MassVX Advisory Committee

Dr. Alan S. Kopin

Co-founder, Chief Scientific Officer, On Target Therapeutics
Chief Scientific Officer, Luke Heller TECPR2 Foundation
Principal Investigator, Research Laboratory Director, Tufts Medical Center
Angel Investor, Sky Ventures Group

Physician scientist, mentor and team builder focused on bridging academic medicine and industry. Interested in solving problems relevant to human health and disease. Internationally recognized for work in molecular endocrinology and pharmacology with specialized expertise in the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) field. Chief scientific officer of rare disease foundation, co-founder of biotech companies, leader of multi-year collaborative projects with pharmaceutical companies. Assisted entrepreneurial organizations to assess novel technology and served as an advisor and/or angel investor for a range of startup companies. In depth knowledge of internal medicine and gastroenterology, board certified in both.

Alan is a Professor of Medicine, and the director of the Molecular Pharmacology Research Center at Tufts Medical Center. He is also a Professor of Pharmacology and Genetics at the Sackler School, Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Kopin received his B.A. in biology from Brown University and M.D. from the University of North Carolina School Of Medicine.

Nancy Briefs

Co-Founder & CEO AltrixBio
Board Member, ARTus digital health
Board Member, New View Surgical, Inc.

Nancy co-founded 7 companies and managed, or has been on the board of, several others. Co-Founder of AltrixBio with Jeff Karp PhD and Ali Tavakolli MD. Strategic business leader with extensive experience creating value, driving strategy and launching product commercialization in diverse life science companies. Innovative, collaborative and entrepreneurial, strong communicator and tenacious. Areas of interest are biotech, digital health, cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Wan Li Zhu

Partner, Fairhaven Capital
Corporate Venture Capital, Suffolk Construction
Founder & Managing Director, MIT Alumni Angels of Boston and New York
Founder, Harvard Founder Network
Executive Chairman, New England Venture Network

Wan Li is an active early stage technology startup investor, as a member of the investment team at Fairhaven Capital, a venture capital firm based in Boston, and as a founder and Managing Director of MIT Alumni Angels, an investment network that supports MIT-affiliated startups. My primary area of interest is AI-enabled systems applied to improve productivity in enterprise and consumer markets.

Wan Li has a background in software product management, having held leadership roles in product development and marketing at Microsoft in Dynamics CRM, the fastest growing business in the company’s history. He has also spent time in online advertising (Google), and in financial services across investment banking (Morgan Stanley), equity trading (NYSE), and IT (Merrill Lynch).

Wan Li holds an MBA from Harvard, and Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT

Greg Erman

President & CEO of EmpiraMed
Member, Sky Ventures Group
Entrepreneurship Lecturer, Harvard Medical School
Center for Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (HOPE) Industry Council

Greg is a proven life science technology executive who has been President & CEO of 6 companies. Greg incubated roughly 250 medical academic research projects over a 10 year period, built 4 companies from scratch, raised about $100M in venture capital, and successfully grew businesses to about $20M in annual revenue with 150 employees. Each of Greg’s 3 VC-backed ventures exited to large public companies and generated returns up to 12X investment.

Erika Bechtold, PhD

Director of Technology Commercialization, Wyss Institute, Harvard University

As a member of the Harvard University Office of Technology Development, Erika works closely with the faculty, staff and business teams at the Wyss Institute to commercialize their ideas and inventions through strategic partnerships.

Erika was previously the Director of Product Planning and Strategy at Sofregen Medical Inc., a Tufts University spin-out developing injectable products for soft tissue augmentation. Her role included clinical trial design, regulatory and intellectual property strategy, marketing, and business development activities. Prior to joining Sofregen Medical, she held licensing roles at both Partners Innovation and Tufts Tech Transfer managing complex academic portfolios in materials science, engineering, imaging and software.

Erika earned a doctorate in Biological Chemistry from Wake Forest University and completed her postdoctoral work under the guidance of Jacquin Niles in the Biological Engineering Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Leslie J Williams, BS, RN, MBA

Founder, President & CEO at ImmusanT, Inc.
Board Member at Ocular Therapeutix, Inc.
Editorial Board Member, The Journal of Advanced Therapies and Medical Innovation Sciences
Advisory Board Member, The Capital Network

Leslie has more than 25 years of industry experience in healthcare, management, commercial product development and marketing. In 2010 she founded ImmusanT, Inc. which subsequently acquired the assets of Nexpep. In 2015 Williams received the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Iowa. Prior, Leslie was President & CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, which became a significant player in the pulmonary drug delivery market under her leadership. While President & CEO of Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, she was recognized as one of the top 100 leaders in life sciences by PharmaVOICE magazine.

Prior to Ventaira, Leslie served as director of marketing for INO Therapeutics, Inc., where she played a significant role in the NDA submission for INOmax (nitric oxide) for inhalation. Responsible for the commercial aspects of INOmax’s US market introduction and in the expansion of the INO-therapy platform into the European marketplace. The company was acquired by Ikaria Holdings in 2007. Prior pharmaceutical industry experience includes commercial positions at Merck and GlaxoSmithKline, and drug-delivery and -monitoring experience at Datex-Ohmeda (formerly Ohmeda, Inc.). She was a venture partner at Battelle Ventures where she sourced and evaluated deals and assisted early-stage technology companies with strategy, management, business development and M&A.

Ms. Williams holds an MBA from Washington University, John Olin School of Business, and a BS degree with honors in nursing from the University of Iowa. Before entering industry, she was a critical-care nurse.

Paul Hartung

Board Member, Leuko
Board Member, SemiNex Corporation
Business Advisory Board Member, Metria Innovation, Inc.

Paul has a long, proven track record as a life sciences and technology executive with extensive leadership experience in financing, operations and business development in the technology and medical device industries. He has launched successful startup businesses (Cognoptix, Summit, Winphoria) and led Fortune 500 organizations (GE, 3Com, Motorola). As Chairman, President and CEO of Cognoptix, he developed a novel eye scan for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Paul is on the Board of SemiNex, a profitable manufacturer of semiconductor laser company, Leuko, a startup developing a non-invasive white blood cell monitor, and Medical Development Group (MDG Boston), a non-profit educational and professional development organization.

Paul graduated from MIT with an MS Degree in Mechanical Engineering with honors, and holds a number of patents and publications.