Jodi J. Akin, CEO, Hawthorne Effect, Inc.
Jodi is a healthcare executive, leader, innovator, advisor and serial entrepreneur. She has more than 20 years experience in clinical development, scientific and regulatory strategy, management and medtech market development from start-ups to S&P 500 companies. Prior to founding Hawthorne Effect, Inc., Jodi was Global VP Clinical Affairs at Edwards Lifesciences, LLC- where she led the seminal clinical trials and regulatory approvals for transcatheter heart valve therapy. Also a humanitarian, Jodi led international healthcare initiatives including Heart To Heart International Children's Medical Alliance, The Nahapetov Friendship Foundation and the China Heart Group, a joint venture with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization. She holds an undergraduate degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, Masters in Physiology and Nursing from Pace University, New York and 8 patents with a few more pending.

Jessica J. Federer, Managing Partner, Supernode Ventures
Jessica Federer is a recognized leader in the global life sciences industry. She was the first Chief Digital Officer for the Bayer AG group, as well as the first woman to hold that role in the industry. She led Bayer’s digital transformation across the pharmaceutical, consumer care, crop science, material science and animal health businesses during record setting years for both sales and EBITDA. Reporting into the Bayer AG Group Management Board, Federer united the company’s digital strategy and investments across divisions to accelerate growth across the 118,00 employees. During her tenure, the company acquired and integrated Merck’s consumer care business and Monsanto, becoming, respectively, the second largest consumer health and the leading agriculture businesses on the planet, and floated their material science division into Covestro. With a focus on scalable digital enablers to business integrations and success, Federer streamlined investments, modernized capabilities, and upskilled the workforce. Prior to leading digital for the group business, Federer established a track record inside Bayer for delivery across regulatory affairs, market access, product launches, and business turnarounds. This includes the launch team for the record holding biologic EYLEA ®, an overhaul in the animal health business, and establishing the market access function globally. Federer regularly contributes to publications and events for the FT, Reuters Health, Bloomberg, and leading consultancies. Ms. Federer joined BMP as a Venture Affiliate in 2018, and is a Partner for the Opportunity Fund. She is a graduate of George Washington University and received an MPH from the Yale School of Public Health.

Konstantina Katcheves, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Bristol Myers Squibb
Konstantina Katcheves is Senior Vice President of Business Development for Innovative Technologies and Geographic Search at Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS). She has over twenty years of business development, corporate strategy, and intellectual property experience. In her role at BMS, Konstantina is responsible for all business development activities for new technologies including early discovery partnerships, digital health technology, precision medicine, and cell and gene therapy technologies. She also leads a global team responsible for business development in China and innovation sourcing in several regions outside the U.S. Prior to joining BMS, Konstantina served as Vice President for IP and Licensing at Agilent Technologies, and prior to Agilent was Vice President of Global IP and Licensing at Lonza. Konstantina holds an M.S. from the Johns Hopkins University, J.D. from the University of Oklahoma, and B.S from the University of California at San Diego.

Bhooshi De Silva, SVP, Global Head Corp Development, Strategy & Ventures, PPD, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific
Bhooshi de Silva serves as global head of corporate development, strategy and ventures for the PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific. He joined the company in 2014 as senior vice president of corporate development and strategy, with responsibilities in mergers and acquisitions and partnerships. In his current role, in addition to corporate development and strategy, de Silva leads the company’s enterprise data functions and manages venture partnerships. He collaborates with the senior leadership team on key strategic initiatives, leads data and disruptive innovation priorities, and plays a key role in driving the company’s evolution and growth. He is also serves on the boards of several of the company’s strategic investments, including PPD-SNBL and Science 37. In joining the business, de Silva brought 15 years of biopharmaceutical industry experience, including serving in several leadership positions. He started his career at Pfizer, where his roles included R&D portfolio management, U.S. commercial development, and U.S. customer strategy and negotiations. In 2009, de Silva was named vice president of business development evaluation and strategy, leading a team in the evaluation of licensing, acquisitions and corporate strategic initiatives for Pfizer. Later, he served as head of corporate development, corporate strategy and head of international at Optimer Pharmaceuticals. De Silva played an integral role in the commercialization strategy and Optimer’s sale to Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 2013. He has an impressive track record of achievement in corporate strategic initiatives and M&A transactions on both the buy and sell sides. De Silva holds degrees in finance, economics and engineering from Stanford University, London School of Economics and Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London.

Michael Greeley, Co-Founder & General Partner at Flare Capital Partners
Previously, Michael was the founding General Partner of Flybridge Capital Partners, and earlier in his career was with Polaris Partners, as well as held positions at Wasserstein Perella & Co. and Morgan Stanley & Co. Current and prior board seats include Aspen RxHealth, Axuall, BlueTarp Financial, Cayaba Care, Circulation, Cohere Health, Explorys, Functional Neuromodulation, HealthVerity, higi, Iora Health, MicroCHIPS, Nuvesse, Oshi Health, PolyRemedy, Predictive Biosciences, Predilytics, T2 Biosystems, TARIS Biomedical, VidSys and Welltok (observer). Additionally, Michael served on the board of International Data Group, the founding partner of IDG Capital, a leading venture capital fund in China and other important innovation centers in Asia, and is on the board of The Forsyth Institute, the leading Harvard-affiliated oral health research organization. Michael serves on various innovation and investment advisory boards for Advocate Aurora Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and MedStar Health, as well as serving on the Governor’s Digital Health Council and the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative. Michael also serves on the Investment Committee for the Partners Innovation Fund and on is the Advisory Board of Harvard Business School’s Health Care Initiative. He was past chairman of the New England Venture Capital Association and on the board and executive committee of the National Venture Capital Association. Michael earned a B.A. with honors in chemistry from Williams College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Andrew Hedin, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners
Andrew Hedin is a partner in Bessemer’s Cambridge office where he focuses on investments broadly across the healthcare ecosystem, including new biotech therapeutics as well as software and services sold to healthcare verticals. Prior to joining Bessemer in 2015, Andrew worked at F-Prime Capital, Fidelity’s healthcare-focused venture capital fund where he invested in early-stage biotech and digital health technologies, as well as Leerink Partners as an advisor to the biopharma industry. He earned an MBA with honors from The Wharton School, where he majored in health care management and finance, as well as a degree in biological basis of behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.

Rana Lonnen, Managing Director, dRx Capital, Novartis
Rana Lonnen is a healthcare technology investor, entrepreneur, and molecular biologist. At Novartis, she leads strategic investments in technology companies, on a mission to transform the healthcare ecosystem and make positive impact on people’s lives. Previously, Rana was Head of Preclinical Development at a UK biotech, Auspherix; investment consultant to IP Group in London; Founder and CSO of a UK based Biotech, Axendos therapeutics. Prior to this she was a Wellcome Trust backed principal investigator in drug discovery in the field of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, author and inventor on high impact peer-reviewed publications and patents; before this, Rana worked at Bristol-Myers Squibb, in sales and marketing. Rana holds a PhD in molecular biology and an MBA from Imperial College London. She personally cares about equitable healthcare, social justice, sustainability and the future of antimicrobial resistance. In her down time Rana likes to make culinary experiments, be in nature and read. Rana is a board observer at Aktana, Cota Healthcare, H1 Insights, Koneksa, Mekonos, NuvoAir, and Dopavision. She is based out of Basel, Switzerland.

Lenard Marcus, General Partner, Edison Ventures
Lenard is responsible for leading Edison investments in companies primarily located in the mid-Atlantic area. Lenard co-leads healthcare IT investments and leads Edison’s security practice. Lenard is active in the mid-Atlantic venture community serving as a board member for the Maryland Venture Fund and Greater Baltimore Technology Council.
Lenard began his career at IBM where he worked as a Financial Analyst for IBM Global Services. His main responsibilities were overseeing a budget of $80 million and partnering with international locations to decrease the project costs of IBM Global Services West. Later, Lenard worked for Princeton eCom—an online bill payment company—where, as Manager of B2C Implementations; he oversaw one of the largest joint ventures in the company’s history. Lenard later led B2C Product Development at Princeton eCom prior to earning his MBA. Lenard also worked in healthcare investment banking for Wachovia Securities. Here are notable exits.
eSentire (Warburg Pincus); PHX (Zelis), Kemp Technologies (Mill Point Partners)
Here is Lenard’s investment experience.
ObserveIQ, CapitalRx, VirtualHealth, HRS, Macrofab, PHX (Zelis); eSentire (Warburg Pincus), Spiffy
Lenard’s education includes;
BS, Industrial Engineering, Stanford University
MBA, Columbia Business School, concentration in Finance and Management

Evan Norton, Managing Partner, Ballast Capital /Sprig Consulting
Evan Norton is a Founder & Managing Partner for SPRIG Equity, a healthtech growth equity and venture investment firm. Evan is on several healthtech boards. Prior to starting SPRIG Equity, he was a General Partner at Accelmed Partners. Evan has led over 30 financings and has had 15 of his prior investments either be acquired or become public companies. He previously spent a decade with Abbott Labs leading the corporate venture arm, Abbott Ventures. Prior to Abbott, he was a Principal with ONSET Ventures. He has a diverse background having worked for Stryker Endoscopy, J&J LifeScan and Acclarent. In addition to his medical device experience, Evan worked for the Investment Banking Group at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co and in the consulting practice at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Evan holds an MBA degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management. He currently is an adjunct professor at Kellogg (Medical Products Commercialization and Funding) and serves on the Innovation and New Ventures Advisory Board and N.XT Fund investment committee at Northwestern University.

Jared Saul, MD, Global Head, Healthcare + Life Sciences (Startups + Investors), Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Dr. Saul is the world wide lead for healthcare and life sciences at AWS focused on supporting the work of top investors and their most promising healthcare and life sciences startups-- bringing Amazon technology, resources and relationships to bear on the unique challenges and opportunities facing those at the cutting edge of healthcare. Dr. Saul began his career practicing clinical neuroradiology while also pursuing a variety of startup ventures and ultimately left clinical practice to fully pursue entrepreneurial ambitions as a founder, CTO, advisor and investor. Dr. Saul received his medical doctorate from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey where he subsequently completed a residency in radiology. He then completed fellowship training in neuroradiology at the University of Arizona. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and two sons.

Fei Shen, Managing Director, Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA
Fei received her Ph.D. in Neuropharmacology from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and a B.Sc in Biochemistry from East China University Science & Technology. In 2007, she started her industrial career at Theravance Biopharma as an in vivo pharmacologist and led a lab in driving multiple research projects from exploratory, lead optimization to development candidate nomination. In 2015, she joined Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. Global Immunology and Respiratory Disease Research in Ridgefield where she started as a Laboratory Head and became the Head of in vivo Pharmacology group in 2016. In 2020, she joined the Boehringer Ingelheim Venture Fund USA as an Investment Director, and was promoted to be the Managing Director in 2021 and leads the US activities. She served as board member of Abexxa Biologics in Arlington and exited the company in 2021. Currently, she is on the Boards of Rgenta Therapeutics in Boston, ArrePath in Princeton and STRM. BIO in Cambridge.

David Stevenson, COO & Managing Director, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund
Dave Stevenson is COO & Managing Director and a founding partner of GHI Fund since inception in 2010. Dave is responsible for identifying opportunities broadly across digital health and also manages the GHI portfolio and operations. Dave brings more than 25 years of healthcare strategy and operations expertise to the GHI team. Prior to Merck GHI, Dave was Head of U.S. Strategy at Sanofi responsible for development of the company’s new commercial models. Dave started his career with Novartis where he built their first clinical trial management system. He holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University and a B.A. from Washington University.

Eric Snyder, Partner, Novo Ventures
Eric Snyder is a Partner at Novo Ventures, where invests in biotech, medtech and digital health companies. Novo Ventures invests on behalf of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, one of the world’s largest philanthropic organizations with a vision to improve health and society. Before joining Novo Ventures, Eric earned a PhD in Neuroscience from Brown University and worked in strategic healthcare consulting.