […]
Camella Wilson is a Vice President at Northpond Ventures. Cammie supports Northpond’s origination, sourcing, diligence, and monitoring efforts. She is a board observer at General Inception, Merck Digital Science Studio, Octave Bioscience, Schiper Medicine, Story Health, and Torque Bio. Previously, Cammie was an Investment Associate at OCV Partners and focused on companies enabling precision medicine […]
Sarah Wolf is a Manager of Finance and Accounting at Northpond Ventures. Sarah supports the firm in financial operations and accounting. Previously, Sarah was a Senior Associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, supporting clients across the public and private sectors within the life sciences, health care, and manufacturing industries. Sarah earned both a B.S. in Accounting and B.A. […]
Liz Wuestling is a Director of Business Analytics and Strategy at Northpond Ventures. Liz works closely across the firm’s investment and operations teams, implementing tools, technologies, and processes to enhance real-time, actionable insights for the firm and funds. Previously, Liz was the Business Intelligence Manager at Greenspring Associates, a $10B+ venture capital firm. At Greenspring, […]
Serena Yang is a Sr. Analyst, Portfolio Operations at Northpond Ventures. Serena supports portfolio data analysis, as well as internal and external reporting. Previously, she was an Analyst for The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ: CG) working across the Europe and Asia Buyouts on fund performance analysis, fundraising, quarterly valuations and exit forecasts. Serena received a B.B.A. […]
Stephanie Yan is an Associate at Northpond Ventures. Stephanie supports Northpond’s origination, sourcing, diligence, and monitoring efforts. Previously, Stephanie was an Equity Research Associate at TD Cowen and Canaccord Genuity, where she covered the life science tools and diagnostics sector. Before that, she was a consulting and market research analyst at IQVIA where she worked […]