Board of Directors
Bryan E. Roberts, Ph.D., Chairman
Partner, Venrock
Bryan Roberts, Ph.D. joined Venrock as a Kauffman Fellow in 1997. He is based in Venrock's Palo Alto office and focuses on a broad range of healthcare investments. Bryan is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of Achaogen, Castlight Health, and Ironwood Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: IRWD) and also serves on the Board of several other private companies, including Aria Diagnostics, Coderyte, Ikaria, Intarcia, and Kyruus. Past investments include athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN), Sirna Therapeutics (acquired by Merck) and Xenoport (NASDAQ: XNPT). Bryan was named a Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute in 2006 and has been the highest-ranking healthcare investor on Forbes’ Midas List since 2008.
Immediately prior to joining Venrock, Bryan received his Ph.D. in Chemistry & Chemical Biology from Harvard University. He previously held positions in corporate finance at Kidder, Peabody & Co and received his B.A. from Dartmouth College.
Kenneth J. Hillan, M.B. Ch.B.
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Hillan joins Achaogen as Chief Medical Officer, bringing deep experience in both medicine and global drug development. Most recently, he served as Senior Vice President and Head of Roche Product Development, Asia Pacific, where he was responsible for the overall drug development strategy in the region. Prior to that, he held a variety of positions at Genentech (acquired by Roche in 2009) including Senior Vice President Clinical Development, Inflammation, Vice President Research Operations and Pathology, Vice President, Development Sciences, and Vice President Immunology, Tissue Growth and Repair (ITGR). While there, he also served in executive leadership roles as Chair, Roche: Chugai Development Committee and Member, Roche: Chugai Joint Commercial Committee, Head, Roche Inflammation Disease Biology Leadership Team (Research through Commercial), Member, Roche Personalized Healthcare Steering Committee, Co-Chair, Genentech’s Late-Stage Portfolio Committee, Executive Sponsor and Chair, Development Review Committee, Member, Genentech Research Review Committee, Member, Genentech Healthcare Compliance Committee, and Member, Genentech Product Safety Committee. Dr. Hillan has also authored dozens of scientific publications and is a named inventor on almost 50 issued patents.
He holds an M.B. Ch.B. (Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery) degree from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Glasgow, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS), and a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists (FRCPath). He also serves as Honorary Professor of Molecular and Therapeutic Pathology at the University of Leeds.
Robert More
General Partner, Frazier Healthcare Ventures
Mr. More joined Frazier Healthcare in 2008 as a General Partner and is a member of the firm’s biopharma and medical device investment teams. Prior to Frazier Healthcare, Mr. More was a Partner with Domain Associates, having joined the firm in 1996 as a Kauffman Fellow and becoming a Partner in 2000. From 1997-1998, Mr. More served as the Chief Operating Officer of Small Molecule Therapeutics, a Domain portfolio company subsequently purchased by Morphochem AG. And from 1992 to 1995, Mr. More was with Pharmacia Biotech in sales. Prior to joining Pharmacia, Mr. More held a research position at Somatogen, a company developing a recombinant blood substitute that was subsequently bought by Baxter. While attending business school, Mr. More worked with MedVest, an early-stage venture group in Washington, D.C.
Mr. More managed successful investments in and served on the boards of ESP Pharma (acquired by Protein Design Labs, Inc.), Proxima Therapeutics (acquired by Cytyc Corporation), Onux Medical (acquired by C.R. Bard), NovaCardia (acquired by Merck), Esprit Pharma (acquired by Allergan) and IntraLase (acquired by Advanced Medical Optics, Inc.).
Mr. More serves as an advisory board member for Montagu Newhall Associates, Okapi Ventures, The Medical Industry Group of the NVCA and The Sulpizio Family Cardiovascular Center. He is also a past founding board member of the Kauffman Fellows Program.
Mr. More received his MBA from the Darden School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia and a BA from Middlebury College.
Scott M. Rocklage, Ph.D.
5AM Ventures
Dr. Rocklage has over 20 years of healthcare management experience with strategic leadership responsibilities that have resulted in the successful approval of three US NDAs (Cubicin, Omniscan, Teslascan) and six distinct NCE IND-level studies. Dr. Rocklage was formerly CEO of Cubist, President and CEO of Nycomed Salutar, President, CEO and Chairman of Nycomed Interventional, and held various R&D positions at Salutar and Catalytica. Dr. Rocklage currently serves as Chairman of Achaogen, Relypsa and Semprus, and as Board director at Pulmatrix, Variation and WaveRX. Dr. Rocklage is also a board member of the BIO Emerging Company Section and Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and is a member of the board of associates for the Whitehead Institute. Dr. Rocklage received his BS in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley and his PhD in chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Camille D. Samuels
Managing Director, Versant Ventures
Camille Samuels specializes in early-stage biotechnology investing at Versant. Ms. Samuels brings 14 years of venture capital and operating experience to her portfolio companies. She enjoys helping talented entrepreneurs build exceptional companies.
Ms. Samuels joined Versant in early 2000, shortly after its formation. Prior to Versant, she was responsible for business development at Tularik, Inc. (subsequently acquired by Amgen) where she in-licensed two of the company's clinical-stage products and led Tularik’s Technology Acquisition Group. Before Tularik, Ms. Samuels worked in corporate development at Genzyme and Millennium Predictive Medicine, and was a management consultant to healthcare and biotech companies at LEK Consulting.
Ms. Samuels currently serves as a board member of the following companies: Achaogen, APT Pharmaceuticals, Muse Therapeutics, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, and Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (TSPT), a public company. Ms. Samuels was previously a board member at NovaCardia (acquired by Merck) and ParAllele (acquired by Affymetrix). In addition, she served as a board observer at several companies, including Alexza (public), Fluidigm, Genomic Health (public) and Syrrx (acquired by Takeda).
Ms. Samuels earned her Bachelor's degree in Biology from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. In 2002, The Aspen Institute named Ms. Samuels a Henry Crown Fellow.
Christopher T. Walsh, Ph.D.
Christopher Walsh is the Hamilton Kuhn Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology (BCMP) at Harvard Medical School. He has had extensive experience in academic administration, including Chairmanship of the MIT Chemistry Dept (1982-1987) and the HMS Biological Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology Dept (1987-1995) as well as serving as President and CEO of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (1992-1995). Dr. Walsh has been a consultant to government and academic institutions, including NIGMS, a Trustee of the Whitehead Institute and the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation and a member of the scientific review board of Howard Hughes Medical Institute, as well as large pharmaceuticals (Merck, Roche, and Abbot), and been involved in scientific advisory capacity for such companies as Genzyme, Immunogen, Kosan Biosciences, and Millennium. He has been on the Board of Directors of Critical Therapeutics, Immunogen, Kosan, Leukosite., Transform, and Vicuron and is a current director at Magen, and Micriobia. He has been a scientific advisor to venture capital groups such as Clarus, MPM Capital, and Health Care Ventures. At Harvard Dr. Walsh teaches biochemistry, chemical biology, and pharmacology to medical students and graduate students and organic chemistry to undergraduates. He is chair of the faculty standing committee of the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences graduate program, which encompasses 12 PhD programs with 1000 doctoral students.
