MELAT ANTENEH
UX/UI Researcher III
UX/UI Researcher III
Melat is a UX/UI Researcher at RA Ventures where she focuses on new company creation. Prior to Raven, Melat was a member of McKinsey & Company’s Life Science Intelligence team where she co-led the Global McKinsey HealthTech Network and Global People Experience Committee. Prior to McKinsey, Melat conducted research at several institutions including MIT Media Lab, the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, and Fort Belvoir Hospital Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic. During this time she published multiple papers on communication, learning, and spatial ability in virtual reality. Melat holds both a BS in Computation and Cognition and a MEng from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
HUGO ARELLANO-SANTOYO
Senior Director of Corporate Development
Senior Director of Corporate Development
Hugo Arellano-Santoyo is a Senior Director of Corporate Development at RA Ventures (RAVen), focusing on new company creation. Prior to joining RA, Hugo was a Principal and Senior Associate at Third Rock Ventures where he worked on company creation and investments across various therapeutic areas, helping build companies such as CLASP therapeutics. Previously, Hugo was at the Novartis Venture Fund working on the investment team. Before that, he was at Novartis where he collaborated with the NIBR and Corporate Strategy teams on a number of projects and was in the research organization in the Chemical Biology and Therapeutics group. Hugo holds a PhD in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard University, M.Sc. in Molecular and Cellular Biology (Biophysics) from the University of Washington, and a B.S. in Physics from Princeton University.
JOEL C. BARRISH, Ph.D.
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Joel is currently a Venture Partner at Raven and the President and Chief Scientific Officer at Jnana Therapeutics, a company focused on unlocking hard-to-drug targets, including solute carrier proteins (SLCs). Prior to Jnana, Joel served as Chief Scientific Officer at Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where he led discovery efforts on Factor D inhibitors for the treatment of Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria and C3 Glomerulopathy. Most of Joel’s career was spent as a medicinal chemist in pharma, where he capped a 28-year career at Bristol-Myers Squibb by spending the last five years as Vice President and Head of Discovery Chemistry, working across all therapeutic areas. In that role, Joel worked with teams responsible for advancing more than 40 compounds into clinical development, including Sprycel (dasatinib), which he co-invented. While at BMS, Joel and his colleagues made notable advances in the area of kinase inhibitor drug discovery, particularly in immunology and oncology. He is a co-author on over 130 peer reviewed publications and is a co-inventor on 40 issued U.S. patents. Prior to moving to BMS, he spent five years at Hoffmann La-Roche as a research scientist. Joel received his doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Columbia University and his bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania.
MARIO BARRO, PhD
Venture Partner, Head of Infectious Disease Team
Venture Partner, Head of Infectious Disease Team
Mario is a Venture Partner, at Raven and Head of the Infectious Disease Team at RA Capital Management. In his Venture role, Mario is focusing on early-stage investment and company creation. As Head of the Infectious Disease Team, he leads the team to support our evidence-based investment strategy. Mario is responsible for partnering with several of our portfolio companies as Board Member or Technical Advisor. Mario has more than two decades of experience in vaccinology, virology and immunology in large pharma, government, academy, and biotech settings. Prior to joining RA Capital, Mario was Associate Vice President for Advanced Research at Sanofi Pasteur and Head of the team executing a strategy for integrating influenza vaccine development with machine learning and antigen design. Mario held a Project Director position at BARDA working on Universal Flu Vaccine and leading the technical selection and completion of multiyear/multi million vaccine development programs. Mario received postdoctoral training at the NIH and Mount Sinai School of Medicine in innate immunity and bioinformatics, earned a PhD in microbiology at University of Chile and a MS in Nuclear Physics.
CAMILLE BAYAS, PhD
Director, ML Therapeutics Design
Director, ML Therapeutics Design
Camille Bayas is the Director of Machine Learning for Therapeutics Design at RA Ventures. Previously, she was Technical Staff at Inceptive, leading projects at the intersection of generative AI and high-throughput wet lab experiments to develop RNA-based medicines. Before that, she was creating data and ML pipelines as a Data Scientist at Indigo Ag. She completed her PhD in Chemistry at Stanford University, and her BA in Chemistry and Economics at Cornell University.
ALLY BOERTZEL
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Ally Boertzel is an Executive Assistant at Raven. Her primary responsibilities are to coordinate calendars, events, travel and meetings for the Venture Partners and Entrepreneurs-In-Residence within Raven. Ally brings to Raven nearly a decade of administrative experience. Most recently, Ally spent over five years at Akebia Therapeutics (previously Keryx), where she held Commercial Team Administrator/Internal Meetings Specialist, Sales Team Administrator/Training Specialist and Senior Administrative Assistant roles. Prior to Akebia, she gained Administrative and Resource Management experience at Wellington Management and Signature Consultants, respectively. Ally coached Women's Lacrosse at Muhlenberg College in PA. Prior to her stint coaching, she received her BS in Psychology with a Minor in History from Union College in NY.
KATRINA BOGAN-BROWN, PHD
Senior Director of Grant Writing
Senior Director of Grant Writing
Katrina Bogan-Brown is Senior Director of Grant Writing at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, Katrina was founder of Brownian Consulting, a firm dedicated to securing nondilutive funding for clients. In this position, Katrina provided grant writing and scientific consulting services to clients from colleges, universities, research centers, start-up and established science and technology companies, and non-profits. She secured funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation (NSF), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Economic Development Administration (EDA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and numerous private foundations. To date, Katrina has designed and executed funding strategies that led to acquisition of more than $150 million in nondilutive funds for clients. Katrina received a BS in Biology from Providence College and a PhD in Biochemistry from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.
MARK BOSHAR
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Mark Boshar is a Venture Partner at Raven, focusing on new company creation. Mark brings to Raven more than twenty-five years of leadership experience in the life sciences industry—spanning operations, corporate development, legal affairs, and intellectual property. Prior to Raven, he was a member of the founding team and Chief Operating Officer at Catamaran Bio, a CAR-NK cell therapy company. In his role at Catamaran, he helped secure a Series A financing with a syndicate of leading investors, rapidly recruit an experienced cell therapy team, access enabling technologies, build a broad patent estate, and design external communication strategies. Prior to Catamaran, Mark served as Vice President, Legal Affairs at Rubius Therapeutics where he was responsible for leading internal legal activities in support of Rubius’ IPO and its growth to a clinical-stage company. Before joining Rubius, Mark spent a decade launching, building or advising a portfolio of early-stage venture backed life-sciences companies, including Visterra, Living proof, Kala Pharmaceuticals, and Homology Medicines. Previously in his career, he served as Associate General Counsel at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda Oncology) where he built the legal department and led internal legal activities supporting several transformative pharmaceutical partnerships, a substantial global patent estate, and the company’s IPO. Mark began his professional career as a life sciences attorney with the law firm of Hale and Dorr (now WilmerHale). He holds a JD from Northeastern University School of Law and a BS in Biology from Tufts University.
CASSIE BRYAN, PhD
Director, ML Protein Design
Director, ML Protein Design
Cassie Bryan is a Director of ML Protein Design at RA Ventures, leading the generation of protein-based solutions across a range of application areas. Her background spans computational protein design, biochemistry, and protein engineering. During her graduate work in David Baker’s lab she developed a de novo hyperstable miniprotein that specifically binds to the inhibitory T cell receptor PD-1. Continuing in her postdoc, she was able to combine that modular PD-1 binding domain with designed protein oligomeric scaffolds to create the first synthetic PD-1 agonist that could be developed as an autoimmune therapeutic. Prior to joining RAVen, Cassie was part of the technical staff in the Synthetic Biology group at Draper where she led and contributed to several cross-disciplinary programs centered around protein engineering, bioinformatics, viral diagnostics, and pathogen detection. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Washington.
NEIL BUCKLEY
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Neil Buckley is a Venture Partner at Raven. Since joining, Neil has been involved in the creation of six companies incubated within Raven, including Lusaris Therapeutics, Eliem Therapeutics ($ELYM), Aerovate Therapeutics ($AVTE), Imbria Pharmaceuticals, and Athenen Therapeutics (acquired by Eliem). Neil was previously the Vice President, CMC at Raven and worked across new company formation and in support of portfolio companies. Previously, Neil was Director, Business Development and Project Management at CiVentiChem (acquired by Sterling Pharma Solutions). He holds a MS from Northeastern University and a BA from Hamilton College.
NATALIE CAMACHO
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Natalie Camacho is an Executive Assistant at Raven. Her primary responsibilities are to coordinate calendars, events, travel and meetings for the Raven Venture Partners. Natalie brings to Raven more than six years of Administrative experience. Prior to Raven, Natalie served as an EA for three years at Massachusetts Technology Collaborative (MassTech), a Boston agency supporting business formation and growth in the state's technology sector. Prior to MassTech, Natalie held varying Administrative roles at Northeastern University, Framingham Public Schools, and Bright Horizons Family Solutions. Natalie holds a BA in Psychology from William Paterson University and a MA in Psychology from Seton Hall University.
FANNY CAVALIÉ, MBA
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Fanny Cavalié is a Venture Partner at Raven, focusing on new company creation. Fanny brings nearly twenty years of leadership experience in the life sciences industry, from drug discovery to commercial stages. Prior to joining Raven, Fanny served as Chief Strategy and Business Operations Officer at Foghorn Therapeutics from 2018 to 2024. During her tenure, she built and led business functions, including corporate strategy, business development, alliance management, program leadership, commercial, corporate affairs and operations, in support of Foghorn’s IPO and growth into a clinical-stage company. Fanny also led the negotiation and operationalization of two key partnerships with Merck and Loxo@Lilly. Previously, Fanny spent four years at Biogen in various strategy and commercial positions, including Global Marketing lead for Alzheimer's Disease and Global Strategy Lead for the Multiple Sclerosis portfolio. Fanny also spent a decade at McKinsey in Europe, advising a diverse portfolio of BioPharma’s, payers, and providers. As Associate Partner and Co-leader of the EMEA Pharma Launch service line, she directed more than 50 projects encompassing strategy, organizational transformation, and product commercialization. Fanny holds an MBA from HEC in France.
HABIB DABLE
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Habib Dable is a Venture Partner at Raven, focusing on advising and supporting newcos, portfolio companies and executives within Raven. Habib brings to Raven nearly three decades of experience as a strategic leader in Big Pharma and emerging Biotech. Prior to joining Raven, Habib spent five years as President and CEO at Acceleron Pharma. In this role, he propelled the company to the next stage of growth and increased shareholder value by altering the course of this formerly research-based company to prioritize innovation, speed to commercialization, and culture transformation. While at Acceleron he successfully launched the company's first blockbuster asset - REBLOZYL® - and brought in the company's lead drug - Sotatercept - prior to Acceleron's eventual sale to Merck in 2021. Prior to Acceleron, Habib held various leadership roles at Bayer AG during his ~22-year tenure with the company. As President, U.S. Pharmaceuticals at Bayer, he directed a multi-billion-dollar portfolio of products across multiple therapeutic areas (cardiovascular disease, hematology, neurology, oncology, and women's health). Prior to that, he held roles as Executive Vice President, Global Head Specialty Medicine and Vice President, Ophthalmology/Global Launch Team Head, EYLEA®. Habib received his BBA in Marketing & Finance and his MBA in International Business from University of New Brunswick. He completed the Executive Program at Stanford University, Graduate School of Business, as well as the Executive to Leader Institute at Korn/Ferry International. Habib has earned his Director Professionalism® Certificate from the National Association of Corporate Directors.
KATIE DAHLSTROM
Vice President, Development Strategy & Operations
Vice President, Development Strategy & Operations
Katie Dahlstrom is Vice President, Development Strategy & Operations at Raven. Katie's primary responsibilities at Raven are to lead the development and oversee the implementation of best practices in clinical strategies in RA Capital Management's newcos and portfolio companies. Katie was previously Vice President of Clinical Development Operations at Theseus Pharmaceuticals where she built the development operations organization and executed the early-stage oncology portfolio. Before Theseus, she held increasing levels of responsibility in Clinical Operations at Agios Pharmaceuticals where she oversaw the operational execution of the TIBSOVO® (ivosidenib) program for R/R AML from IND to NDA and the PYRUKIND® (mitapivat) program for pyruvate kinase deficiency from Phase 2 to NDA. Katie has prior clinical operations experience from Takeda Oncology and pharmacovigilance experience from Genzyme, a Sanofi Company. Katie has a BS in Biology from Stonehill College and an MA in Clinical Investigation from Boston University Medical School.
MILIND DESHPANDE, PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Milind Deshpande is a Venture Partner at Raven. Milind has more than 25 years of leadership and operational experience through all stages of drug discovery and development. He is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Spero Therapeutics and Scientific Advisory Board member at Avilar Therapeutics. Formerly, he was the CEO at Hyku Biosciences and President and CEO of Nayan Therapeutics and Hyku Biosciences, both were RA Capital portfolio companies. Formerly, he was the President, CEO and member of the Board of Directors of Achillion Pharmaceuticals, and was Group Leader at Bristol-Myers Squibb for all early stage discovery programs in infectious diseases and neuroscience. He is the co-inventor of first-in-class HCV NS5A inhibitors, which led to the approval of DaklinzaTM, the first marketed drug in its class. Milind has co-authored more than 80 scientific articles, is co-inventor on 30 patents, and is a frequent speaker at international scientific conferences. He received his doctorate in Organic Chemistry from Ohio University, and was a Fellow and Instructor in the Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine. Milind attended the residential Executive Program at The Wharton School of Management.
EMILY ENGEL
Senior Manager, Patient Engagement Operations
Senior Manager, Patient Engagement Operations
Emily Engel is a Senior Manager, Patient Engagement Operations at Raven. Emily's primary responsibilities at Raven are to support Clinical Operations and Patient Engagement efforts to identify and implement best practices in clinical trial operations in RA Capital Management's newcos and portfolio companies. Emily was previously the Global Clinical Trial Manager at Amylyx where she managed Phase I-III clinical trials as well as Expanded Access Programs, providing new therapies for rare, neurodegenerative disorders at no cost to participants, including RELYVRIO®/ALBRIOZA™ for the treatment of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. Before Amylyx, she was the Clinical Project Manager at Eledon Pharmaceuticals where she managed a team overseeing the operations of several early-stage clinical programs including kidney and islet cell transplantation. She has prior project management and clinical trial experience at IQVIA. Massachusetts General Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Emily has a BS in Public Health Services from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst.
GUNNAR ESIASON, MBA, MPH
Senior Director of Patient Engagement
Senior Director of Patient Engagement
Gunnar Esiason is Senior Director of Patient Engagement at Raven. Gunnar is a cystic fibrosis and rare disease patient leader, who is passionate about early-stage drug development, patient empowerment, and health policy. Professionally, he is an accomplished patient advocate who has also developed a patient engagement platform for a medical nutrition company, built a venture philanthropy practice at the Boomer Esiason Foundation. He has consulted on clinical trial development, a real-world evidence population health study, and a cystic fibrosis-specific mental health and wellness screening tool. Gunnar holds an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, where he was a Wilson Scholar and received the Julia Stell Award, an M.P.H. from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice, and a B.A. from Boston College. His health policy opinions have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Hill, and STAT News.
ERIKA FIGUEROA
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Erika Figueroa is an Executive Assistant at Raven. Her primary responsibilities are to coordinate calendars, events, travel and meetings for the Venture Partners in addition to providing support to the Operations team within Raven. Erika brings to Raven nearly two decades of administrative experience. Most recently, Erika spent over two years at Bain Capital Life Sciences (BCLS), where she held an Executive Assistant role supporting the Co-Head of Life Sciences. Prior to BCLS, she gained Administrative and Project Management experience at Wellington Management, Wells Fargo Asset Management and PIMCO, respectively. Erika received her BS in Technical Management from DeVry University in Long Beach CA.
JOSEPH FLANAGAN
Senior Director of Data Product
Senior Director of Data Product
Joseph Flanagan is a Senior Director of Data Product at Raven, leading the development of generalizable data tools to accelerate decision-making across the firm's portfolio. Prior to joining Raven, Joseph held leadership roles at several innovative life sciences companies, including Indigo Agriculture, EQRx, and Montai Therapeutics. At these organizations, he built and led product teams, leveraging modern technologies to drive business growth and improve outcomes. His experience spans the intersection of technology and life sciences, with a focus on using data to empower rapid discovery and decision-making. He holds a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts.
GLENICE GALLAGHER
Senior Talent Acquisition Operations Specialist
Senior Talent Acquisition Operations Specialist
Glenice Gallagher is the Senior Talent Acquisition Operations Specialist at Raven. In this role, Glenice works closely with leadership to refine, implement and manage operational strategies related to the talent lifecycle across the organization. Prior to joining Raven, Glenice served as the Senior Talent Acquisition & University Operations Lead at Cerevel Therapeutics, an early/mid stage biotech focused on developing treatments for individuals living with neurological conditions. While there, she was instrumental in establishing and managing standard talent practices to support internal growth. Glenice led Cerevel’s University Programs, and was responsible for the development, recruitment and execution of the InSPiRE Internship and co-op programs. She was a founding member of Cerevel’s Early in Career Group, and oversaw its curriculum planning and management. Glenice holds her B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in Art & Art History from St. Lawrence University.
COSMAS GIALLOURAKIS
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Cosmas Giallourakis is a Venture Partner at Raven, focusing on new company creation. Cosmas brings to Raven over a decade of leadership experiences at the interface of basic science, drug development and clinical care. Prior to Raven, Cosmas was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Third Rock Ventures and was part of the teams that built Asher Bio (cell targeted biologics for oncology/autoimmune diseases) and Septerna (GPCR focused drug discovery) as well as other NewCOs in development. In addition, Cosmas has co-founded companies including Design Pharma (synthetic bio) and a company in stealth focused on RNA-based genetic medicines. Prior to this, Cosmas was a Director at Takeda Pharmaceuticals where he was responsible for developing multiple partnerships and platforms on emerging technologies, along with leading drug development teams in cell and gene therapies. Before transitioning to industry, Cosmas was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), where he had an active gastroenterology clinical practice and ran a lab whose research centered on fundamental aspects of RNA and epigenetics. Cosmas’s academic research has been published in journals such as Cell, Science, and Nature. Cosmas received his BS in Physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his MD from Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital and completed his clinical gastroenterology fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School as well post-doctoral training with Frederick Alt, an HHMI investigator, in molecular immunology.
EMILY GRANSKY
VP, Recruiting
VP, Recruiting
Emily Gransky is VP of Recruiting at Raven. In this role, Emily works closely with senior leaders, Venture Partners and Managing Directors within the RA Capital Management Investment Team at RA Capital and within Raven. Her primary responsibility is leading and executing full cycle recruiting across all newcos and portfolio companies. Prior to Raven, Emily worked as Director, Talent Acquisition, at Generation Bio, leading hiring across all functions and building out systems to support that growth. Prior to this, she served as Director, Talent Acquisition and Operations at Flagship Pioneering, a role in which she built talent systems to support the growth of 30+ pre-series B biotech startup companies. Prior to Flagship, Emily held roles as Associate Director, Head of Global Talent Acquisition and Associate Director, Recruiting Operations & Analytics at bluebird bio. While in these roles, Emily helped Bluebird grow from 300 to 1000 employees. Emily has her BS in Chemical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in NY.
KEVIN GROSSELIN, PhD
RA Ventures Associate
RA Ventures Associate
Kevin Grosselin is Raven Ventures Associate. Kevin's primary responsibilities is to research early-stage projects in collaboration with Raven team members, Venture Partners, and Entrepreneurs-in-Residence. Prior to Raven, Kevin was a postdoctoral associate at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and an EMBO fellow. Kevin has a ME in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering from Chimie ParisTech in France, a MS in Biotechnology from the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, and a PhD in Physics and Chemistry from Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University in France.
CHRIS HALPIN
Director of Operations and Laboratory Management
Director of Operations and Laboratory Management
Chris Halpin is the Director of Operations and Laboratory Management at Raven. His primary responsibilities are to provide strategic direction and execution to newly-formed Raven companies ready to expand their operations and facilities. Most recently, Chris worked as Director of Operations at TRIANA Biomedicines, where he managed the operation of several laboratories and office locations and built out the IT, Facilities, Recruiting, and Administrative functions. Prior to that, Chris was the Venture Operation Manager at Raven. He has previously held operations roles at Synlogic, Cabot, and Great Hill Partners. He holds a BA in Sociology from Suffolk University.
ALLISON HARRIGAN, MBA
Senior Director Corporate Development
Senior Director Corporate Development
Allison Harrigan is Senior Director of Corporate Development at Raven focusing on new company creation. Prior to joining Raven, Allison was Executive Director of Strategy and Business Development at a neuroscience biotech company operating in stealth. Previously, Allison spent over three years at Valo Health in positions of increasing responsibility. As Director of Corporate Strategy, she was responsible for driving strategic initiatives, held a key role in fundraising, and led key business development efforts, including the diligence, acquisition and integration of a drug discovery company and two clinical drug programs. Prior to Valo Health, she spent over three years at McKinsey where she primarily served pharmaceutical and biotech clients on topics including R&D strategy, portfolio management, and innovation. Allison started her career at the National Institutes of Health in a drug discovery group focused on rare and neglected diseases. Allison received her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, and her BS degree in Chemistry from Georgetown University.
GARRETT HEFFNER, PhD
Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur in Residence
Garrett Heffner is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Raven, focusing on genetic medicines. In this role, he will work to evaluate and incubate early-stage therapeutic programs. Garrett has over 20 years of experience in cell and gene therapy, including over 12 years in roles of increasing responsibility in biotech companies, including with Bluebird Bio, Audentes Therapeutics, and Ambys Medicines, and he was most recently the VP of Gene Therapy at Voyager Therapeutics. Garrett has worked cross-functionally across the landscape of in vivo and ex vivo genetic medicine modalities, often at the interface of payload design, platform research and manufacturing, IND-enabling activities, bioanalytical and computational biology, and strategy. Garrett received a BS with honors from the California Institute of Technology while publishing his first paper with Dr. Paul H. Patterson, holds a PhD in Immunology from Stanford University, where he studied hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells with Dr. Irving L. Weissman, and completed his post-doctoral training at Childrens Hospital Boston/Harvard Medical School studying ES/iPSC specification to the hematopoietic fate with Dr. George Q. Daley.
JACLYN HENDERSON, PhD
Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur in Residence
Jaclyn Henderson is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Raven, focusing on new company creation. Jaclyn joins Raven from Arclight Therapeutics where as VP Early Discovery, she was responsible for developing a diverse portfolio of early-stage assets across neurodegenerative diseases. Her prior roles include Pfizer, Biogen, Vertex and Jnana Therapeutics. During her career, she has worked on developing four clinical stage compounds across several therapeutic areas including Parkinson’s Disease, and Phenylketonuria. Jaclyn holds a PhD in Organic Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Aberdeen.
BETSY HIJAZI
Executive Assistant
Executive Assistant
Betsy is an Executive Assistant at Raven. Her primary responsibilities are to coordinate calendars, events, travel, and meetings for the Venture Partners and Operations team within Raven. Betsy has been an Executive Assistant for more than 25 years. She began her Executive Assistant career at an investor relations firm and has since supported C-suite executives in Software, Venture Capital, and the Arts. Before joining Raven, Betsy was the Executive Assistant to the CEO at Surface Oncology.
JONATHAN HILL, PhD
Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur in Residence
Jonathan is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Raven. In this role, he evaluates and incubates early-stage therapeutic programs. Jonathan most recently served as Vice President of Biology at Surface Oncology, where he led a diverse group of scientists in developing therapeutic antibodies to enhance anti-tumor immune responses in patients with cancer. His team’s responsibilities spanned from target validation to IND-enabling studies and supported translational efforts to monitor these therapeutics’ biological activity in clinical trials. Prior to Surface Oncology, Jonathan held several positions of increasing responsibility at Tempero Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline within the Immuno-Inflammation Therapeutic Area. His group’s efforts were focused on target identification/validation and high-throughput phenotypic screening aimed at modulating Treg and Th17 cells in autoimmune disease and cancer. Jonathan earned his bachelor’s degree in Biochemistry and PhD in Immunology at the University of Western Ontario and was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Christophe Benoist and Diane Mathis at Harvard Medical School.
PEYMAN HOSSEINCHI, PhD
RA Ventures Senior Associate
RA Ventures Senior Associate
Peyman Hosseinchi is a Senior Associate at Raven. Peyman's primary responsibility is NewCo creation in collaboration with Ventures Partners and Entrepreneur-in-Residences at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, Peyman was an Associate within the TechAtlas division of RA Capital Management, focusing on identifying emerging therapeutics and advising RA Capital's portfolio companies on their pipeline. Peyman holds a dual B.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran and a PhD in Molecular Engineering from Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago.
MILIND KAMKOLKAR
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Milind Kamkolkar is a Venture Partner at Raven focusing on new company creation. He is a seasoned entrepreneur, pre-seed investor, Board Member, and Fortune 500 C-suite executive. Milind’s career has spanned big pharma, big and boutique management consulting organizations, and numerous technology startup companies focused on the intersection of health, AI, and data. Milind is a strategic advisor to several startup companies in the AI applied to healthcare and biotech. He co-founded Paradigm in 2022 backed by Arch and General Catalyst. He raised 203.5M USD for their Series A, focused on creating equitable access to clinical trials as a treatment option for any patient, anywhere. Before that, Milind was the CDO of Cellarity, a Flagship Pioneering biotechnology company that, using AI, is rewriting the rules of drug creation by unraveling the complexity of disease biology at the cellular level. At Flagship, Milind supported numerous AI for drug discovery initiatives including seeding Pioneering Intelligence. At Sanofi, Milind was the pharmaceutical industry's first enterprise Chief Data Officer. As VP of AI & Behavioral Science, Milind launched the AI & Data Science role in Digital Medicine at Novartis. He was also on the Board of Directors for Castor and Turbine, two techbio companies specializing in improving clinical trials and drug discovery simulation. Milind is a featured speaker; TEDx, Top 100 Leaders in AI, Business Transformation Top 150 Leader, and a thought leader in Digital Health, AI & Big Data. He has also served as an Honorary Lecturer for physician entrepreneurship at BartsX, Faculty at Exponential Medicine, and a Former Special Advisor to the UN Global Sustainable Development Goals. Milind completed his undergraduate degree from the University of Sydney and graduated with his Masters from Thomas Jefferson University.
SONIA KARTHA, PhD
RA Ventures Senior Associate
RA Ventures Senior Associate
Sonia Kartha is a Senior Associate at Raven. Sonia's primary responsibility is NewCo creation in collaboration with Ventures Partners and Entrepreneur-in-Residences. Prior to joining Raven, Sonia was an Associate within the TechAtlas division of RA Capital where she worked closely with members of the investment team and portfolio companies to deeply understand competitive landscapes, evaluated investment opportunities in a variety of therapeutic areas across all stages, and advised portfolio companies on program and pipeline strategy. Sonia has a BA in Chemistry and a PhD in Bioengineering, both from the University of Pennsylvania.
ALBERT KIM, MD/PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Albert Kim is a Venture Partner at Raven focusing on new company creation. He is a physician-scientist experienced in novel therapeutic product development, translational science, and clinical medicine. He was Chief Medical Officer at Cytel, Inc. where he led clinical and medical development interests across business units including the Solara© software platform for clinical trial design, and served as general manager for the Therapeutics Development Team. Prior to Cytel, Dr. Kim held leadership roles at Novartis and Pfizer. During his Pfizer tenure, he was the Vice President, Clinical Research Head for the Internal Medicine Research Unit and oversaw clinical research efforts for the legacy neuroscience portfolio and cardiometabolic diseases. Dr Kim contributed to development programs for Ilaris®, Gilenya®, bococizumab, clesacostat, Comirnaty®, ponsegromab, and danuglipron.
Prior to Novartis and Pfizer, Dr. Kim worked at the FDA in the Division of Cardiac Devices as a medical reviewer and project lead for the industry guidance document on catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation. Dr. Kim achieved board certification in internal medicine, cardiology, and clinical cardiac electrophysiology and practiced clinical medicine for 18 years, He has held academic appointments with VA Boston Cardiac Electrophysiology Section, Boston University, and Harvard Medical School. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology (FACC) and the Heart Rhythm Society (FHRS). Dr. Kim earned his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering from Harvard, MD and PhD degrees from UCLA, completed his residency in internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, cardiology fellowship training at Massachusetts General Hospital, and clinical cardiac electrophysiology training at UCSF.
PRISCILLA LEE, PhD
RA Ventures Associate
RA Ventures Associate
Priscilla Lee is an Associate at Raven. Priscilla's primary responsibility is NewCo creation in collaboration with Ventures Partners and Entrepreneur-in-Residences at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, Priscilla was an Associate within the TechAtlas division of RA Capital Management, focusing on identifying emerging therapeutics and advising RA Capital's portfolio companies on their pipeline. Priscilla has a BS in Life Science from National Taiwan University, an MS in Immunology from National Taiwan University College of Medicine, and a PhD in Biomedical Science from The Ohio State University.
DAVID LUBNER
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
David Lubner is a Venture Partner at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, David was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Ra Pharmaceuticals Inc. from 2016 until it was acquired by UCB S.A. in 2020. Previously, David served as Chief Financial Officer of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals from its inception in 2006 to 2016, as Chief Financial Officer of PharMetrics from 1999 until it was acquired by IMS Health in 2005 and as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ProScript from 1996 to 1999, where Velcade® (bortezomib), a therapy widely used for the treatment of the blood cancer multiple myeloma, was discovered. Independent from RA, David serves as a member of the board of directors of Arcellx, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACLX), Dyne Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:DYNE), Vor Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq:VOR) and Point Biopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq:PNT) and several other private companies. David previously served on the board of directors of Nightstar Therapeutics plc from 2017 until it was acquired by Biogen in June 2019
DANIEL MACAYA, PhD
Senior Director of Corporate Development
Senior Director of Corporate Development
Daniel Macaya is Senior Director of Corporate Development at Raven, focusing on new company creation. Prior to Raven, Daniel co-founded and led strategy and operations for Seeker Biologics, Series A funded multi-specific biologics platform company aimed at discovering precision medicines for inflammatory disease. Prior to this, Daniel was an Associate Director within the TechAtlas division of RA Capital Management where he drove internal and external strategic and diligence initiatives and oversaw the workflow and professional development of TechAtlas Associates. Prior to this role, as an Associate at RA Capital, Daniel mapped a diverse range of competitive landscapes, spanning autoimmune, oncology, neurologic, and metabolic diseases, as well as the pipelines of several large pharma. Daniel holds a PhD in Medical Engineering from the Harvard-MIT division of Health Sciences and Technology, where his research focused on the development of tissue engineered grafts capable of restoring function after spinal cord injury, and a BS in Materials Science from Cornell University.
NEEL MADHUKAR, PhD
Senior Director, AI Product
Senior Director, AI Product
Neel Madhukar is a Senior Director, AI Product, at Raven, where he focuses on new company creation. Prior to Raven, Neel was the CEO and founder of OneThree Biotech, a company developing novel oncology therapeutics driven by an AI -powered discovery engine. During his time at OneThree, he led the company's internal engineering and R&D efforts (resulting in a preclinical pipeline of multiple novel cancer targets), external biopharma partnerships, organizational strategy, and fundraising. In addition to his role at OneThree he was an advisor to multiple AI + Bio companies and organizations, including Lantern Pharma, Merck's Digital Sciences Studio, and AAIH’s working group for AI for Drug Development and Safety. Neel is a computational biologist by training and has multiple publications in the fields of machine learning, drug discovery, and precision medicine, with his work published in journals like Nature Communications and Cell Reports. This has led to the development of new AI methods, the discovery of a novel class of cancer therapeutics, and the start of new oncology clinical trials. Neel is an awardee of the PhRMA informatics fellowship, was named one of Forbes “30 under 30” in Healthcare, and was named as one of the top 100 AI Leaders in Drug Discovery and Advanced Healthcare by Deep Knowledge Analytics. Neel has a PhD in Computational Biology and Medicine from Weill Cornell Medical College and a BS in Biochemistry, Cellular, and Molecular Biology.
KARA MAKOWSKI
Total Rewards, Associate Director*
Total Rewards, Associate Director*
Kara serves as the Total Rewards, Associate Director for Raven and RA Capital Management. Kara is responsible for working across the firm's leadership to develop a comprehensive Total Rewards strategy, including managing our annual total rewards and compensation competitive analyses and finding new, innovative approaches to our Total Rewards program. Kara brings over 15 years of Human Resources experience. Before joining Raven, Kara was the Human Resources Manager at PSPDFKit where she was responsible for the provision of global human resources. Prior to PSPDFKit, she was the Senior Human Resources Manager at Intelerad Medical Systems where she facilitated the company’s growth from 60 to 350 employees; and led the HR integration process for five mergers and acquisitions. Her prior experience includes various leadership roles in Human Resources and Operations at Tiverton Advisors and Prometheus Group. Kara received her Bachelor of Science in Gerontology from the University of South Florida.
*Shared resource between RA Ventures and RA Capital.
ED MONAGHAN, PhD
Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur in Residence
Ed Monaghan is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Raven. In this role, he works closely with the RA Capital Management Investment Team to evaluate and incubate early-stage therapeutic programs. Ed has 30 years of experience in preclinical and clinical drug development, and in regulatory affairs for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. After joining Raven as Chief Development Officer, Ed built the development team, oversaw development of six compounds from discovery-stage through to clinical-stage, and led the formation of several new companies, including Lusaris Therapeutics. Ed began his career working with neurologically active compounds at Allergan, CoCensys, and Serono. Since 2002, he has been working in start-up pharma companies, including co-founding Thesan Pharmaceuticals and NeoKera, where he assumed responsibilities for all development activities, including regulatory affairs. Ed holds a PhD in neuroscience from the University of California Berkeley, an MS in psychology from Villanova University, and a BA from La Salle University.
ANISH MORE, MBA
Senior Director of Healthcare Services
Senior Director of Healthcare Services
Anish More is a Senior Director of Healthcare Services at Raven. Anish's primary responsibility is supporting the team in evaluating investments and developing NewCos. Prior to joining Raven, Anish spent his career developing healthcare services in strategy and product development roles at CVS Health, Aetna, and Signify Health. He started his career at IBM on the IBM Watson team. Anish holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a BA from Michigan State University.
ROBERT NICOL, PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Robert Nicol is a Venture Partner at Raven, focusing on company creation. Prior to Raven, Rob spent 21 years at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, most recently as the Senior Director of Technology Development and a Principal Investigator. His laboratory at the Broad focused on advanced high throughput biotechnology tools including DNA synthesis, single cell analysis, synthetic biology derived biomolecule libraries, and microbiome profiling. Robert has led multiple DARPA, IARPA, and NIH advanced technology development programs. He is also the co-founder of multiple biotechnology companies including HiFiBiO and Design Pharmaceuticals. He served on the Scientific Advisory Boards of multiple companies including DNA Script, Danaher Life Sciences, and CircBio. Robert also led the Sequencing Operations and Technology Development groups at the Broad for over 12 years, implementing industrial process control methods, developing multiple generations of high-throughput DNA sequencing technologies, and establishing an agile learning culture in the organization. Prior to his career at the Broad Institute, Robert was an MIT Leaders for Manufacturing Fellow, and a project manager for Fluor Corporation, where he managed large-scale petrochemical design and construction projects. Robert received his BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston. He earned an MS in chemical engineering and his MBA and PhD in engineering systems from MIT.
NIK OBHOLZER, PhD
Senior Director Omics and AI
Senior Director Omics and AI
Nik Obholzer is the Senior Director Omics and AI at Raven. Prior to Raven, Nik was a Director of Computational Biology at Kronos Bio. Over the course of his career, he has worked in academia, consulting, biotech, and pharma. Nik holds a PhD in Biology from Heidelberg University in Germany.
JACOB OPPENHEIM, PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Jacob Oppenheim is a Venture Partner at RA Ventures (RAVen), focusing on new company creation. Prior to joining RAVen, Jacob was an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Digitalis Ventures and co-founded Fresnel, a "Bloomberg for Biology" platform. He previously served as Vice President of Data Science and Engineering at EQRx, where he led the development of data strategy and implementation of scalable data infrastructure. Jacob also held leadership roles at Indigo, including Senior Director of Data Science, where he developed machine learning systems for agricultural applications. Jacob holds extensive experience in building and scaling high-performing cross-functional teams in data science, engineering, and product development, with a focus on applying AI/ML to biological problems. He has presented at top conferences and is named on multiple patent applications in the field. He holds a PhD in Biological Physics from Rockefeller University and an AB in Physics from Princeton University.
SARA PACHECO
Director of Finance
Director of Finance
Sara Pacheco is the Director of Finance at Raven, focusing on providing strategic finance support to newco's from incubation through formation and beyond. Before this role, Sara was a Director of Accounting and Finance at van den Boom & Associates where she worked as a Controller consultant with companies of various sizes in the life sciences sector. Her primary responsibilities included overseeing day-to-day accounting, monitoring budget performance, preparing financial analyses, and providing SOX compliance support. Before entering the life science space, Sara held various accounting roles in the retail industry and started her career at Deloitte. Sara has a BA in Economics and Accounting from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is a CPA.
SOPHIE PAPA, FRCP PhD
Consulting Venture Partner
Consulting Venture Partner
Sophie Papa is a Venture Partner Consultant at Raven, a Clinical Reader (Associate Professor) of Immune Oncology at King’s College London and the Chief Medical Officer of Enara Bio. Dr. Papa is a Medical Oncologist with over twenty years of experience. She worked as a melanoma oncologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust (GSTFT) in London, UK. She was a principal investigator on the early phase trials team with clinical research expertise spanning first in human to late phase clinical trial leadership and experience. She was program lead for Cell and Gene Therapy at GSTFT working with a broad multidisciplinary team to bring together GMP manufacturing, biological safety and clinical excellence in delivery of complex cellular and genetic medicines.
Dr. Papa received her doctorate in solid tumor CAR T cell therapy from King’s College London, her pre-clinical medical degree from St John’s College, University of Oxford, and her clinical medical degree from Imperial College London. She has published over sixty papers in the field of oncology and cancer immunology. Dr. Papa was awarded a Medical Research Council Clinician Scientist Fellowship in 2013 and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
ALONSO RICARDO, PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Alonso Ricardo PhD, is a Venture Partner at RA Ventures. Prior to Raven Alonso co-founded and was the former Chief Scientific Officer of Mariana Oncology, an RA Capital portfolio company focused on the development of targeted therapies for the treatment of solid tumors (acquired by Novartis). Before this, he was an entrepreneur in residence at RA Capital Management and the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Ra Pharmaceuticals (acquired by UCB). Alonso has experience leading scientific programs across multiple therapeutic programs in immunology, metabolic diseases, and oncology. He led the discovery and early development of ZILBRYSQ®, a first-in-class immune modulator peptide drug approved for the treatment of generalized myasthenia gravis, the discovery of an orally available peptide targeting PCSK9 (MK-0616) in development by Merck for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia, and the discovery of radiotheranostic peptides for the treatment of a variety of solid tumors. Alonso was formerly a professor at the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellow at Harvard University and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Florida and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution.
KAT RIESEN
Senior VP, Finance
Senior VP, Finance
Kat Riesen is the Senior VP, Finance at Raven. Kat’s primary responsibility is supporting newcos, portfolio companies and executives within Raven, focusing on strategic finance. Prior to joining Raven, Kat was a Partner at van den Boom & Associates where she provided accounting and finance services including new company formation through IPO and public company accounting support, SOX compliance implementation, and financial modeling to several public and private life science companies. Before entering the life science space, Kat held various accounting roles in the retail industry and started her career at Ernst & Young. Kat has a BS in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. She is a CPA.
PAUL ROTHMAN, M.D.
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Paul Rothman, M.D. is a Venture Partner at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, he was the former Dean of the Medical Faculty for the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine from 2012 until 2022. A rheumatologist and molecular immunologist, he came to Hopkins after serving as Dean of the Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa. Previously, he served as Head of Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa, and Vice Chairman for Research and Founding Director of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Rothman received his BS from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Medical degree from Yale University. He trained at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in internal medicine and rheumatology and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University. Dr Rothman's research focused on immune system molecules known as cytokines. Specifically, he investigated the role these molecules play in the normal development of blood cells, as well as the abnormal development of these blood cell that leads to leukemia. Dr. Rothman serves on the boards of Merck, Labcorp as well as the King Faisal Specialty Hospital.
GERALD SEWACK, PhD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Gerald is Vice President of Scientific Operations at Raven. In this role, Gerald is responsible for evaluating new technology and novel biology to originate and support the generation of new companies in collaboration with Raven’s Venture Partners and Entrepreneur-in-Residences. He also supports select Raven portfolio companies in active strategic operating roles and serves as Board Director for GIVax, Summation Bio, and Astro Therapeutics. Prior to this, Gerald was Director of Scientific Operations for RA Capital. He worked previously at Global Prior Art, an intellectual property analysis firm, as a Partner and the Director of the Life Sciences Division. Gerald holds a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology from Harvard Medical School. His research investigated chromatin structure and transcription factor binding.
BIMAL SHAH, MD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Bimal Shah, M.D. is a Venture Partner at Raven. He is a cardiologist who was formerly the Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of Homeward. Previously, Dr. Shah was the Chief Medical Officer at Teladoc after its merger with Livongo Health. In these roles he oversaw clinical product strategy and, value and insight analytics, behavioral health strategy, quality and credentialing, and commercial enablement. Prior to Livongo, he was the Chief Medical Officer for Emerging Technology and Informatics and Service Line Vice President for Life Sciences at Premier Inc. Prior to Premier, Dr. Shah served as an Assistant Professor in both the Department of Medicine and Fuqua School of Business at Duke University as well as Director of Quality for the Department of Medicine. He remains on faculty at Duke. Dr. Shah received his bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and earned both a MD and MBA from Duke University. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University before finishing a general cardiology fellowship at Duke University.
MICHAEL SHERMAN, MD
Venture Partner
Venture Partner
Michael Sherman is a Venture Partner at Raven. Prior to joining Raven, Michael was the Executive Vice President and CMO at Point32Health, formed by the merger of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan. Prior to Point32Health, Michael served as CMO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, the Corporate Medical Director at Humana and also served as Vice President of Network and Consumer Solutions for UnitedHealth Groups subsidiary Ingenix (now part of Optum). Michael has also previously held the position of Vice President and General Manager at Thomson Medstat (now part of IBM Watson Health), as well as held management roles at Immusol, a San Diego-based biotechnology company, HealthAllies, an organization created to provide discretionary medical benefits to the cash-pay market, and Da Vita, a national provider of dialysis services. Before pursuing an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School, Michael received his M.D. from Yale and practiced as a cardiac anesthesiologist. He also holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Natural Sciences and an M.S. in Biomedical Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Michael is chair of the Board of Managers of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. He holds additional board appointments with several well-respected nonprofit organizations, including the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER), the Personalized Medicine Coalition, the Harvard Business School Healthcare Initiative, NEHI (Network for Excellence in Health Innovation), and the Massachusetts Rare Disease Advisory Council.
JAMES STANKOWICZ
Senior Director, AI Product
Senior Director, AI Product
James Stankowicz is a Senior Director, AI Product at Raven, where he focuses on new company creation. Prior to Raven, James worked in biotech and on US Department of Defense (DoD) research programs. At Flagship Pioneering, James was an original member of the Pioneering Intelligence team, with a focus on using large language models to bootstrap the Flagship innovation pipeline. James has been a PI on several large DoD research programs at both BAE Systems FAST Labs and STR. He has focused on a wide range of topics including multimodal large language models, information extraction, AI forensics, deep learning in signals processing, deep learning on networks, reinforcement learning, and generative AI models for biological sequences. James has several patents and research publications in machine learning and graph theory resulting from this work. James was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Brown University High Energy Theory group; holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics from UCLA where he was an NDSEG scholar; and Holds a BS in Physics from the University of Florida Honors College where he graudated summa cum laude.
ANISH SURI, PhD
Consulting Venture Partner
Consulting Venture Partner
Anish Suri is a Consulting Venture Partner at Raven and the Executive Vice President and CSO at Synolo. He is an immunologist with more than 20 years of experience in basic and translational research focused on immuno-oncology, autoimmune disorders, transplantation rejection, and inflammation. In his last role as President and CSO of Cue Biopharma, he was responsible for shaping the corporate and scientific strategy to develop novel therapeutic platforms for oncology and autoimmune diseases, which led to several compounds that are currently in clinical development. Prior to joining Cue Biopharma, he held roles of increasing responsibility at Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson) with the primary focus on identifying early triggers of immune dysfunction and therapeutic opportunities to reset immune balance. While at Janssen, in 2015 he was recognized by PharmaVOICE as one of the100 Most Inspiring Leaders in the Life Sciences. Prior to Janssen, he was responsible for providing strategic guidance to immuno-oncology and immunology drug discovery programs at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Before his work in the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Suri was Assistant Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in immunology from Washington University St. Louis.
ADAM TRAVIS, MD
Vice President of Corporate Development
Vice President of Corporate Development
Adam Travis, MD is Vice President of Corporate Development at Raven, where he is focused on new venture incubation in healthcare services. Prior to joining Raven, Adam was VP Corporate Strategy at Teladoc Health - a scale-leading international provider of virtual and digital healthcare products and services. In this role, he was responsible for leading long-range strategic and financial planning, enterprise product and platform investment planning, and growth / GTM strategy for Teladoc’s largest business unit focused on services sold to US payers and self-insured employers. Adam began his career as a radiologist, but for the past 10+ years he has worked entirely in Strategy, GM, and Product leadership roles in health tech and healthcare delivery businesses and has advised clients and led Product and Commercial teams as an expert on care delivery innovation and value-based care. Prior to joining Teladoc through its acquisition of Livongo in 2020, Adam was a VP of Product Management and GM at Clarify Health and before that a Principal at Boston Consulting Group where he focused on growth and M&A strategy for clients spanning biopharma, medical device, payer, and provider sectors of the healthcare industry. He completed residency training and board certification in diagnostic radiology at University of Chicago Hospitals where he served as Chief Resident in 2012, and holds a Doctor of Medicine from University of Louisville School of Medicine and a Bachelor of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering with Honors from Vanderbilt University.
NOAH ULLMAN
Senior Director, AI Product
Senior Director, AI Product
Noah is a Senior Director, AI Product at Raven, where he focuses on new company creation. Noah has led teams in developing digital health tools that integrate clinical and biological datasets, with a focus on scalable precision medicine. Most recently, he designed and built a direct-to-patient platform for modeling computable human health phenotypes across multiple therapeutic areas. Noah’s experience further includes leading strategic partnerships and building software products at the Matrix Capital & Mayo Ventures-backed biomedical AI startup nference. He was instrumental in the early commercialization of nference's clinical data analytics platform, where the team leveraged the Mayo Clinic’s unparalleled electronic health records alongside cutting-edge computational techniques to accelerate clinical trial design, recruitment, and lifecycle management in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. Noah also co-founded and served as co-CEO and CBO to Abyssinia Biologics, a CNS therapeutics company, where he was responsible for raising the company’s seed round, building the preclinical development team, and establishing strategic partnerships to advance monoclonal antibody therapies targeting protein aggregation disorders. He hold a BSc. in Business Marketing and Entrepreneurship from Montana State University.
MICHAEL VARNUM
Manager, Project & Portfolio Analytics
Manager, Project & Portfolio Analytics
Michael Varnum is a Manager, Project & Portfolio Analytics, at RA Ventures (Raven). Michael tracks and summarizes progress on all internal projects as well as performs research and data analysis for several of our projects. Before RA Ventures, he was a Senior Research Assistant with the TechAtlas division of RA Capital, conducting research and analysis for competitive landscapes of drugs and medical devices across a range of disease indications and capabilities. Prior to RA, he served as a Business Development Intern at Lykan Bioscience and as an Isenberg Business Innovation Fellow at the UMass Amherst Institute for Applied Life Sciences. Michael has a B.S. in Business Administration in Management with a Minor in Biology from UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College.
MARYANN VIGLIOTTA
Vice President of Operations and HR
Vice President of Operations and HR
Maryann Vigliotta is the Vice President of Operations and HR at Raven. In this role, Maryann supports start-up business infrastructure development for newcos as well as provides strategic HR guidance for founding team members. Prior to joining Raven, Maryann was Director of Business Operations and HR at Q32 Bio where she wore many hats helping to establish the company’s business infrastructure including IT, contract management, facilities, administrative support, Human Resources, recruiting, internal communications and was a strong driver of company culture. Prior to Q32 Bio, Maryann worked as the Operations Manager for Surface Oncology and several other biotech start-up companies from discovery research through end of Phase 2 Clinical trials. Maryann received her Bachelor of Science in English from Northeastern University.
IRIS WANG
Director of Talent Acquisition
Director of Talent Acquisition
Iris Wang is Director of Talent Acquisition at Raven. In this role, Iris works closely with leadership to execute strategies for full-cycle recruiting across the organization. Before joining Raven, Iris served as a Business Unit Talent Acquisition Lead at Flagship Pioneering. In this role, she was instrumental in developing and executing recruitment strategies for a wide range of Flagship’s portfolio companies, divisions, and origination teams. Prior to Flagship, Iris was a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Biogen. She was a trusted talent advisor for large R&D and global medical affairs teams and thEntrepreneur-in-Residence leaders. She led multiple talent expansion projects to fruition and was a key contributor to develop scalable operational best practices. Iris was the first talent partner at Biogen to conceive and oversee a comprehensive recruitment marketing campaign with the journal Nature. Iris’ passion for recruitment and healthcare started over a decade ago when she worked to recruit patients for national and international HIV/AIDS clinical trials at Fenway Health, a Boston-based health center with a mission to enhance the wellbeing of the LGBTQIA+ community and beyond. Iris holds a B.A. in English from the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and an M.S. in Business and Corporate Communications from Simmons School of Management.
JOSH XIAO, PhD
Entrepreneur in Residence
Entrepreneur in Residence
Josh Xiao is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Raven, focusing on developing novel biologics. Prior to joining Raven, Josh served as Vice President and Head of Research at Binacea Pharma, a clinical stage biotech with a focus on first-in-class bi-/multi-specific conditional-active biologics for immuno oncology and autoimmune diseases. Prior to that, Josh led data driven antibody target and drug discovery at Amgen, where he led several antibody projects in both ADC and CD3 bispecific modalities. Josh has also previously worked at 23andMe, where he led target and drug discovery efforts in oncology, NASH and related metabolic diseases. Josh began his biotech career at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and has also worked in several biotech startups. Josh earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Louisiana State University and completed his post-doctoral training in Dr. James Manley’s lab at Columbia University.
SAM XIFARAS
Software Engineer III- Full Stack
Software Engineer III- Full Stack
Sam is a full stack software engineer at RA Ventures. Prior to Raven he was a full stack software engineer at Paperless Parts, a SaaS company that makes innovative quoting software for manufacturers He Holds a MS in computer science from Northeastern University.