comprises of hard working professionals with “day jobs” and we are committed to helping and promoting the life sciences industry. Founders Corner is a passion project to do good and support life sciences founders.
Greg Bisconti
Miguel de los Rios
Kristin Fox
Eden Coffler
Our Advisory Committee
is the best of the best and has agreed to share with us their time and experience. Their role is to interrogate and/or validate our decisions and recommendations around viable investments and business plans.
John Hood
John Hood
John is Co-Founder, CEO and Chairman of Endeavor BioMedicine, a clinical-stage precision medicine company targeting the core drivers of multiple terminal diseases, including oncology and fibrosis, with $163M in funding to date. Prior to Endeavor, Dr. Hood was the co-founder and CEO of Impact Biomedicines, which was acquired by Celgene Corporation for up to $7 billion in 2018. Prior to Impact, he was the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Samumed LLC, a pharmaceutical company focused on advancing regenerative medicine and oncology therapies. Prior to that, Dr. Hood was director of research and co-inventor of fedratinib at TargeGen (subsequently acquired by Sanofi S.A.) where he led a team identifying small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of eye diseases and cancer. He is an inventor on 100+ patents and author on 50+ scientific articles. Dr. Hood obtained a Ph.D. in medical physiology and B.S. in biochemistry from Texas A&M University.
Tari is a Director of Search and Evaluation at Novo Nordisk and Board Chair at the San Diego Innovation Council (SDIC). For the latter, she has served as Program Chair in the SDIC’s Innovation Showcase and helped steer the growth of the organization resulting in the rich diversity of its members. At Novo Nordisk (a Top 20 pharmaceutical company), Tari is a Director for Search & Evaluation for the Western US and Canada for. She also has experience with the animal health industry when she was a part of the External Innovation team at Elanco, and spent over 15 years in the non-profit sector promoting and commercializing innovative opportunities from world-class research institutions such as the Salk Institute, The Rockefeller University, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Tari has extensive experience in licensing, building and managing strategic alliances with industry and other academic institutions, and a well-rounded technical background in a variety of therapeutic areas resulting from her Ph.D. in Molecular & Cellular Biology from The Rockefeller University and an Honors B.A. from Swarthmore College.
Our man Charlie has more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry and has held roles of increasing responsibility in drug discovery, regulatory affairs, corporate development, commercial planning, and executive management. Most recently Mr. McDermott was President, Chief Business Officer, and a member of the board of directors of Impact Biomedicines, where he raised $110+ million in private equity and royalty financing to fully fund the development and commercialization of fedratinib for the treatment of serious hematological malignancies. Impact was acquired by Celgene in 2018 for $1.1 billion upfront and up to $7 billion overall, if all contingent payments are realized. Before that, Charlie was President and CBO of Kala Pharmaceuticals, where he helped raise ~$190 million via private equity, debt, and an initial public offering. Before Kala, Mr. McDermott worked at Allergan as Vice President, Global Business Development for the Eye Care and Drug Delivery business units. Charlie currently serves on the Board of Directors for Equillium Bio and is Chairman of the Board of Directors for Anavo Therapeutics. Mr. McDermott has a B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from UC Santa Cruz, a M.A. in molecular, cellular, and developmental biology from UC Santa Barbara, and an MBA from the University of San Diego.
