Scott Beardsley is the Managing Partner for the Venture Investments team of Novo Holdings. He joined Novo Ventures (US) Inc. in San Francisco, California, in 2012. From 2009-2012, Mr. Beardsley was a Senior Partner with Novo A/S’ Growth Equity team in Copenhagen, Denmark. Prior to joining Novo A/S he was a Managing Director at JP Morgan in San Francisco, heading the firm’s West Coast biopharmaceuticals effort. Prior to that, Mr. Beardsley led Piper Jaffray’s US biopharmaceuticals investment banking practice and was a member of the Health Care Group at Montgomery Securities. During his tenure as an investment banker, Mr. Beardsley originated and executed numerous transactions.

Mr. Beardsley holds an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and a BS from Colorado State University.

Ari Brettman is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018. Dr. Brettman joined Clarus in September 2014.

Dr. Brettman is focused on investments across the firm’s portfolio, including startups and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. Prior to Clarus, Dr. Brettman completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Brettman was also an NIH-sponsored post-doctoral fellow at the MGH Center for Systems Biology, where he studied the autophagy of lipid droplets and used electronic medical record-based big data analytics at Partners Healthcare to conduct clinical research and improve disease management. Dr. Brettman is a member of the Board of Directors of Praxis Precision Medicines, a startup in genetically defined neuropsychiatric disorders.

Dr. Brettman received his M.D. from Duke University and his AB in History and Science from Harvard College. While a medical student, he was a Sarnoff Cardiovascular Research Foundation Fellow at Stanford University, where he studied angiogenesis.

Ray Camahort is a Partner at Novo Holdings Venture Investments. He has over 15 years of combined investment, business, and research experience, with expertise in biochemistry, genetics, and gene therapy/editing. Prior to joining Novo Ventures, Dr. Camahort worked in business development at the Harvard University Office of Technology Development where his role was to facilitate commercialization of technologies developed in the chemistry and stem cell/regenerative biology departments.

Dr. Camahort has served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies, including Arcellx, Inspirna, iECURE, Obsidian Therapeutics, and Ray Therapeutics. He completed a National Institute of Health post-doctoral training fellowship at Harvard University and was a pre-doctoral fellow at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in biochemistry and molecular biology and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Nicholas Galakatos is the Global Head of Life Sciences and is the Chairman of its Investment Committees, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Dr. Galakatos was a co-Founder and Managing Director of Clarus since the firm's inception in 2005. Dr. Galakatos has over 30 years of industry and investment experience in the healthcare sector and has led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceutical company partnerships, and diagnostics, from startups to commercial-stage companies. Before Clarus, Dr. Galakatos was a General Partner at MPM Capital, a healthcare venture capital firm. From 1997 to 2000 he was Vice President of New Business at Millennium Pharmaceuticals (presently Takeda) and a member of the Management Team. He was a founder of Millennium Predictive Medicine, Millennium Biotherapeutics, and TransForm Pharmaceuticals, where he was the Chairman and founding CEO. Dr. Galakatos is the Chairman of Anthos Therapeutics and a Director of Neurvati and BioMed Realty. He is also a member of the Board of Trustees at Reed College.

Dr. Galakatos earned his PhD in Organic Chemistry from MIT and performed his post-doctoral studies at Harvard Medical School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Reed College.  

Listen to thoughts from Nicholas Galakatos on the potential of Anthos Therapeutics: 
“Big Bets on Biotech – CNBC Healthy Returns Summit with Nicholas Galakatos” 

Before joining Anthos Therapeutics, Bill Meury served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Boston-based neuroscience company Karuna Therapeutics, where he led the company through a period of rapid expansion, and a transition to a fully integrated R&D and commercial organization. Within this role, he oversaw the successful execution of large phase three development programs for multiple indications, a timely NDA submission, two early-stage product acquisitions, and a follow-on public offering.

Prior to Karuna, Mr. Meury was Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer at Allergan, where he was responsible for multiple global business units spanning 50 products and over $16B in revenue. He has extensive expertise in strategic planning, P&L management, commercialization, G&A operations, and business development, covering a wide range of therapeutic areas, including neuropsychiatry, gastroenterology and cardiology.

Mr. Meury has also been a partner at Hildred Capital Management, a private equity firm focused on the healthcare industry. He currently serves on the board of directors of Syndax Pharmaceuticals and the JED Foundation. 

Mr. Meury earned his BA in Economics from the University of Maryland.  

Greg Norden is the former Chief Financial Officer of Wyeth. Mr. Norden also serves on the Boards of Zoetis, the leading animal health company; Royalty Pharma, a leading funder of innovation across the biopharmaceutical industry; and Praxis, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company. In addition, Mr. Norden is the Managing Director of G9 Capital Group, LLC, which invests in early-stage ventures and provides corporate finance advisory services. Mr. Norden is a former director of Human Genome Sciences, NanoString, Univision and WelchAllyn.

Paris Panayiotopoulos is a Senior Managing Director in the Blackstone Life Sciences group and a member of its Investment Committee, having joined Blackstone as part of its acquisition of Clarus in December 2018. 

Mr. Panayiotopoulos has over 20 years of biopharmaceutical operating and investing experience having served as Operating Partner at Clarus, as CEO and President of Ariad Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARIA), as member of the Board of Directors of The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO), as President of the US and Japan biopharmaceutical businesses of Merck KGaA (FWB: MRK), and as President of the Serono Research and Development Institute. 

Mr. Panayiotopoulos is currently a founder and board member of Anthos Therapeutics and AvenCell Therapeutics, and previously served as founding Chairman of Genevant Sciences and FerGene. He is also on the Board of Advisors of the non-profit Life Science Cares. 

He holds a combined BS in Chemistry and Management Studies from University College London and an MS from Cranfield Business School in the United Kingdom. 

Richard C. Pasternak has spent the last 44 years as an academic and biopharmaceutical clinician-scientist. He is a retired Clinical Professor (Dept of Medicine) at the Weill Cornell Medical College and is a strategic consultant. He has served on multiple biotech and medtech Boards over the last 22 years, most recently Anthos Therapeutics (Clinical Committee) and Milestone Pharmaceuticals (clinical committee; compensation committee). 

Dr. Pasternak retired from Merck and Co. in 2010, where he had been Vice President, Clinical Research and Head Cardiovascular Therapeutic Area (2004-2008), and Vice President, Head of Global Scientific Affairs and Scientific Leadership (2008-2010). He served as a key senior executive in a communications role for Merck regarding critical issues related to worldwide scientific affairs. Dr. Pasternak worked on strategic business development issues, regulatory affairs, medical affairs, and political affairs; and he was also a senior management policy liaison for medical and scientific issues. 

Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Pasternak was Director of Preventive Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, having been on the Harvard faculty since 1983. He received his BA and MD from Yale University and completed his medical and cardiology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital. 

Dr. Pasternak has had a long-standing research interest in vascular disease, lipid disorders and atherosclerosis, as well as in epidemiology, prevention, and patterns of practice and disease management. He was a member of the NIH’s Coordinating Committee of the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) and of the third Adult Treatment Panel (ATP III), has served on many national and international committees, and has published and spoken extensively. 

Peter Renehan is a Principal on the Blackstone Life Sciences team. He was previously an investment banking Associate in Lazard’s San Francisco office, where he focused on biopharma mergers and acquisitions. His experience prior to Lazard includes working in corporate strategy at Moderna Therapeutics and Flagship Pioneering. Dr. Renehan graduated with dual MD/MBA degrees from Harvard University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Indonesia. 

Dr. Vasilisa (Vaska) Sazonov is the Head of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CRM) Commercial team at Novartis International (Basel, Switzerland) and an Observer to the Board of Directors at Anthos Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, USA). Vaska brings over two decades of comprehensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, with a diverse skill set across commercial operations, strategy development, general management, market access and health outcomes research, both in Commercial and R&D divisions. She has published and lectured widely on such topics as access to medicines and innovative private-public partnerships.

Currently, Vaska is the Head of the Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic (CRM) Commercial team at Novartis International. She plays a pivotal role in steering the company's CRM strategy for the international business, bridging science and commercialization throughout the product lifecycle, and co-creating a future-focused cardiovascular portfolio. She brings broad experience in cardiovascular diseases (such as atherosclerosis, hypertension, atrial fibrillation and heart failure) from her time at Merck & Co. (MSD), as well as overseeing programs in complement-driven renal diseases at Novartis. Vaska has been with Novartis for the past two and a half years, initially as the head of Global Access and Therapy Area Policy, and later, as the global head of the eXploratory Therapy Area that included renal, ophthalmology, and acute/critical care portfolios.

Prior to working at Novartis, Vaska held key leadership roles at AbbVie, Allergan, and spent 15 years at Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD). She has had a number of global, regional and local roles leading pipeline strategy, global market access and pricing, customer solutions, and she was the general manager of MSD Slovenia. Vaska has a PhD in Pharmaceutical Economics from Purdue University, a Master's in Health Economics from the University of York and a PharmD from the University of Ljubljana. Vaska lives outside London with her husband and two children.