Leadership

Managing Partner

George Grass, Pharm. D., Ph.D.

Since 2001, George has been President of G2 Research, Inc. consulting to pharmaceutical, drug discovery, and biotechnology organizations and investors.  He was Chief Technology Officer and Corporate Officer of Trega Biosciences (acquired by Lion bioscience 4/2001) from 1999 to August 2001 and Founder, President, CEO and Chief Business Officer of NaviCyte, Inc. (acquired by Trega Biosciences 11/1999) from 1996 to1999.

George received his Pharm.D. degree from the University of Nebraska and Ph.D. Pharmaceutics from the University of Wisconsin.

Managing Partner

Chris Lehman

Over his 16 year career, Chris has provided business development and strategy expertise for over 20 life science companies. Since founding Collabrity in 2002, he has led partnering campaigns for an inflammation pathway regulation platform, a cytostatic oncology platform and for drug product candidates treating metabolic, GI and cardiovascular diseases. He has executed key terms and final agreements for gene therapy, cell therapy, monoclonal antibody and small molecule companies.

Prior to 2002, during his 9 years at Genencor International, Chris negotiated and closed Genencor's strategic oncology deal with Seattle Genetics and led biologics business development efforts in immunology. He led project teams that secured over $50 million in funding for biofuels and pathway engineering research and led new market and product opportunity teams.

Chris holds a BA in History from Yale University and an MBA from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was awarded the Price Fellowship for Entrepreneurship. He has also completed the Advanced Negotiations Program at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Affiliate Partner

Harshawardhan Bal, Ph.D.

Harsh has over a decade of global and diversified experience in the life sciences industry. He was Senior Bioinformatics Scientist at OSI Pharmaceuticals, Lead Analyst, Knowledge Management at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Senior Principal Scientist at the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, where he studied novel druggable protein and receptor superfamilies and disease biology of HIV/AIDS and HTLV-induced Adult T-Cell Leukemia. As a consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, Harsh played leadership roles in several major projects, including, the National Cancer Institute’s cancer Biomedical Informatics Grid Program (caBIG) and global regulatory submission harmonization strategy for pharmaceutical clients.

As Vice President and Head of Life Sciences for MAPE Advisory Group, Harsh was responsible for sector wide intelligence on companies in the US, EU, Asia and emerging markets and for managing the investment banking firm’s relationships with C-level executives, VC firms, PE funds and hedge funds. As Managing Partner, Harsh currently leads the Life Sciences Investment Banking practice at Stem Cell Capital, a mid-market firm based in Nagpur. At SCC, Harsh focuses on cross-border transactions covering M&A, capital raise (VC/PE syndication), product licensing, global strategy and sourcing of discovery to development functions.

Harsh was the recipient of research fellowships from the University Grants Commission and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Government of India for undergraduate and Doctoral studies. Harsh holds a M.S. in Pharmacy from Nagpur University and a Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University and received graduate training in Molecular Biology at the National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi and post-doctoral training at the University of Rochester Medical Center and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. Harsh has authored several peer-reviewed articles on disease biology and development of targeted therapies in international journals as well as books on biomedical informatics by Tata McGraw-Hill and Springer. Harsh holds dual citizenship in the US and India.

Affiliate Partner

Brian Carter

Brian has over 20 years experience as a management professional in industrial biotechnology with expertise in new business start-ups and product commercialization. He is currently a business consultant serving the emerging Cleantech / Renewable Energy industry assisting biofuel companies on aspects of business strategy, tactical plan development and funding. Most recently he consulted for ORYXE Energy International, Inc. in the role as President & CEO.

Prior to 2009, Brian was Vice President, Business Development at Genencor International, a developer and manufacturer of over 250 diverse protein products and one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. He has experience in executive management, sales, marketing operations and business development with expertise in developing strategic partnering alliances, negotiating technology licensing, acquisition, and product supply agreements and commercializing new products.

Brian holds a BS in Business Management from James Madison University. He has completed several leadership development and sales training courses including postgraduate work at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Tufts University School of Medicine.

Affiliate Partner

Michael J. Schwartz

Mike Schwartz has over 17 years experience in health care and life sciences as a management consultant, entrepreneur, and executive. He is currently an independent strategy consultant serving emerging life sciences, provider and health care technology clients. Previously, Mike was Founder and President of PDxRx, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on pediatric subspecialty markets.

Prior to founding PDxRx, Mike was Senior Vice President, Strategic Development at Pharsight Corporation (OTC: PHST.OB), a drug development technology and services company, where he led the development and commercialization of the Drug Model Explorer (“DMXTM�) software line and was responsible for corporate strategy, product and services marketing and business development.

Michael holds a BA magna cum laude from Cornell University, an MS in biochemistry from UCLA, and an MBA from the University of Chicago, where he was a Chevron Scholar.