SV Life Sciences has hired three venture partners: Sarah Bodary, formerly with Genentech, to focus on biotech; Gary Velasquez, former president and CEO of SV portfolio company Synarc, to focus on healthcare services; and Kevin Barrett, a founding partner of Commonwealth Health Partners, to focus on healthcare services.
PRESS RELEASE
SV Life Sciences (“SVLS”) today announced the appointment of three new venture partners strengthening the firm’s expertise in biotechnology and health care services. The new SVLS Venture Partners include:
* Sarah Bodary, Ph.D., focused in biotechnology and based in the San Francisco office
* Gary Velasquez, focused in health care services and based in the San Francisco office; and
* Kevin Barrett, focused in health care services and based in the Boston office.
Sarah Bodary joins SVLS with over 20 years experience in research, drug development and licensing in the biotech industry. As a biologist at Genentech, she led teams that developed peptide and small molecule antagonists of cell adhesion from discovery through clinical trials. She was also a member of the development and launch teams for the Raptiva® antibody. Most recently Dr. Bodary was responsible for licensing at Schering-Plough Biopharma, the biologics subsidiary of Schering-Plough Corporation. She received a B.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland and completed a Postdoctorate in Molecular Neurobiology at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute of the University of California at San Francisco.
“We are very pleased that Sarah Bodary has joined us as a Venture Partner,” commented SVLS Managing Partner, Michael Ross, Ph.D. “Her extensive hands-on experience with both drug discovery and development, coupled with her experience in the licensing of biopharmaceuticals and her extensive connections in both large pharmaceutical and smaller biotech companies bring new depth to the SVLS therapeutics team.”
Gary Velasquez recently rejoined SVLS as a Venture Partner with more than 25 years of experience in healthcare services, having previously left that role in 2004 to join SVLSFIII portfolio company Synarc as President & Chief Executive Officer. Synarc was successfully exited by SVLSFIII in 2008. Mr. Velasquez currently serves on the board of directors of SVLS portfolio company Socios Mayores. Previously, Mr. Velasquez was a senior executive at Health Net, Inc., a large publicly traded healthcare services company. In this role, he was responsible for more than 10 operating subsidiaries in addition to directing Health Net’s Information Systems and New Venture divisions. Prior to Health Net, he held various operational, financial and technology roles with Managed Health Network (now a Health Net subsidiary), Equicor and PacifiCare Health Systems. Mr. Velasquez has a BA degree from California State University, Fullerton and MBA degree from University of California, Los Angeles.
Kevin Barrett has had a long career within the health care services field and was previously a founding partner of Commonwealth Health Partners, a specialized consulting and advisory firm focusing on the healthcare services and healthcare information technology markets. Prior to that, Mr. Barrett served as Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer of PolyMedica Corporation, which was acquired by Medco Health Solutions for $1.6 billion in October 2007. Prior to PolyMedica, he was a founder and Senior Vice President of BG Medicine, a biotechnology company. Before joining BG Medicine, he was Chief Operating Officer of the Synergy Informatics division of Quintiles Transnational. Prior to joining Synergy, Mr. Barrett was a founder of PrincipalCare, Inc., a physician practice management company, and prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Development, for MedAlliance, a diagnostic imaging company. Mr. Barrett received his baccalaureate degree in psychology from Columbia University and earned an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
“We are pleased to have Gary Velasquez rejoin SV Life Sciences as a Venture Partner after his successful tenure as CEO at Synarc,” said SVLS Partner, Darren Black. “As an experienced entrepreneur, Gary has created significant value creation for the firm and we look forward to pursuing additional opportunities that leverages his strong understanding of the managed care, healthcare IT and pharmaceutical outsourcing areas.”
Mr. Black continued, “We are also pleased to once again partner with Bain Capital Ventures in co-sponsoring an experienced healthcare entrepreneur-in-residence, Kevin Barrett, who joins us after the sale of Polymedica to Medco. Kevin has a long healthcare service track record, and we look forward to a focused search for a company to back where he can play a key leadership role.”
About SV Life Sciences
SV Life Sciences is a venture capital adviser and manager that makes selected investments in businesses with experienced entrepreneurs and management teams. SV Life Sciences provides finance to businesses at all stages of development and across the human life sciences sector. These sectors range from biotechnology & pharmaceuticals to medical devices & instruments, to healthcare information technology and services. SV Life Sciences currently advises or manages five funds with capital commitments of approximately $1.6 billion that primarily invest amounts of between $1m and $20m in North America and Europe, but will consider innovative investments in other regions. SV Life Sciences’ team of 34 professionals has a diverse, complimentary set of skills and experience that allow SV Life Sciences to tailor a team to work with almost any life sciences business. SVLS was established in 1993 and currently has offices in Boston, San Francisco and London. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.svlsa.com.