Leadership
Management | Board of Directors
Farah Champsi (Chairperson) is a Managing Director at Alta Partners. Prior to joining Alta in 2000, Ms. Champsi was an investment banker at Robertson Stephens & Company, where she focused on biotechnology and other life science companies, was elected a General Partner and then head of the global life sciences investment banking group. During that time, she was responsible for building one of the most successful investment banking life sciences franchises on Wall Street. She currently serves on the board of directors of Aerovance, Agensys, Myocor, Sanarus Medical, Portola Pharmaceuticals and Zelos Therapeutics.
Ms. Champsi holds an MBA from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Smith College.
Alex Barkas, Ph.D., is a Managing Director of Prospect Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding Prospect Venture Partners I, II and III, Dr. Barkas was a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Previous to that, Dr. Barkas was a founder and CEO of BioBridge Associates, a health care industry consulting firm, and was Director of Technology Development at Advanced Biosearch Associates, a regulatory affairs advisory firm. Dr. Barkas’ research experience was gained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Genetics Department at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, the Whitehead Institute at MIT, and Duke University. He currently serves or has served on the board of directors of Connetics, Geron and Tercica, all public companies, and of Amicus, Archemix, NeoMend, Novacept, SurgRx, Transave, Verus Pharmaceuticals, Zelos Therapeutics and several other privately held companies.
He received a Ph.D. in Biology from New York University and a Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Brandeis University, where he currently is Chairman of the University Science Advisory Council and served on the Board of Trustees.
Jeff Courtney is General Partner at VenGrowth Private Equity Partners Inc.
Prior to joining VenGrowth, he was a Partner and Co-President of the Scientific Advisory Board at CDP Capital - Technology Ventures (formerly CDP Sofinov), where he was involved in leading investments in life science companies in Canada and the United States. Mr. Courtney also served as President of Hospital Pharmaceuticals at Faulding Canada Inc., EVP Marketing and Sales for Pharmascience Inc., as well as 11 years of numerous senior leadership roles with Johnson & Johnson Medical Products. He has served as a director on the board of multiple Canadian and U.S. life science companies, and is currently an active board member of VisualSonics Inc., Axela Biosensors Inc., Zelos Therapeutics, Metrigenix, Kadmus Pharmaceuticals, Activbiotics, Interface Biologics, and Targanta Therapeutics.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology from the University of Guelph.
Colin Goddard, Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of OSI Pharmaceuticals. Since 1989, when he joined as a scientist, Dr. Goddard has served as President, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer; Vice President, Research Operations; Director, Pharmaceutical Operations; Director, Drug Discovery; and Program Manager, Drug Discovery. Dr. Goddard also served as Chairman of the Board from 2000–2002. Dr. Goddard is active in many organizations that promote the advancement of cancer treatment and awareness, science education and the biotechnology industry, including: Board of the Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO), Cancer Care of Long Island, the Long Island Association, and the Winston Churchill Foundation of the United States. He is a member of the American Association of Cancer Research. Before joining OSI, Dr. Goddard spent four years at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Goddard currently serves on the Board of Directors of Zelos Therapeutics Inc.
Dr. Goddard trained as a cancer pharmacologist in Birmingham, U.K., where he received his Ph.D. from the University of Aston in September 1985.
Brian MacDonald, M.B., Ch.B., Ph.D., is Chief Executive Officer of Zelos. From 2003 to 2005, he served as an R&D strategy consultant to the biotechnology industry, with projects that included Head of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs for Gentara Corporation. In 2002, Dr. MacDonald joined 3-Dimensional Pharmaceuticals as Head of Development and a member of the corporate management team, until the acquisition of that organization by Johnson & Johnson in 2003. Prior to that, he held a variety of positions in Clinical R&D at SmithKline Beecham, finally assuming worldwide responsibility for osteoporosis and rheumatology, a role that, following the merger to form GlaxoSmithKline, was expanded to include a range of therapeutic areas including dermatology and analgesia.
Dr. MacDonald received his Ph.D. , M.B., and Ch.B. from the University of Sheffield in the UK after which he undertook specialty clinical training in metabolic bone disease and rheumatology.
James N. Topper, M.D., Ph.D., is a General Partner at Frazier Healthcare, where he is responsible for investments within the biopharma sector. Dr. Topper joined Frazier Healthcare in 2003 as a Venture Partner and became a General Partner in 2005. Prior to joining Frazier Healthcare, he served as head of the cardiovascular research and development franchise at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and ran Millennium San Francisco (formerly COR Therapeutics). Prior to the merger of COR and Millennium, Dr. Topper served as the Vice President of Biology at COR and was responsible for managing all of its research activities. He served on the faculties of Stanford Medical School and Harvard Medical School prior to joining COR, where he functioned as a clinician, instructor and basic investigator. He has authored over 50 publications and was the recipient of a Howard Hughes Scholars Award while on the faculty at Stanford University. He continues to hold an appointment as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and as a Cardiology Consultant to the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital. Dr. Topper currently serves on the boards of Amicus Therapeutics, Arête Therapeutics, La Jolla Pharmaceuticals, MacuSight Inc., and Zelos Therapeutics, Inc., and is an observer on the boards of Point Biomedical and Portola Pharmaceuticals. He is also an advisory board member to the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics.
Dr. Topper received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Biophysics from Stanford University School of Medicine in 1991 under the auspices of the Medical Scientist Training Program.
Jan van Heek is Executive Vice President at Genzyme Corporation. Mr. van Heek joined Genzyme in 1991, and during his tenure at the company, has been responsible for building the worldwide therapeutics, surgical and genetic testing businesses. He established Genzyme's European offices in the early 90's and helped build Genzyme's broad portfolio of businesses and manufacturing infrastructure worldwide. In recent years, he served as Executive Vice President with overall responsibility for the therapeutic products business of Genzyme. Prior to his tenure at Genzyme, Mr. van Heek held various management positions at Baxter Healthcare Corporation in Europe and the U.S. for over a decade. He currently serves on the boards of Cardialysis CRO in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Viacell Corporation and Zelos Therapeutics.
Mr. van Heek received an MBA from St. Gallen University, Switzerland, and an executive degree from Stanford Business School, California.
