Board of Directors

Axel Bolte is an investment advisor at HBM Partners AG, based in Zurich, Switzerland.

He joined HBM Partners AG from NMT New Medical Technologies, the first Swiss Venture Capital group focused exclusively on the life sciences. Previously, Axel was with Serono SA, where he held a position in R&D management. He is a director of several public and private biotech companies, including Newron Pharmaceuticals SpA (SWX Swiss Exchange: NWRN; Milan, Italy), Nabriva Therapeutics AG (Vienna, Austria), PTC Therapeutics, Inc. (South Plainfield, NJ), Ophthotech Corporation (Princeton, NJ), Lux Biosciences, Inc. (Jersey City, NJ) and MPex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (San Diego, CA). Axel holds an M.B.A. from the University of St. Gallen (HSG). He studied biochemistry and organic chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he focused on the synthesis of complex natural products of marine origin.

Thomas Dyrberg obtained his M.D. degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1981 and his D.M.Sc. degree, also from the University of Copenhagen in 1986.

He held research positions at the Hagedorn Research Institute, Denmark, and at the Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, USA.

In 1990 he joined Novo Nordisk A/S, initially working in Health Care Discovery on various aspects of diabetes immunology and pathogenesis, and from 1996 in Health Care Clinical Drug Development as an International Clinical Project Manager.

Thomas joined Novo A/S in December 2000 and serves on the boards of LifeCycle Pharma A/S, Ophthotech Corp, Sapphire Therapeutics, Inc. and Lux Biosciences, Inc.

Dr. Nick Galakatos is a co-founder and Managing Director of Clarus Ventures, a global venture capital firm focused on life science investments. He has been a venture capital investor since 1992, initially at Venrock Associates and then at MPM Capital where he was General Partner of the Bioventures II and Bioventures III funds. From 1997-2000 Nick was Vice President, New Business and a member of the Management Team at Millennium Pharmaceuticals. He was a founder of Millennium Predictive Medicine and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he also was the Chairman and founding CEO. Nick entered the venture capital business after being Head of Molecular Biology Research at Ciba (presently Novartis). He holds a B.A degree in chemistry from Reed College, a Ph.D. degree in organic chemistry from MIT, and performed postdoctoral studies in molecular biology at Harvard Medical School.

Nick is the Lead Director at Affymax (NASDAQ: AFFY), and a member of the Board of Directors of several private companies including Aerovance, Aveo, Link, Nanostring, Ophthotech, Portola and Taligen. Previously, he was the Chairman of TransForm (acquired by J&J) and Hypnion (acquired by Lilly), and a Director of Millennium Predictive Medicine (acquired by Millennium), Millennium BioTherapeutics (acquired by Millennium), Caliper (NASDAQ: CALP), Critical Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRTX), and Syrrx (acquired by Takeda).

Nick is also a member of several Advisory Councils at Harvard Medical School and is a member of the Director’s Council of the Koch Institute at MIT.

David Guyer joined SVLS in 2006. He serves on the Boards of portfolio companies Link Medicine, Lux Biosciences, NeoVista, Neurotech and Ophthotech as well as the public company Optos.

David co-founded and served as CEO and director for six years of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals (former Ticker ‘EYET’) , Inc. a biopharmaceutical company that specialized in the development and commercialization of novel therapeutics to treat diseases of the eye. He led the firm through private financing rounds totaling approximately $170 million, a $157 million initial public offering and a secondary financing. The company also developed and gained FDA approval for Macugen, a product to treat macular degeneration, which Eyetech partnered with Pfizer in a deal valued at over $750 million. OSI Pharmaceuticals subsequently acquired Eyetech in a deal valued at $935 million. Prior to founding Eyetech, Dr. Guyer was professor and chairman of the department of ophthalmology at the NYU School of Medicine.  David received a BSc from Yale College and an MD from Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Samir Patel is the Co-founder, President and CEO of Ophthotech Corporation. He also serves on its Board of Directors. Previously, Dr. Patel was the co-founder of Eyetech Pharmaceuticals where he was the Chief Medical Officer, and served on its Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Ophthotech, Dr. Patel spent over a decade in academic medicine. He joined the University of Chicago, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Science in 1991 where he served as the Director of the Retina Service and the residency program and was an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology. His area of academic interest focused on cell based therapies for Age Related Macular Degeneration and while at the University of Chicago, he was amongst the first to perform human retinal transplant in the world.

Dr. Patel received his Medical Degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and ophthalmology training from the University of Chicago. He received his training in retinal surgery from the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary at the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Patel has been a consultant to a number of ophthalmic biotechnology companies, and a consultant to multiple healthcare venture firms. He has served on the scientific advisory board of Aerie Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Patel has also served as a director of Eyetech, EyeGate Pharma and Mimetogen. Currently, in addition to Ophthotech, he serves on the board of directors of AFER-ARVO.

Dr. Henry Simon joined Schroder Ventures in 1987 as head of the venture capital group which, under his direction, developed a life sciences business in the UK.

Henry was instrumental in raising SVLSF I and was CEO of the life sciences team until March 1997 and then its Chairman until December 2001. Henry is Chairman of Zarlink as well as a director of Gyros and Ophthotech. Henry was previously Chairman of several other companies, including Eyetech, Leica Microsystems, Shire Pharmaceuticals and Chiroscience. Henry has a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Institute of Technology in Munich and a doctorate in Telecommunications from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.