Beth Seidenberg MD
Dr. Seidenberg is a founding managing director of Westlake Village BioPartners and a general partner at Kleiner Perkins, a leading venture capital firm. A longtime life sciences investor, she has incubated-invested 15 biotech ventures.
Dr. Seidenberg has a demonstrated ability to identify and accelerate medically meaningful molecules through development. Her expertise is grounded in her significant senior level industry experience with leadership roles at Amgen, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck Research Laboratories. Most recently, at Amgen, Dr. Seidenberg was chief medical officer and head of global development.
Prior to life science investing, Dr. Seidenberg’s career focused on developing new treatments for AIDS, arthritis, asthma, cancer and psoriasis, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological and renal disorders for over 20 years. During that time, she introduced 10 innovative products to market and achieved over 40 regulatory approvals (including new indications and formulations) on a worldwide scale.
Dr. Seidenberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and anthropology from Barnard College and attended medical school at the University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed her medical residency at Johns Hopkins University and the George Washington University, and Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health.
Sean Parker
Sean Parker is a philanthropist and entrepreneur with a record of launching genre-defining companies and organizations. He is the founder and President of the Parker Foundation, which focuses on three areas: Life Sciences, Global Public Health and Civic Engagement.
In April 2016, the Parker Foundation announced a $250 million grant to form the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, building on Mr. Parker’s leadership in funding and promoting research into the relationship between the immune system and cancer. In the ensuing years, the Parker Institute has evolved into a leader in the immunotherapy field for cutting edge research collaboration and clinical development, including funding a landmark human trial using CRISPR technology.
In addition to cancer research, Mr. Parker has led many initiatives that revolutionized the civic and social landscape. He was the co-founder of Napster at age 19 and of Plaxo at 21. In 2004 he partnered with Mark Zuckerberg to found Facebook and served as its first president. In 2007 he co-founded Causes on Facebook, which registered 180 million people to donate money and take action around social issues. During his tenure as Managing Partner at Founders Fund, Mr. Parker became Spotify’s first American investor. Mr. Parker is also chairman and founder of the Economic Innovation Group (EIG), based in Washington D.C. He was a key architect behind EIG’s groundbreaking Opportunity Zones program, a community investment tool that connects private capital with low-income communities across America.
For his work establishing the Stand Up 2 Cancer and Cancer Research Institute's (CRI) Immunology Dream Team in 2012, Mr. Parker was honored by CRI with the Oliver R. Grace Award for Distinguished Service in Advancing Cancer Research in 2013. In 2016 he received the Pontifical Key Philanthropy Award from the Vatican, the Jefferson Foundation Award for Outstanding Public Service by a Private Citizen, and the Friends of Cancer Research Cancer Leadership Award. In 2017, he received UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital’s highest honor, the Kaleidoscope Philanthropic Leadership Award, as well as the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Public Service Award for his efforts in championing cancer immunotherapy. In August 2018, he was nominated as a Wired Magazine “Icon" alongside Alex Marson for their roles in the research of DNA programming and genome editing in the fight against cancer.
In 2018, he received the Gold Medal of Honorary Patronage from Trinity College, Dublin, and received the Kemp Leadership Award for his leadership on Opportunity Zones.
Throughout the years, Mr. Parker has been voted onto various influential lists, including Time Magazine's 50 Most Influential People in Health Care, Vanity Fair’s New Establishment, Politico's Politico 50, Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 50, Billboard’s Power 100, and Forbes' 100 Greatest Business Minds, among others.
In addition to serving as chairman of the board at the Economic Innovation Group and the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Mr. Parker is on the Obama Foundation's Board of Directors, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Board of Trustees and Global Citizen’s Board of Directors.
He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Alexandra and their two children.
Valentin Barsan MD
Valentin (Vali) Barsan, M.D. has served as Consultant at SoftBank Group since May 2017. Dr. Barsan is currently an Instructor and Attending Physician in the Department of Pediatric Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine where he completed clinical fellowship in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation. There, he continues to focus on expanding the utility of immunotherapies in pediatric and adult cancers using molecular monitoring and genome engineering techniques. Dr. Barsan completed his residency in Pediatrics at UC San Diego. Dr. Barsan holds a B.S. in Bioengineering at University of California, San Diego and an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine.
Matt Fust
Matthew Fust is a board member and advisor for life sciences companies.
From 2009 - 2013, he was Chief Financial Officer of Onyx Pharmaceuticals. He previously served in Chief Financial Officer roles at Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Perlegen Sciences, and ALZA Corporation. Prior to joining ALZA, Matthew was a member of the healthcare strategy consulting practice at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
Matthew serves on the boards of Atara Biotherapeutics, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, and Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical. He is also an advisor to Out Leadership/Quorum and Women In Bio.
Matthew holds an undergraduate degree in Accounting from the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
Brook Byers
Brook Byers is a founding member of Kleiner Perkins. A venture capital investor since 1972, Brook has been closely involved with more than 80 new technology-based ventures, many of which have become public companies. He formed the first life sciences practice group in the venture capital profession in 1984 and led KP to become a premier venture capital firm in the medical, healthcare and biotechnology sectors. KP has invested in and helped build more than 120 life sciences companies that have developed hundreds of products to treat underserved medical needs for many millions of patients. Brook has been an innovator in precision medicine and health genomics, antibodies, devices, diagnostics, and cell therapy. He was the founding president and then chairman of four biotechnology companies that were incubated in KP’s offices and went on to become public companies with an aggregate market value of more than US $8 billion. He serves on the board of directors of Arsenal, Enjoy, Newsela, Octave and Verana Health.
Brook serves on the Board of Overseers of the University of California San Francisco medical campus and hospitals, the Stanford Medicine Advisory Council, the Board of Directors of the New Schools Foundation, the Advisory Board of Stanford’s Center for Precision Health and Integrated Diagnostics and the Stanford Center for Biodesign. In 2007, UCSF awarded Brook the UCSF Medal, its honorary degree equivalent. In 2008, Brook was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2009, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Venture Capital Association. In 2010, he received an honorary Ph.D. from Georgia Institute of Technology.
Raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Brook graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech and received an M.B.A. from Stanford University.
Ken Drazan, MD
Chairman, CEO, Co-Founder
Ken Drazan MD is Chairman, CEO, and co-founder of ArsenalBio. Immediately prior to Arsenal, Ken held the positions of President and Chief Business Officer of GRAIL (Acquired by ILMN). Prior to GRAIL, Ken founded and was a Board Director of Verb Surgical (Acquired by JNJ). Ken also co-founded private equity firm Bertram Capital with .9B AUM. Ken is a Board certified liver transplant surgeon with previous faculty appointments at Stanford and UCLA.