Team | Bio Equity Capital

Nessan Bermingham, Ph.D.
Founder & Managing Partner
nessanb@bioequitycapital.com

Nessan Bermingham is co-founder and a managing partner of Bio Equity. Prior to forming Bio Equity, Nessan was a partner at Omega Funds, a direct secondary healthcare fund that makes investments in the U.S. and Europe. Nessan opened Omega’s Boston office, and led the firm’s expansion into the U.S. healthcare market. While at Omega, he successfully completed multiple portfolio acquisitions, was a board member for Precisense (www.precisense.dk) and NsGene (www.nsgene.dk), and was a board observer and advisor for multiple companies.

Prior to joining Omega Funds, Nessan was a partner at Atlas Venture, where he focused on the U.S. public markets and EU private biotech markets. While at Atlas he was a board member for Renovo (www.renovo.com), Arrow Therapeutics (acquired by AstraZeneca) and Cellzome (www.cellzome.com). Nessan was also a co-founder of Serentis (www.serentis-pharma.com), a UK-based biotech company. Prior to joining Atlas Venture, Nessan was a biopharma research analyst at UBS Warburg.

Nessan was a Howard Hughes Associate Fellow at Baylor College of Medicine, earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology from Imperial College London, and a B.S from Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been published in several science and healthcare journals, including Science, Neuron and Development. Nessan is also a mentor in the Boston University Health Care Entrepreneurship Program. He resides in Boston, and is married with three children.

Joseph Siletto
Founder & Managing Partner
joseph@bioequitycapital.com

Joseph Siletto is co-founder and a managing partner of Bio Equity. With more than a dozen years of investment banking experience, Joseph has completed more than 50 public and private financing and M&A assignments. His transactional experience includes deals with larger companies including Boston Scientific, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Respironics and Siemens, as well as many small and medium sized private and public healthcare companies. Joseph has a track record of individual investments in venture backed companies.

Prior to joining Bio Equity, he was a director of health care investment banking at Cowen and Company in Boston. At Cowen, he advised companies in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia and China, spanning IPO, follow-on, PIPE and M&A transactions with an aggregate value in excess of $250M. Before joining Cowen, he was a principal and co-head of the Life Sciences Group at SVB Alliant, a subsidiary of Silicon Valley Bank, where he established the Life Sciences Group with two former Banc of America Securities colleagues, working in both the Boston and San Francisco offices. Prior to joining SVB Alliant, Joe was with Banc of America Securities in San Francisco as a vice president, where he was primarily responsible for executing private placements, PIPEs and registered direct deals for healthcare companies. Earlier in his career, he was a manager for Xin de Communications in Beijing.

Joe earned an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, and holds a BA from Duke University, where he was a four-year scholarship letterman on the Men’s Varsity Lacrosse team. He is Series 7 & Series 63 certified. Joe resides outside of Boston with his wife and three children.

Dan Hanover
Principal
dan@bioequitycapital.com

Daniel Hanover is a principal of Bio Equity. With more than ten years of experience working in both consulting and investment banking, Dan has extensive transactional experience including public and private financings and mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to joining Bio Equity, Dan was with Cowen and Company, LLC, in their Boston office, where he worked in their investment banking division on the full spectrum of banking transactions, including private placements, IPOs, Follow-ons, PIPEs and convertible securities, as well as performing M&A advisory work. Prior to Cowen, Dan worked at Credit Suisse and Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette in investment banking and RHK, Inc, a market research and consulting firm.

Dan earned an MBA from the NYU Stern School of Management with concentrations in Finance, Marketing and Accounting and a Bachelors of Science and Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Robbat
Corporate Counsel
mike@bioequitycapital.com

Michael Robbat is Corporate Counsel of Bio Equity. Prior to joining Bio Equity, Michael was an associate in the Boston office of Bingham McCutchen, where he concentrated his practice on assisting public, private and emerging growth companies in a range of corporate matters, including primary and secondary venture capital transactions, mergers and acquisitions, asset and stock transactions, securities law compliance, joint ventures and general corporate matters. Before joining Bingham McCutchen, Michael was part of team of individuals who managed the successful unwinding of several venture capital portfolios for Boston-based Zero Stage Capital.

Michael earned his JD from Boston University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and California.

Advisory Board

The Bio Equity Capital Advisory Board provides special investment and science expertise for deal due diligence, structure and pricing, and network development.

David Feigal, M.D., MPH
Partner, NDA Partners
Dr. David Feigal is a partner at NDA Partners. Prior to joining NDA, he held senior positions in all three FDA medical product centers, including as Center Director, CDRH; Deputy Center Director, CBER; and Director of the Office of Drug Evaluation IV (Anti-infective-Antiviral Drug Products), CDER. He has a detailed understanding of the relationship between scientific evidence and regulatory strategy in product development. Before joining FDA, Dr. Feigal was an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Medicine and is trained as a Clinical Epidemiologist. He also worked at Elan Pharmaceuticals as Vice President, Head of Global Regulatory and Global Safety Surveillance.

Read more about Jean- François here.

Ian Garland
CEO, Vernalis
Ian Garland was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Vernalis in December 2008. From May 2007 until September 2008, Ian was CEO of Acambis plc, during this period he oversaw a series of important advances culminating in the company’s acquisition by Sanofi Aventis in September 2008 for £280m. From 2004 to 2007, Ian served as CFO of Arrow Therapeutics Ltd., a privately-held company engaged in the discovery and development of new anti-viral agents until its acquisition by AstraZeneca plc for $150m in February 2007. Prior to this Ian was President and Chief Operating Officer of Celltech Pharmaceuticals Inc., with a turnover of around $300 million and encompassed the US operations of Celltech Group plc. During this time, he achieved significant US sales and earnings growth, the approval of two US New Drug Applications, and the divestment of several non-core businesses. From 1988 to 1995 Ian worked at KPMG, specialising in the pharmaceutical sector, following qualification as a Chartered Accountant.

Malcolm McDonald
Investor & Entrepreneur
Malcolm McDonald was a founding partner of Cyllenius Capital Management LP, a money management firm that he and his business partner built, ran, and subsequently sold to BlackRock Capital Management in 2003. Prior to organizing Cyllenius, Mr. McDonald was a Managing Director of SG Cowen Securities Corp., the US investment banking subsidiary of Societe Generale. Mr. McDonald joined the firm in 1989 to focus on an expansion of Cowen International, including the opening of offices in Paris Geneva, and Toronto. As part of Cowen’s initiative, he also raised the seed capital for The Cowen Enterprise Fund, an offshore investment vehicle. In 1991 he joined the US Institutional Equity Division where he was responsible for many of the firm’s major institutional clients in Boston, Minneapolis, New York, and San Francisco. From 1997 through 2001, Mr. McDonald focused his emphasis to growing SG Cowen’s hedge fund practice. Mr. McDonald served as a member of the Equity Research Operating Committee, the IPC Strategy Committee, and chaired SG Cowen’s daily global research meeting. Prior to joining SG Cowen, Mr. McDonald held positions at MFS Investment Management in Boston, and Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York City.

Art Rosenthal, Ph.D.
CEO, Capella, Inc.
Dr. Art Rosenthal is Chairman and CEO of Labcoat, Ltd. Prior to joining Labcoat, he held multiple leadership roles at Boston Scientific, and was the company’s Senior Vice President, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Committee Member until his retirement in January 2005. Prior to Boston Scientific, he was VP of R&D at Johnson & Johnson Medical Products in charge of worldwide research, development, regulatory and clinical affairs. Earlier in his career, he held various R&D positions with Davol, Inc. a division of CR Bard, Kendall, Clinipad, 3M Medical, Howmedica and Pfizer. Dr. Rosenthal currently serves as a non-executive director for Renovo, Ltd. Dr. Rosenthal also serves as a Board Member of Cyberonics, Inc. and as a Venture Advisor to Advent International. He is adjunct professor of translational biomedical engineering at Boston University, and received a BA in Bacteriology and Chemistry from the University of Connecticut and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts. He conducted Postdoctoral research at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center (NY Downstate Medical Center) in Clinical Enzymology.

Neal Walker
Chief Executive Officer, Vicept Therapeutics
Dr. Walker is a serial entrepreneur and Board-certified dermatologist with over 15 years of biopharmaceutical and life science industry experience. Dr. Walker has many years of business development experience working with large biopharmaceutical companies, start-ups, and universities in the identification, acquisition/licensing, and financing of novel development stage assets and in-market brands. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Vicept Therapeutics, a development stage specialty pharmaceutical company located outside Philadelphia.

Prior to starting Vicept Therapeutics, Dr. Walker was a founder and remains a board member of Octagon Research Solutions, a privately held development partner that provides services and software solutions to biopharmaceutical companies conducting clinical research and development. Octagon specializes in the submission of electronic new drug applications and has worked with many of the world’s largest multi-national companies including over 200 clients across the globe. In addition to being a founder of Vicept and Octagon, Dr. Walker was the chief medical officer of Trigenesis Therapeutics which was sold to Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and a founder of Cutix Inc., a commercial dermatology company with its lead product, PreSun®, a sunscreen brand Cutix bought from Bristol Meyers Squibb. Dr. Walker started his career at Johnson and Johnson.

Dr. Walker received his undergraduate degree in Biology from Lehigh University, his medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and his MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Tim Wilson, Ph.D.
Apex Life Sciences
Tim has over 20 years of investment experience analyzing, investing in and raising capital for the biotechnology industry. Most recently, Tim was Head of Healthcare Research at Pacific Growth Equities, a San Francisco-based investment bank. Prior to that he was a Senior Partner with Atlas Venture in its London office responsible for making biotechnology venture capital investments. Previously with Bear Stearns, Tim was a Senior Managing Director responsible for equity research of the global biotechnology and European healthcare sectors. He has also served as a Managing Director covering the biotechnology sector on both sides of the Atlantic with SG Cowen, UBS Securities and Hambrecht & Quist. Tim began his career as an investment advisor with Rothschild Asset Management focused on the biotechnology industry. Tim received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Cambridge University and a BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry from Imperial College, London.

Manuel Worcel, M.D., F.A.H.A.
Serial Biotech Executive
Most recently, Dr. Worcel was the President and Chief Executive Officer of Cardiokine, Inc. Before joining Cardiokine he was founder, President, CEO and Chief Medical Officer of NitroMed from 1993 to 2006. From 1989 to 1993, Dr. Worcel was Head of Cardiovascular Research and Development of Ciba Geigy Corporation in Summit, NJ and previously Head of Pharmaceutical Research and Development of Roussel Hoechst in Paris, France. Dr. Worcel was responsible for the building of teams and companies successful in the discovery and development of cardiovascular, anti inflammatory, psychotropic, endocrine and antibiotic medications. Prior to joining the industry, he was a professor at the Institut de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France. His work in the area of cardiovascular medicine has been published in over 100 peer-reviewed articles. A Fellow of the Hypertension Council of the American Heart Association, Dr. Worcel holds an M.D. degree from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.