Board of Directors & Observers

Lightstone Ventures

Caroline Gaynor is a Partner of Lightstone Ventures and focuses on new investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors out of the firm’s Dublin office.. She currently serves as a board director for Catamaran Bio, Parvalis Therapeutics, ProVerum, Carrick Therapeutics and FIRE-1 and as board observer for Volta Medical and Cerevance. She also previously served on the board of ALX Oncology. She is a council member of the Irish Venture Capital Association and a member of the BioInnovate Ireland Board of advisors.

Caroline joined Lightstone Ventures in 2017, bringing 15 years’ operational experience in the pharmaceutical industry and early stage medtech companies.  Caroline spent 9 years at Bayer Healthcare, most recently serving on the board of senior management of Bayer Ltd. Ireland as head of market access, pricing and reimbursement. During her time in pharma she held a number of operational roles, predominantly focused on oncology, such as product management, strategic marketing, business development and regulatory/clinical affairs. Prior to Lightstone, and following completion of her BioInnovate fellowship in 2013, she co-led R&D on a device targeting Acute Pancreatitis and was subsequently involved in early pre-clinical, strategic clinical and commercial development at Vetex Medical.

In 2002 She received her degree in Pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin and subsequently went on to receive an M.Sc in Pharmaceutical Medicine in 2010.

ARCH Venture Partners

Steven Gillis has been a managing director at ARCH Venture Partners since 2005. Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Corixa Corporation and served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer since inception and as its chairman since January of 1999. GlaxoSmithKline acquired Corixa Corporation in July of 2005. Prior to starting Corixa, Dr. Gillis was a founder and director of Immunex Corporation. From 1981 until his departure in 1994, Dr. Gillis served as Immunex’s Director of Research and Development, Chief Scientific Officer and Chief Executive Officer of Immunex’s Research and Development subsidiary. Dr. Gillis was interim Chief Executive officer of Immunex Corporation following its majority purchase by American Cyanamid Company. Dr. Gillis remained on the Board of Directors of Immunex until 1997. Immunex was acquired by Amgen in 2002. Dr. Gillis is an immunologist by training with over 300 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of molecular and tumor immunology. He is credited as being a pioneer in the field of cytokines and cytokine receptors, directing the development of multiple marketed products including Leukine, (GM-CSF), Prokine (IL-2) and Enbrel (soluble TNF receptor-Fc fusion protein) as well as the regulatory approval of Bexxar (radiolabeled anti-CD20) and the novel vaccine adjuvant, MPL. Dr. Gillis received his B.A. from Williams College in 1975 and his Ph.D. from Dartmouth College in 1978. He currently serves as a director or Chairman of multiple private and public biotechnology companies in the United States.

Dr. George Golumbeski, Chairman of Carrick has more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology industry. He is currently focused on new company creation and stewardship. He is a partner in DROIA Ventures Genetic Disease Fund and serves as an independent director on several Boards (Sage Therapeutics, Shattuck Labs, Chroma Medicine, and Peptone).

George is best known for his work at Celgene where he served as Executive Vice President of Business Development. During his tenure at Celgene, George developed new models for corporate collaborations, and led a business development effort that saw Celgene become “Partner of Choice” according to Boston Consulting Group Survey data.

George was previously Vice President of Business Development, Licensing and Strategy at Novartis. Prior to Novartis, he was Vice President of R&D Business Development at Elan and Vice President of Corporate Development at Schwarz Pharma, where he led CNS acquisitions worldwide. George holds a B.A. in Biology from the University of Virginia, a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and he conducted his post-doctoral research in molecular biology at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

B Capital

Jason is an Investor in B Capital’s San Francisco office, where he focuses on life sciences investments including biotech, medtech, and diagnostics. Previously, he was a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he focused on strategic initiatives and operational transformations for F500 biopharma and medical device clients. He also had extensive experience in BCG’s Principal Investors and Private Equity group, where he conducted commercial due diligences for leading private equity clients.

Originally from Boston, Jason received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In his free time, he is an avid skier and loves to spend time outside enjoying nature.

Rosetta Capital

Jon Hepple is a co-founder of Rosetta. He has more than 15 years’ investment experience in the life sciences industry. Previously, he was at Rothschild Asset Management and British Biotechnology Ltd. He was also a partner at Seroba Life Sciences, where he was on the Boards of Covagen and Opsona. Jon holds a PhD from Cambridge University.

Jon has held Board roles and is actively engaged in portfolio companies such as Catalyst Biosciences, GlycoMimetics, Novimmune, Procertus and Tranzyme, and also has worked closely with GeminX, Polyphor and Zealand. He currently serves on the Boards of Aprea and Clanotech.

Google Ventures

Tom is a general partner at GV. Prior to GV, Tom was a design director at IDEO Europe. He founded OpenIDEO, an open innovation platform where 100,000 users from more than 170 countries solve challenges for social good. Tom also launched OIEngine, a SaaS platform with clients including Harvard Business School and the Knight Foundation. Prior to IDEO, Tom was managing director of Marcos, a British sports car manufacturer and founded Magnom, a magnetic filter startup. Tom’s filter designs have been widely used in Formula One, superbikes, agricultural equipment, and central heating systems. Tom has also angel-invested in more than 20 companies, including as the founding investor in Mile IQ (sold to Microsoft). Tom has been recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, and has been featured in WIRED UK’s Top 100 Digital Power Brokers list every year since the list was established. He has also been included in the Evening Standard list of London’s 1000 Most Influential People. Tom earned a first class bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Bristol, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he received the Baker Scholar Award of high distinction. He also received an honorary doctorate from University of the Arts London.

B Capital

Dr. Mittendorff is a General Partner and Head of Healthcare who leads investments at B Capital in venture and growth opportunities in the sector. Previously, he was at Norwest Venture Partners for nearly a decade as Partner and Co-Head of Healthcare. He has been involved in investments and associated exits with public equity value or acquisition value that exceed a total of $10B. He is a board certified emergency physician and former public company operating executive with experience that spans investing, complex business development transactions, the leadership of clinical advisory boards, product development, clinical trials, commercial activities, and clinical services management. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (FAAEM).

At B Capital, he focuses on investing in category defining companies in healthcare led by exceptional leadership teams.

He has served on the boards of Impel Neuropharma, Avalyn Pharma, Qventus, and VisitPay, TigerConnect, Neocis, and was a board observer at Talkspace, Omada, and Route92. He was a board member at Silk Road Medical (SILK), iCardiac (acq. by eResearch), and Telcare (acq. by BioTelemetry). He was a previous board observer at Intersect ENT (Nasdaq: XENT), and iRhythm Technologies (Nasdaq: IRTC). Dr. Mittendorff was involved with the initial investments in Misfit Wearables (acq. by Fossil) and Health Catalyst (HCAT). He also led seed investments in Myome, Excision Biosciences, and Clerio.

Dr. Mittendorff was co-chair of the Digital Healthcare Innovation Summit and was a member of the Leadership Fellows at Johns Hopkins.

Prior to his career in venture capital, Dr. Mittendorff was an executive officer and the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Hansen Medical Inc. (Nasdaq: HNSN, acquired by Auris/JNJ). He launched multiple products including the Magellan & Sensei X robots and led the Company’s partnerships with GE, Siemens, Philips and St. Jude Medical In transactions above $100M. He created the SAB and pitched in a $30M public financing.

Dr. Mittendorff has also worked in portfolio strategy at Merck and as a management consultant at BCG, and at Kaiser Permanente as an emergency physician. He earned a Harvard M.D., trained at Stanford in Emergency Medicine, and received his M.B.A from Harvard Business School and his B.S. in biomedical engineering from Johns Hopkins (high hon) where he was a varsity athlete. He has completed fellowships with Howard Hughes, MIT and HBS. He is an avid Premier League fan (Manchester United).

Google Ventures

Vidu Shanmugarajah is a London-based investing partner focusing on early-stage technology and life science companies. His investments include Deepset, an open-source NLP start-up based in Berlin, and Synthesia, a London-based star-tup applying AI to video creation. Vidu began his career in corporate law at Linklaters, where he led M&A, restructuring, and financing transactions across various sectors. He was previously at Grafton Capital, where he worked on enterprise software investments and spent time in private equity at HgCapital, working on technology buyouts and growth equity investments. He also founded an online platform that provided better access to legal services for start-ups and small businesses. Vidu holds a degree in law from the London School of Economics.

Cambridge Innovation Capital

Chris joined Cambridge Innovation Capital (CIC) in 2020, supporting CIC’s investments across the Life Sciences sector. Prior to joining CIC, Chris worked as part of the Corporate Strategy and Development team at C4X Discovery, an AIM-listed drug discovery biotechnology company with a pre-clinical pipeline of neurology, oncology and inflammation assets. Whilst at C4X, Chris was responsible for identifying and sourcing opportunities for in-licensing and collaboration, alongside supporting the Executive Team in the development of the company’s growth strategy and fundraising activities. Chris also brings a background in strategy consulting and due diligence support, working in L.E.K. Consulting’s Life Sciences practice across the UK and US. Chris holds an MA in Medical Science from the University of Cambridge and also serves as observer to the board of Epitopea, Microbiotica and Mosaic Therapeutics.