ABOUT US
Board of Directors
David Mack, Ph.D.
Chairman – Joined the Board in 2005
Dr. Mack joined Alta in 2002. David's first Alta investment was Angiosyn (acquired by Pfizer in 2005) where he was Director and CEO. Prior to Alta, Dr. Mack co-founded and served as vice president of Genomics Research at Eos Biotechnology (acquired by Protein Design Labs in 2003). From 1995 to 1997, he served at Affymetrix as Head of Cancer Biology where he oversaw the development and application of DNA array technology in the areas of oncology and inflammation. Dr. Mack was also a pivotal member of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) invention group at Cetus (now Chiron) in the mid 1980s.
Dr. Mack has co-authored more than 30 scientific articles and reviews including papers published in Cell, Science and Nature, and is an inventor on 21 US patents. He was an American Cancer Society postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology. Dr. Mack received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Chicago where he was a Howard Hughes fellow in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. Dr. Mack holds a Bachelor of Arts in Molecular Biology from University of California, Berkeley
Dennis Henner, Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2007
Dr. Henner has been Managing Director of Clarus Ventures since the firm's inception in 2005. He has over 24 years of direct industry and investment experience within the healthcare sector, including being a General Partner in a healthcare venture capital firm since 2001. From 1981 to 2001, Dr. Henner was an executive at Genentech (NYSE: DNA) where he held various positions including Senior Vice President of Research, and member of Genentech's executive committee.
Dr. Henner represents Clarus Ventures on the Board of Directors of Athenagen and SARcode. In addition he is on the Board of Directors of Cellerant, Ceregene, Kalobios, and Tercica (a spinout from Genentech; NASDAQ:TRCA). Previous directorships including Rinat (acquired by Pfizer) and Synergia. Dr. Henner received is his Ph.D. from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Virginia and dis his postgraduate training at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation.
Brigitte Smith
Director – Joined the Board in 2004
Ms. Smith is the Managing Director and founder of GBS Venture Partners, lead investor in the Series A funding round. Before joining GBS she worked with high-tech start-up companies in Australia and the US in fundraising and business development roles. She also spent several years at Bain & Company, a strategic management consulting firm. Ms. Smith is on the Board of GBS portfolio companies Dynamic Hearing, Kalobios Inc, Pharmaxis Ltd, and Smart Drug Systems.
Ms. Smith earned her Bachelor of Chemical Engineering with honours from the University of Melbourne, her Master of Business Administration with honours from the Harvard Business School and her Master of International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Boston, USA. She is a Fellow of The Australian Institute of Company Directors and an adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Melbourne Business School, where she teaches Entrepreneurial Finance.
Deepa Pakianathan, Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2007
Dr. Pakianathan joined Delphi Ventures in 2001 and leads the firm's biotechnology investment activities. Prior to joining Delphi, Dr. Pakianathan was a Vice President in the healthcare group at JP Morgan where she was involved in healthcare M&A transactions worth in excess of $6 billion and public offerings for biotechnology companies that raised more than $9 billion in capital. From 1997 to 1998, she was a biotechnology research analyst at Genesis Merchant Group. Dr. Pakianathan worked as a postdoctoral scientist in the Immunology Department at Genentech Corporation from 1993 to 1997, where she evaluated chemokines and chemokine receptors as targets for therapeutic intervention.
Dr. Pakianathan currently serves on the Board of Directors of Antipodean Pharmaceuticals, Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Ilypsa, Phenomix Corporation, Proteolix, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the BIO Emerging Company Board. Dr. Pakianathan received her Ph.D. in Immunology in 1993 and M.S. in Biology in 1990 from Wake Forest University. She also earned her M.Sc. in Biophysics from The Cancer Research Institute, University of Bombay, India, and B.Sc. also from the University of Bombay, India.
John Villiger, Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in 2004
Dr. Villiger is a member of the founding management team which started The Medicines Company in 1996, and was the Managing Director of The Medicines Company (NZ) Ltd until April 2006. This business is now NASDAQ listed, has a significant marketed product (Angiomax), a market capitalization of US$1 billion and 300 employees. Previously, Dr. Villiger held various positions in product development at Roche from 1986 to 1997, including International Project Director from 1991 to 1995 and Head of Global Project Management from 1995 to 1996. As International Project Director, he was responsible for the global development of the antiparkinsonian drug tolcapone (Tasmar). As Head of Global Project Management, he oversaw the development of Roche's pharmaceutical portfolio, with management responsibility for over 50 development programs and development teams in Switzerland, the UK, USA and Japan. He received a PhD in Neuropharmacology from the University of Otago.
George Morstyn, M.D., Ph.D.
Director – Joined the Board in May, 2005
Dr. Morstyn (MB BS PhD FRACP) recently retired as Head of Development at Amgen. He was a member of the executive committee and responsible for global preclinical and clinical development as well as regulatory affairs. He also played an active role in representing Amgen to the financial community. Five new drugs and many label extensions were approved during his 11 year tenure. Dr. Morstyn graduated from Monash University, completed a Ph.D. with Professor Donald Metcalf at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and trained in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute in the US. He was Head of the Clinical Program of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in Melbourne for eight years. Dr. Morstyn was an early clinical investigator of several biological agents prior to joining Amgen. Dr. Morstyn is currently a part time advisor to Amgen and a member of several boards of Australian biotechnology companies.
