Board of Directors
Nada Jain, Ph.D., J.D,, is Managing Partner of Golden Seeds Fund2 LP, Managing Director of Golden Seeds LLC, and an angel investor in early stage companies. Dr. Jain is a scientist and an intellectual property lawyer with over thirty years of combined experience focusing on pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and engineering. She practiced in several prestigious law firms including Clifford Chance prior to founding her own boutique IP law firm, which she ran for over ten years. Dr. Jain earned her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York and she holds the following technical degrees and training: B.S. Agricultural Engineering and M.S. Genetics, both from Belgrade University, Serbia; Ph.D. Plant Science and Technology (emphasis on Molecular Biology), Rutgers University, New Jersey; and Post Doctoral Fellowship, Cell Biology and Immunology, Department of Immunology, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York. Prior to moving to the United States, Dr. Jain spent several years as an Assistant Professor at Belgrade University School of Agricultural Engineering. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors.
Mr. Kay is the U.S. partner of Medica Venture Partners. He retired from Boston Scientific in 2006, where he was Group Vice President of New Market Development / Strategic Planning, Endosurgery Boston Scientific Corporation. Mr. Kay's career spans over 35 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry in roles which include R&D, International Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, and Strategic Planning. Mr. Kay is a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK) and serves on the boards of several start up health care companies, including Smart Cells (sold to Merck in 2010), Cool Systems, Wadsworth Medical, and Cannuflow. Mr. Kay holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Chemistry from Rutgers University, and an MBA in International Marketing from Seton Hall University.
Mr. Kiritsy is a co-founder and President and Chief Executive Officer of Arisaph Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Kiritsy is a seasoned entrepreneur, who possesses 20+ years of business and technical experience, previously holding senior management positions in R&D, business development and finance. Prior to Arisaph, Mr. Kiritsy served as Executive Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Financial Officer of Kos Pharmaceuticals, Inc., where he played a central role in commercializing Kos' successful Niaspan® franchise and in building the company from start-up to highly profitable, 1,200 person, fully-integrated enterprise. During his tenure at Kos, Mr. Kiritsy raised approximately $500 million in public equity capital, including Kos' IPO, and spearheaded in excess of 10 major corporate development transactions. Prior to Kos, Mr. Kiritsy served as Associate Director of Product Development at the Institute of Molecular Biology where he co-authored several scientific journal articles. Mr. Kiritsy received an A.B. from Bowdoin College in Biology and an M.B.A. from Boston University.
Mr. Manning serves as Co-Chairman of Cherrystone Angel Group and President of Gray's Point Investments LLC. Mr. Manning retired after more than 25 years with Citibank and Citigroup, where he served as Managing Director and Head of Corporate Finance for Citigroup in Japan where units under his supervision raised more than $50 Billion in private market financings for clients. Mr. Manning served as a senior executive at Citigroup, Inc. He served as Chief of Staff for the U.S. Corporate Finance business of Citibank, before that Global Structured Trade Finance Head and earlier in his career held a variety of product management and country management positions in the U.S., the Middle East, and Africa. Mr. Manning has an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a B.A. from Brown University in International Relations.
Dr. Poorvin is a founder of Avaxia. He is President of his own consulting firm and serves on the boards of several biotech companies. Most recently, he was an Executive-in-Residence at Oxford Bioscience Partners. Before working at OBP, Dr. Poorvin retired from Schering-Plough Corporation as Vice President of Business Development. Prior to his 14 years in Business Development, Dr. Poorvin held positions of Director of Clinical Research at Schering-Plough and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. He was responsible for several NDA programs and product approvals at both companies, including such drugs as Procardia and Imdur. Dr. Poorvin started his career in the pharmaceutical industry at Lederle Laboratories, where he directed pre-clinical research in the cardiovascular area.