Board of Directors

Geert-Jan Mulder, M.D. / Chairman

Forbion Capital Partners

Geert-Jan Mulder is a General Partner at Forbion Capital Partners. A Medical Doctor by training, he has two years of clinical experience in the Academic Hospital in Utrecht. He then joined Searle as Medical Adviser in the field of arthritis and pain (COX-2 technology) and worked on the local and European positioning of celecoxib. Before joining ABN AMRO Capital he was responsible for Clinical Research of Byk Gulden (Altana Pharma) in The Netherlands. His department dealt with phase IIa, IIb, IIIa and IIIb clinical trials, focused on proof of concept designs and new indications in Gastoenterology, Imaging, Respiratory (asthma and COPD) and Intensive Care Medicine. On corporate level he was one of the members of the Global Medical Marketing group of the Respiratory Franchise. Besides taking an active role in the ABN AMRO investment process, he serves on a number of boards and assists portfolio companies in their Clinical Development Programs and Strategy.

Axel Polack, Ph.D.

TVM Capital

Dr. Axel Polack joined TVM Capital in 2000, and is a General Partner for life sciences in the firm’s Munich office. He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Noxxon Pharma AG (Berlin, Germany) and is a member of the Board of Genetix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Polack’s main scientific fields of expertise are molecular and viral oncology, oncogene activation, gene regulation and molecular immunology. He works intensively on the assessment of new investment opportunities in those areas, while also providing support to existing portfolio companies. Before joining TVM Capital, Dr. Polack was General Manager of Innovative Technologies Neuherberg GmbH (ITN - now known as Ascenion). Ascenion acts as a marketing partner to research institutions of the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, for example, GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health GmbH, which licenses patents and fosters start-up companies. In the eight years prior to Ascenion, Dr. Polack was the deputy head of the GSF – Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology. He holds a doctorate summa cum laude in medicine from the University of Freiburg and a Second Thesis (postdoctoral lecture qualification “Habilitation”) in the field of virology. Dr. Polack is also a member of the board of the German Vaccine Research Foundation (Hanover). Dr. Polack’s doctoral thesis was honored with the Goedecke Research prize for outstanding fundamental research in medicine. In 1995 he was appointed assistant professor/private lecturer (“PD”) by the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich. Since 1984 he has co-authored more than 50 publications in peer review journals.

John Friedman

Easton Capital

John Friedman is the Managing Partner of Easton Capital Investment Group, a private investment firm founded by Mr. Friedman in 1999. Since 1991, Mr. Friedman has also been the President of Easton Capital Corp., a private investment firm. From 1989 to 1991, Mr. Friedman was the founder and Managing General Partner of Security Pacific Capital Investors, a private investment firm. Prior to joining Security Pacific, Mr. Friedman was a Managing Director and Partner at E.M. Warburg, Pincus & Co., Inc., where he was employed from 1981 to 1989. From 1978 to 1980, Mr. Friedman was an attorney with Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and during 1980 he was employed at Shearson Loeb Rhoades. Mr. Friedman received a B.A. in History from Yale College and a J.D. degree from Yale Law School. In addition to Renovis, Mr. Friedman serves on the boards of directors of Conor Medsystems, Comverse Technology, Trellis Bioscience, Assistive Technology, and ModelWire, Inc., and is on the President's Council at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

James Geraghty

Genzyme Corporation

James Geraghty joined Genzyme in 1992. He is responsible for managing the cardiovascular business unit, including current programs as well as product acquisition and partnering transactions. He led Genzyme’s acquisition of SangStat Medical Corporation in 2003 and has also served as president of Genzyme Europe. Prior to joining Genzyme, Mr. Geraghty was vice president of marketing and strategic planning for Baxter/Caremark International. He has also worked as a consultant on international health care strategy at Bain and Company. Mr. Geraghty has a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Georgetown University.