The Board

Brent Ahrens MBA

Brent is General Partner (West Coast) at Canaan Partners. Brent joined Canaan in 1999 and throughout his tenure has lead investments in an array of healthcare companies, with a focus on biopharma and medtech.

Brent’s current investment and Board seats include device developer and manufacturer Abyrx, reflux device company EndoGastric Solutions, immune-oncology drug developer Grey Wolf Therapeutics, antibiotic developer Iterum Therapeutics, device maker for chronic back pain Relievant MedSystems, life sciences tool company Unchained Labs and pain management developer Semnur. Some of his previous companies include Dexcom (DXCM), Revivant (acquired by Zolle), Peninsula Pharmaceuticals (acquired by J&J), Cerexa (acquired by FRX and Spinifex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by NVS).

Prior to joining Canaan, Brent worked in both commercial and technical roles at General Surgical Innovations, Ethicon Endo-Surgery (J&J) and IAP Research. Brent earned an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College after graduating with a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton.

Jeanmarie Guenot PhD

Dr. Guenot is currently the Founder, President and CEO of Toreador Therapeutics, a preclinical stage company discovering and developing bispecific antibody therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.

In 2013, she founded Amphivena Therapeutics and served as the company’s President and CEO through the end of 2019. During her time with Amphivena, Dr. Guenot oversaw the closing of a $62 million Series C financing, as well as the advancement of the company’s lead therapeutic candidate, a novel T cell engager in clinical trials for acute myeloid leukaemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, into Phase 1 clinical trials for the treatment of solid tumours.

In 2015, while still leading Amphivena, she founded and became the President and CEO of Harpoon Therapeutics, a company developing half-life extended and conditionally-activated T cell engagement therapeutics for the treatment of cancer.

In 2016, Dr. Guenot spun out Maverick Therapeutics from Harpoon and executed a strategic build-to-buy transaction with Takeda. This deal, which included a $125 million upfront option and R&D funding, and up to $525 million in option exercise and earnouts, was exercised in 2021.

Chris Nave PhD

Chris is a founding partner of Brandon Capital Partners and Chief Executive Officer of the Medical Research Commercialisation Fund.

Chris previously was Director of Commercialisation at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Australia. He was responsible for the commercialisation of technologies developed at the Baker and the Alfred Hospital, including the management of local and international spinout companies.

He is currently a Director of OccuRx Pty Ltd, Osprey Medical Inc., PolyActiva Pty Ltd, Global Kinetics Corporation, EBR Systems, QueOncology Pty Ltd, Azura Ophthalmics, Certa Therapeutics and Cardiora Pty Ltd.

Chris was Chairperson of Fibrotech Therapeutics at the time of its successful sale to Shire and a Director of Spinifex Pharmaceuticals at the time of its sale to Novartis.

Tom McCarthy PhD

Tom is a Co-Founder and Executive Chairperson of Pathios Therapeutics and brings over 25 years of experience in drug discovery, development and commercialization to the team.

Pathios Therapeutics was created and incubated within M:M Bio Limited (Molecule 2 Medicine), a U.K.-based biotechnology hub that leverages its unique ecosystem to build enduring, commercially orientated drug discovery and development companies. Tom is Co-Founder and Chairperson of M:M Bio and also Co-Founder and Executive Chairperson of two additional biotechnology companies that are part of the overall M:M Bio hub; Grey Wolf Therapeutics and ThirtyFiveBio.

His additional roles include Chair of Orbit Discovery and Venture Partner at Brandon Capital. Prior to his leadership positions within the M:M Bio hub, he was President and CEO of Spinifex Pharmaceuticals, a private VC backed US/Australian biotech company developing first in class treatments for chronic pain, devoid of central nervous system side-effects. Spinifex Pharmaceuticals was purchased by Novartis in 2015 for approximately US$700 million.

Previous positions include Vice President of Drug Development at Starpharma Holdings Limited (Australia). He holds BSc (Hons) and PhD degrees from Monash University, Australia and completed his postdoctoral training at The University of Oxford.

Paul Higham

Paul is Chief Executive Officer of Pathios and brings extensive leadership experience from both large pharmaceutical and biotech companies. He has over 20 years’ of C-Suite biotech experience covering both public and private companies with the focus for the last 15 years being in the immuno-oncology space. During this time Paul has led three IO-focused companies (Immatics, Glycotope and ValoTx) as CEO, in each creating value by progressing through pre-clinical to the clinic and guiding late-stage clinical development programs. In his earlier career in large pharma, (Bayer and GSK) he gained wide ranging experience in marketing, commercialisation, commercial strategy, business development and finance. He holds an honours degree in Applied Biology.

Nick Wilson PhD

Nick is the Head of Discovery Cancer Immunology and Cell Therapy (CICT) at Bristol Myers Squibb, where he provides strategic leadership to translate cutting-edge science into potentially transformative medicines. Prior to his current role, Nick worked at various biotechnology companies in California, Massachusetts, and Australia, including Gilead, Novartis, Agenus, Merck KGaA, and CSL Limited. He earned his PhD in Medical Biology from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (Melbourne University) and completed postdoctoral research at Genentech. An immunologist by training, Nick is passionate about leveraging underlying causal biology to prioritize drug discovery targets and driving efficient clinical decision-making by evaluating pharmacologic endpoints predictive of clinical benefit.