Capital Connect: Finance & Funding in Life Sciences

Join Foley & Lardner LLP and Slone Partners in San Francisco for an informative and engaging afternoon exploring the latest trends and strategies in financing within the Life Sciences Industry.

Capital Connect will feature a distinguished panel of industry experts who will share their insights and experiences on navigating the complex landscape of finance and funding in the life sciences space. 

Whether you are an investor, entrepreneur, or industry professional, this event will provide valuable perspectives and networking opportunities to help you stay ahead in this rapidly evolving sector.

To register, please click on the Register Now button to the right.

Agenda

Times listed in PT

3:30 p.m. Registration Opens

4:10 – 4:15 p.m. Opening & Welcome Remarks
Antoinette Konski – Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP and Leslie Loveless – CEO, Slone Partners

4:15 – 4:30 p.m. State of the Union
Jonathan Norris – Managing Director, HSBC Innovation

4:30 – 5:30 p.m. Discussions & Strategies in Venture Capital Funding
Jonathan Norris – Managing Director, HSBC Innovation (moderator), Tiba Aynechi – General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners, Dr. Ashley Dombkowski – CEO & Co-founder, Alladapt Immunotherapeutics, Mike Dybbs – Partner, Samsara Biocapital, Maneesh Jain – CEO & Co-founder, Mirvie, Carolyn Ng – Partner & Managing Director, TPG Life Sciences Innovations, and Tod White – CFO & CBO, Alamar Biosciences

5:30 – 6:15 p.m. Closing Keynote: Building Successful Companies During Difficult Times
Nick Naclerio – Founding Partner, Illumina Ventures

6:15 – 7:30 p.m. Reception & Networking

Cosponsor

Speakers

Tiba Aynechi – General Partner, Norwest Venture Partners

Tiba Aynechi is a General Partner of Norwest Venture Partners where she leads the biotech practice within the healthcare team. Prior to joining Norwest, Tiba was a Senior Partner at Novo Holdings A/S, one of the top life sciences investment firms, with offices in the US and Europe. She is currently serving on the board of Engrail, Therapeutics, Ray Tx, MBX Biosciences, Rezo and Avalyn Pharma. In the past she served on the boards of iRhythm Technologies, Mirum Pharmaceuticals, Nkarta Therapeutics, Arcellx, Spruce Biosciences, and MDLive. 

Earlier in her career Tiba was a banker focused on M&A, licensing, and financing transactions involving biotech/pharma. Tiba attended the University of California Irvine where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics with a Biomedical concentration. She also holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of California San Francisco, where she also did her Postdoctoral Fellowship. Tiba is also a published author of scientific articles and book chapters in rational drug design.

Dr. Ashley Dombkowski – CEO & Co-founder, Alladapt Immunotherapeutics

Dr. Dombkowski co-founded Alladapt Immunotherapeutics with Dr. Kari Nadeau. She was previously the CEO and Co-founder of Before Brands, a company she also co-founded with Dr. Nadeau. At Before Brands, Dr. Dombkowski led the company from inception through initial product launch, culminating in a global commercial partnership with Nestle Health Science. She has more than 20 years of experience as an operating executive, entrepreneur and investor. Prior operating roles include serving as Chief Business Officer and Vice President of Operations for consumer genomics company 23andMe, where she also served as a member of the company’s Board of Directors. In addition, she spent nearly 15 years as a Managing Director at health care venture capital firms Bay City Capital and MPM Capital. Her portfolio of innovative biotechnology, medical device, consumer health and HCIT companies has included 23andMe, Adolor, Alnara, Before Brands, BioVitrum, Epizyme, iPierian, Neosil, Nevro, Rigel, Tercica and Twist. Earlier in her career, she was an equity analyst for Tiger Management LLC and for Dresdner RCM Global Investors. 

Dr. Dombkowski holds a PhD in Mathematics from Rice University and received her BA in Mathematics from Wellesley College.

Mike Dybbs – Partner, Samsara Biocapital

Mike Dybbs has been Partner at Samsara since the fund was launched in 2017. He currently serves on the board of a number of Samsara portfolio companies, including: Delfi Diagnostics, Enara Bio, Fluent, Ionpath, Nkarta Therapeutics (NKTX) and Sutro (STRO). 

Prior to Samsara, Mike was a Partner at New Leaf Venture Partners, where he served on the boards of Versartis (VSAR), Dimension Therapeutics (DMTX), Advanced Cell Diagnostics (acquired by Bio-Techne) and Principia (PRNB, acquired by Sanofi). Before joining New Leaf, Mike was a Principal at the Boston Consulting Group, where he was a core member of their health care practice. 

Mike received an A.B. in biochemical sciences from Harvard and a PhD in molecular biology from UC Berkeley, where he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute fellowship. His research was published in peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, Science, and Neuron. 

Maneesh Jain – CEO & Co-founder, Mirvie

Maneesh Jain, PhD, is CEO & Co-founder at Mirvie, a company shaping the future of pregnancy health by providing expecting parents and their doctors an early detection window to intervene before unexpected pregnancy complications become a crisis.  

Maneesh has been a life science entrepreneur for the past 20+ years, with founding, CEO, and executive roles in five previous successful start-ups. Maneesh is passionate about building start-up teams to create innovative products that address large unmet needs in healthcare. His previous experience focused on start-ups that built the very first platforms to create more accessible next-generation sequencing and medical ultrasound imaging, as well as the first liquid biopsy plasma test for the early detection of cancer. 

Maneesh is currently an independent member of the Board of Directors for Mission Bio, Adela, and Mammoth Bioscience. He has also served as an executive advisor at several life science companies including Cellular Research, Counsyl, Inscopix, Invitae, Magarray, and NextBio.  

Maneesh has degrees from Caltech and Stanford and trained at the Stanford Genome Technology Center. He is an author of over 20 publications and several patents. 

Nick Naclerio, Ph.D. – Founding Partner, Illumina Ventures 

Nick is the Founding Partner of Illumina Ventures. His passion is building companies at the intersection of technology and human health. Prior to joining the fund, he served as SVP, Corporate & Venture Development for Illumina Inc., where he was responsible for strategic planning, business development, licensing, venture investing and acquisitions. In six years, Nick and his team completed ten acquisitions, more than a dozen venture investments, and a multitude of other transactions including the formation of Helix and GRAIL and the creation of a global NIPT patent pool. Nick also served as the founding General Manager of Illumina’s Enterprise Informatics Business Unit. 

Before joining Illumina Inc., Nick co-founded and was the Executive Chairman of the diagnostics company Quanterix. Previously he was Executive Chairman of True Materials and CEO of ParAllele BioScience, life science tools firms that were both acquired by Affymetrix. 

Nick got his start in venture investing at Motorola where he led the life science investment team and served on the boards of the SNP Consortium, Genometrix, Clinical Microsensors, and Orchid Bioscience. He founded and led Motorola Life Sciences, an early microarray company that was acquired by GE. He also held leadership positions at DARPA and served on the board of SEMATCH.  Nick received a B.S. in Engineering from Duke University, was a Winston Churchill Scholar at Cambridge University, and earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. 

Carolyn Ng – Partner & Managing Director, TPG Life Sciences Innovations

Dr. Ng is a Partner and Managing Director with TPG Life Science Innovations based in San Francisco.  Prior to joining TPG in 2021, Dr. Ng was a Managing Director at Vertex Ventures HC, a global healthcare and life sciences venture fund, where she co-headed the investment team and led deals across different therapeutic areas in life sciences.  Dr. Ng has served on the board of directors for several promising life sciences companies including, Bicycle Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ: BCYC), Boundless Bio, Obsidian Therapeutics, 28-7 Therapeutics, and a board observer to Visterra (acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical). She is also a mentor to the Women in Bio Boardroom Ready Program.  Dr. Ng holds a PhD in Cancer Molecular Biology from the National University of Singapore, where she was the recipient of the prestigious NGS, Integrative Sciences and Technology, PhD scholarship. 

Jonathan Norris – Managing Director, HSBC Innovation

Jonathan Norris joined HSBC’s Innovation Banking Division in April 2023. He manages healthcare venture relationships and works with investors and companies on commercial banking and debt products. 

In addition, for more than a decade, Jonathan has written comprehensive reports on the venture healthcare ecosystem, covering venture fundraising, investment, valuations and exits. These reports have been widely cited in the ecosystem and he often speaks at major investor and industry conferences. He has more than 23 years of healthcare banking experience. 

Jonathan earned a B.S. in business administration from the University of California, Riverside, and a J.D. from Santa Clara University. 

Tod White – CFO & CBO, Alamar Biosciences

Tod joined Alamar Biosciences in March of 2021 as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer. Previously, he was the founder and managing partner of EMA Partners, LLC, a boutique investment bank focused primarily on the life science, diagnostic and healthcare spaces. Prior to founding EMA, Tod was General Counsel, Vice President and Secretary of Packard BioScience Company. Before that, he was a transactional attorney at the Denver law firm of Jacobs, Chase, Frick, Kleinkopf & Kelley, LLC, where his practice included mergers, acquisitions, financings and securities work. Tod started his legal career as a transactional attorney in the Denver office of Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll. He received his law degree from The University of Michigan Law School, where he graduated with honors.