Board of Directors

Bradley Bolzon, PhD

Chairman, Versant Ventures

Brad Bolzon brings more than thirteen years of global pharmaceutical industry experience to Versant’s biotech investment team. He specializes in early stage biotech investing with a particular emphasis on new company start-ups.

Prior to joining Versant, Brad served as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Business Development, Licensing & Alliances with Roche. Under his leadership, Roche’s Pharmaceuticals Division established alliances with over 75 biotech companies worldwide and significantly strengthened the company’s product pipeline. Previously, Brad held executive roles at Eli Lilly and Company in drug discovery, business development, clinical research, and regulatory affairs.

Brad also serves as a board member for Amira Pharmaceuticals, Antipodean Pharmaceuticals, Sentient Pharmaceuticals, Speedel, Metabolex and is Chairman of EuroVentures, a wholly-owned start-up incubator of Versant Ventures.

Brad received Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto and conducted his post-doctoral research training at the Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa, Canada.

Ian Massey, DPhil

Synosia Therapeutics

Ian Massey has experience in all phases of drug discovery and development. Until recently, he was the Senior Vice President and Head of Research and Preclinical Development at Roche Palo Alto.

From 1995 to 2002, Ian held positions of increasing responsibility at Roche Bioscience including Senior Vice President, Head of Neurobiology Business Unit and Central Research & Development and Vice President and Director of Preclinical Research and Development.

Before joining Roche, Ian was at Syntex Research for over 15 years where he held a number of senior positions, culminating in the position of Vice President and Director, Institute of Analytical Research. He has a D. Phil. degree in Organic Chemistry from the University of Oxford, England, an M.A. in Organic/Natural Product Chemistry and a B.A. in Chemistry.

Mark Moran MD, MBA

Synosia Therapeutics

Mark Moran is co-founder, Chief Medical Advisor, and Director of Synosia Therapeutics. 

He was a faculty member in the Department of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine for two years until he joined the pharmaceutical industry in 1986. Mark served in a number of roles in research and development, including Senior Director of Clinical Research at Searle/Monsanto until 1991 and Chief Medical Officer at Glycomed until 1995.

He subsequently founded and served as the first Chief Scientific Officer of Intarcia Therapeutics, which is actively developing products to treat cancer and viral diseases. In 1997, Mark became an advisor to Versant Ventures, where he continues to serve as Clinical Director and serial entrepreneur. He co-founded Amira Pharmaceuticals in 2005, which focuses on discovering and developing new treatments for asthma and other inflammatory conditions, and served as the acting head of development during the start-up phase of activities.

Mark received his M.D. from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, an M.B.A. from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University in Evanston, and a B.S. degree in mathematics

Hervé Girsault, MBA

Synosia Therapeutics

Hervé Girsault has extensive experience in business development and licensing in the pharmaceutical industry. Until July 2005, he held a number of senior positions at Novartis, including Senior Vice President and Global Head of Partnering and Out-Licensing at Novartis Pharma in Basel, Global Head of Business Development & Licensing for Novartis Consumer Health and General Manager of Novartis Consumer Health in Benelux.

Before joining Novartis, Hervé was the General Manager of Gerber Products Company in France from 1990 to 1995. He started his professional career with Coopers & Lybrand Management Consultants, culminating in the position of Director of the Food & HealthCare practices, based in Paris. He earned an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School in New York and has a Masters degree from a leading business school in Paris.

Andrew Sandham, BSc

Abingworth

Andy Sandham has 28 years of experience in the healthcare sector with roles covering corporate strategy, operational management, business development and marketing. He has contributed significantly to the establishment of successful drug discovery and development companies both in Europe and the US.

Before joining Abingworth, Andy was Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Ionix Pharmaceuticals, which was divested to Vernalis plc in 2005. Prior to Ionix, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Signature BioScience, Hexagen and Cantab Pharmaceuticals.

Andy has also held business development and marketing positions at Amersham, Celltech and Roche. He is currently non-executive Chairman of NeurAxon and Novacta Biosystems.

He has a BSc in Chemistry from University of East Anglia and a Diploma in Marketing from the Institute of Marketing.

Andrew Schwab, BS

5AM Ventures

Before founding 5AM Ventures in 2002, Andy was a Principal at Bay City Capital (BCC) where he led many of the firm's investment and merchant banking activities for such companies as Cubist, Lombard Odier, Metabolex, PTC Therapeutics, Symyx, and Syrrx.

Prior to BCC, Andy was Vice President of Business Development at Digital Gene Technologies and a Vice President in the life science investment banking group of Montgomery Securities.

He serves on the Board of Directors of Aravis Venture I, Genospectra, Ikaria, Ilypsa, Miikana Therapeutics, Smart Drug Systems, and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Technology Validation Advisory Board.

Andy received a BS with honors in Genetics and Ethics from Davidson College. Andy is based in the San Francisco office.

Heath Lukatch, PhD

Novo A/S

Heath has extensive experience investing in healthcare. He opened Novo Ventures’ San Francisco office in 2006, was a founding partner of SightLine Partners, and Managing Director and Head of Biotechnology Venture Investments at Piper Jaffray Ventures. Heath has invested in multiple biotechnology and medical device companies and currently serves as a Director at Synosia, Inogen and NeuroTherapeutics.

Prior to his involvement in venture capital, Heath worked as a strategy consultant with McKinsey & Company, serving a range of large and small healthcare clients. Previously, he was founder and CEO of AutoMate Scientific, a San Francisco-based company specialising in biotechnology instrumentation. He has also worked as a bench scientist at Chiron, Cetus and Roche Bioscience in molecular biology, protein chemistry and electrophysiology.

Heath earned his PhD in Neuroscience from Stanford University and his undergraduate degree with high honors in Biochemistry from the University of California at Berkeley.

Brian Atwood, MBA

Versant Ventures

Brian Atwood is a seasoned venture capitalist with extensive experience in biotechnology investing.  Brian co-founded Versant Ventures after spending four years at Brentwood Venture Capital where as a general partner he led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics.  He launched his career in venture capital after amassing more than 15 years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry, with emphasis on therapeutic products, devices, diagnostics, and research instrumentation.

During those years, Brian was founder, president, and CEO of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company, where he concentrated on business development and strategic alliances, closing deals with Eli Lilly & Company, Genentech, Millipore and Sankyo, before leading the sale of Glycomed to Ligand Pharmaceuticals.  In addition, he co-founded and served as director of Perkin Elmer/Cetus Instruments, a joint venture for robotics automation and genomics research instruments and products, where under Brian's management, the venture developed and launched the GeneAmp® Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) system, the fundamental DNA amplification innovation responsible for fueling the explosive growth of genomics research.

Brian also serves as a Board member for a number of companies in addition to Synosia, including private companies Calderome Inc, FivePrime Therapeutics, ForteBio Inc., and OpGen, Inc., as well as public companies Cadence, Helicos BioSciences and Pharmion Corporation.