WLIB: Biotech Fundraising Tales of Success & Failure

Abbie Celniker has over 30 years of experience in Senior R&D and Executive leadership roles. As partner at Third Rock Ventures, she focuses on the formation, development and strategy of portfolio companies. She has a strong commitment to culture, and prioritizes establishing experienced, diverse teams.Prior to joining the firm, she served as president and CEO of Eleven Biotherapeutics (now Sesen Bio) since 2011. Previously, Dr Celniker was the president and CEO of Taligen Therapeutics from 2008 to 2011, when Taligen Therapeutics was acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals; following the acquisition, she served as Alexion’s executive vice president, translational medicine. She has served as the global head of biologics of Novartis AG, the senior vice president of R&D strategy and operations of Millennium Pharmaceuticals (now Takeda) and the vice president of protein technologies of the Wyeth Research facilities. She is a member of the board of directors of Abata Therapeutics and Flare Therapeutics. She has a B.A. in biology from the University of California, San Diego, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Arizona.

Sharon Cunningham is CEO and Co-Founder of Shorla Oncology, a commercial stage oncology drug company. Named Ireland's Best Young Entrepreneur 2019 and recognised as one of the 100 most influential CEO's in Ireland by the Business & Finance Media Group 2020, Sharon is a PwC trained Chartered Accountant with an MBA from University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and a BSc in Finance from University College Cork Ireland.

Jennifer Levin Carter is a Venture Partner at Sandbox Healthcare and the Blue Venture Fund. Dr Carter currently serves on the Board and/or as a strategic advisor to multiple public and private precision medicine, healthcare services, digital health and life science companies. She is also Founder and CEO of a Precision Medicine company in stealth. Prior to Sandbox, Dr Carter served as a Managing Director of JLC Precision Health Strategies, LLC and in 2018, she founded TrialzOWN™, Inc., a healthcare company in stealth, and was CEO until its prelaunch acquisition by the Flagship Pioneering company, Integral Health, (now Valo Health), in 2019. Prior to TrialzOWN™, she was the Founder and President of N-of-One®, Inc, serving as acting-CEO from 2008-2012, and Chief Medical Officer from 2012 until its acquisition by Qiagen (Market Cap $8B) in 2019.Dr Carter holds a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University, an MD from Harvard Medical School, an MPH from Harvard School of Public Health, and an MBA from the Sloan School at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Katie serves as Halloran’s Chief Innovation Officer and leads their consulting business and practices. Ms McCarthy and her team focus on the development of assets, products, and portfolios and in optimizing life science organizations to improve performance through people, process, data, and technology. Ms McCarthy often functions as an on-demand Head of Development, Head of Strategy, or Chief Operating Officer and advises on corporate strategic planning, directs clinical development portfolios, and provides recommendations to ease the challenges of drug development. As a member of the Executive Team, Ms McCarthy focuses on designing the vision to fuel Halloran’s future growth and building the consulting team to deliver it. Ms McCarthy is a Prosci certified Change Management Professional.Prior to joining Halloran, Ms McCarthy held a series of progressive positions with Biogen across several functions and roles, including Program and Alliance Management, Medical Research, Organizational Effectiveness, Clinical Development, and Clinical Operations. Before joining Biogen, Ms McCarthy was a Clinical Research Coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Jodie Morrison is currently serving as acting CEO of Q32 Bio and was previously a venture partner at Atlas. Prior to Q32 Bio she served as CEO of Cadent Therapeutics (until its sale to Novartis in 2020), interim CEO at Keryx Biopharmaceuticals (managed Akebia merger), COO at Syntimmune (acquired by Alexion), and CEO of Tokai Pharmaceuticals (led 2014 IPO). Before her tenure in executive leadership, she held positions in clinical and medical affairs at companies including Dyax, Curis, and Diacrin. Ms Morrison received her business training through the GBEP program at the MIT Sloan School of Management, her clinical research certification from Boston University School of Medicine and her BA in neuroscience from Mount Holyoke College. Ms Morrison has been awarded the Boston Business Journal’s “Power 50” and “Women to Watch” awards and WEST’s “Making a Difference” award.