Board of Directors
Tim Wollaeger, Chairman
Managing Director, Sanderling Ventures
Tim Wollaeger is chairman of the board of directors for Chimerix, Inc. He has nearly thirty years of experience in biotechnology and medical products fields in both corporate management and venture capital. Mr. Wollaeger joined Sanderling in 2002 as a Managing Director and head of the firm's San Diego office. In 1994 prior to joining Sanderling, Mr. Wollaeger founded Kingsbury Capital Partners, a venture capital firm whose investments include Aurora Biosciences, Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Phamis Software, Health Data Sciences, Senomyx, Sub-Q, TKT, Althea and Digirad. Mr. Wollaeger also helped found Columbia Hospital Corporation where he was Senior Vice President and member of the board of directors at BioVest, a San Diego based venture capital firm. At Biovest, he helped found Pyxis, Vical and Biosite. He also worked at Baxter International and Hybritech, Inc., San Diego's first biotechnology company, until their acquisition by Eli Lilly & Co. In San Diego, he was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1995 and Corporate Director of the Year in 2001. Mr. Wollaeger earned a B.A. in Economics from Yale in 1966, served as an officer in the U.S. Navy for three years, and earned an MBA from The Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1971.
Graham Crooke, M.D. Director
Managing Partner, Asset Management
Dr. Crooke, works at the intersection of medicine and venture capital. In 2000, Dr. Crooke joined Asset Management as a venture capital partner. He is also a director of the public biotechnology company InsMed, Inc. Prior to joining Asset Management, he worked on biotechnology and healthcare service investments with Dillon Read Venture Capital and later its successor firm Ticonderoga Capital. He has also worked as a management consultant focused on healthcare at the international consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton and product manager at Molecular Devices Corporation, a venture-backed bioanalytical company. In 1983 he received his medical degree from the University of Western Australia and worked at major teaching hospitals in his home of Perth until 1986. He then attended the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where he earned his MBA in 1988.
Martha J. Demski, Director
Interim COO/CFO, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center
Martha Demski has over 30 years of experience in the field of finance. Demski currently serves as the Interim COO/CFO of the
Before joining Vical, Demski served in positions of increasing responsibility for Bank of America, culminating as Vice President/Section Manager where she demonstrated expertise in understanding and meeting the corporate lending needs of biotech and other client companies in
Demski currently serves on the Board of Chimerix Inc., where she is Chair of the Audit Committee. Additionally, she recently resigned her position on the Board of Trustees of the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) in order to assume the role of Interim COO/CFO of SKCC. She previously served as Chair of the Audit Committee and Governance and Nominating Committee of SKCC. Additionally she served in the past on the Intellectual Property, Investment, Compensation, Finance and Building Committees of SKCC. She also serves on the Finance and the Audit Committees of the San Diego Foundation. Demski received an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and a B.A. from
Patrick Heron, Observer Director
General Partner, Frazier Healthcare
Mr. Heron became a General Partner with the onset of FH V (2005), having been a partner in Frazier Healthcare IV (2001). Mr. Heron focuses on biotechnology and growth equity opportunities. Mr. Heron joined Frazier Healthcare in 1999 and founded QuatRx Pharmaceuticals, an in-licensor of early-stage clinical development compounds, with its core management team in late 2000. He also led the opening of Frazier Healthcare’s Palo Alto office in the summer of 2003. Mr. Heron currently serves on the boards of Avera Pharmaceuticals, Cerexa, Chimerix, Genospectra, Informed Medical Communications, QuatRx Pharmaceuticals and Trubion Pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining Frazier Healthcare, Mr. Heron helped develop McKinsey & Co.'s West Coast biotechnology consulting practice after starting his career working with large pharmaceutical clients on the East Coast. His projects included corporate strategy, M&A, product launch, sales force optimization, corporate partnering and research prioritization. Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Heron also worked with Massachusetts General Hospital in evaluating spin-off opportunities and with Cetus Corporation. He was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
George Painter, Ph.D.
President and CEO, Chimerix, Inc.
George Painter has twenty-four years of experience in the discovery and development of pharmaceutical agents, and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President, Research and Development, at Triangle Pharmaceuticals where he was a member of the founding management team. In addition to his management experience at Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Painter held positions at Burroughs Wellcome Co. beginning in 1983 including Director of Chemistry and Director of Virology. Subsequently, he served as Director of Research Process and International Deputy Therapeutic Head for Antiviral Research at Glaxo Wellcome Inc. Dr. Painter is a co-inventor of over forty-five patents, six of which have led to approved commercially available drugs or combinations of drugs for the treatment of HIV and hepatitis B. He has led international teams, which generated data for nine investigational new drug applications and three new drug applications. Dr. Painter earned a B.S. in chemistry, an M.S. in physical organic chemistry and a Ph.D. in synthetic chemistry from Emory University.
Ed Penhoet, Ph.D, Director
Director, Alta Partners
Ed joined Alta in 2000 as a Director. He is a member of the boards of directors of Renovis, Scynexis and ZymoGenetics, and serves as the Chairman of the Board for Metabolex. Ed is also an observer on the board of ChemoCentryx and Syntonix.
A co-founder of Chiron, Ed served as the company’s President and Chief Executive Officer from its formation in 1981 until April 1998. He currently serves as President of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and is the Vice Chair of the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee for the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).
For 10 years prior to founding Chiron, Ed was a faculty member of the Biochemistry Department of the University of California, Berkeley.
Ed is the immediate past Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has co-authored more than 50 scientific articles and papers.
Seth Rudnick, MD, Director
General Partner, Canaan Partners
Seth Rudnick joined Canaan in 1998 as a Venture Partner focusing on healthcare investments. He became a General Partner in 2000. His background in the healthcare industry includes comprehensive experience in research, development, clinical trials analysis and biotechnology, as well as founding and growing start-up companies in the industry.
Seth currently sits on the boards of Adlyfe, Cylex, NorthStar Neuroscience, Orthocon, Sopherion, Spine Wave, and VaxInnate.
Prior to joining Canaan, Seth served as CEO and Chairman at CytoTherapeutics (CTII). Before that, he helped start and served as head of R&D for Ortho Biotech, a division of Johnson & Johnson. In that role, he led the development efforts for a portfolio of projects which are still responsible for significant Johnson and Johnson revenues. He began his industrial career at Schering-Plough where he ran clinical trials for the alpha interferon project, and later transferred to Biogen to run that company's pharmaceutical development efforts.
His academic career began when he served on the medical and public health faculty at Chapel Hill. Seth is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at Chapel Hill where he teaches and advises the faculty on biotechnology issues.
Recently, Seth was included in the 2006 Midas List, a prominent venture capital listing which ranks the best dealmakers in high-tech and life sciences.