Board of Directors

Lester Kaplan, Ph.D. Chairman

Lester Kaplan, Ph.D., is a member of Bay City Capital’s Scientific Advisory Board. He was previously Executive Vice President and President, Research and Development, at Allergan, Inc. Dr. Kaplan joined Allergan in 1983 and, prior to being appointed to Executive Vice President, was Corporate Vice President and President, Research and Development and Global BOTOX, from June 1998 to November 2003. He was elected to Allergan’s board of directors in 1994.

Dr. Kaplan is currently board chairman of Aciex, Inc., Altheos, Inc., and a director of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He also serves as a member of the board of directors of the Keck Graduate Institute and the National Neurovision Research Institute. Dr. Kaplan received an M.S. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Rob Hopfner, Ph.D., M.B.A. Director

Rob Hopfner is an Investment Partner at Bay City Capital and has been with the firm since August 2002. He specializes in drug discovery and development investments. Before joining Bay City Capital, Dr. Hopfner was an Associate in DuPont Pharmaceuticals’ Business Development & Strategic Planning group. Prior to that, he was an Analyst at Ag-West Biotech, a Western Canadian seed-stage biotech venture capital firm. He holds a Ph.D. in Pharmacology and a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Saskatchewan, and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago. He completed post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hopfner won numerous awards during his academic research career, including the Governor General of Canada Gold Medal Award in 2000, and has published over 20 scientific articles. Dr. Hopfner started his career as a pharmacist. His portfolio involvement includes Aciex, Inc., Hyperion Therapeutics and PTC Therapeutics.

Wende Hutton, M.B.A. Director

Seasoned healthcare investor Wende Hutton is passionate about identifying, investing in and building companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine. She joined Canaan in 2004, bringing diverse expertise from across the entire medical spectrum. Over the last 15 years, Wende has facilitated the market entrance of over 11 novel and lifesaving medical devices, new drugs and diagnostics. Her track record is a testament to her leadership and includes the initial public offerings of five companies, of which two were later acquired, and the acquisition of four more by medical companies including the recent acquisition of BiPar Sciences, a leader in the development of a potential new class of tumor-selective drugs designed to meet the unmet needs of cancer patients. Wende began her venture career at Mayfield Fund in 1993, where she was a General Partner in the life sciences group until 2001. During her tenure at Mayfield, Wende incubated Heartstream Inc. (HPQ) and Northstar Neuroscience Inc. (NSTR), working closely with those founding teams. Most recently, she was a General Partner at Spring Ridge Ventures, a healthcare-focused seed fund. Earlier in her career, Wende held senior operational management positions at GenPharm International and Nellcor in business development and marketing.

Wende sits on the boards of Altheos, Inc., Calibra Medical, ReVision Optics, Inc., Theraclone Sciences and Transcend Medical, Inc. Her previous board seats include Alsius (ALUS), Apieron, Inc. (Acquired by Aerocrine), BiPar Sciences (acquired by Sanofi-Aventis), Heartstream, Inc. (acquired by Hewlett Packard), Micro Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by ev3, Inc.), Northstar Neuroscience (NSTR), Orquest, Inc. (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), and SenoRx, Inc. (NASDAQ: SENO).

Wende holds an A.B. in human biology from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, where she was a Baker Scholar. She is an active member of several community service groups, including serving as task-force leader on obesity for the Santa Clara and Mid-Peninsula YMCAs.

Peter Bisgaard, M.Sc. Director

Peter Bisgaard is a Partner in Novo Ventures Novo A/S. Peter Bisgaard joined Novo A/S in 2001 and has been working in the San Francisco, California, office since 2009. He is a member of the board of directors of Light Sciences Oncology, Inc., and M2 Medical, Inc., and was a board member of HemoFocus ApS, NatImmune A/S and Neurokey A/S.

Prior to joining Novo A/S, Peter was employed with McKinsey & Co. as a general consultant and as a specialist within the Scandinavian Corporate Finance and Strategy Group. At McKinsey, Peter focused on strategy development, mergers, acquisitions and alliances in various industries.

Peter is the co-author of 'Growth by Mergers & Acquisitions,' published by Børsens Forlag, 2004.

Peter obtained an M.Sc. in 1998 from the Technical University of Denmark and was at the same time awarded a post graduate degree in Mathematical Modeling in Economics by the European Consortium for Mathematics in the Industry.

Henry H. Hsu, M.D. Chief Executive Officer, Director

Dr. Hsu is a co-founder and currently serves as the CEO and a Director on the Altheos Board.
Dr. Hsu has extensive experience leading drug development teams ranging from translational research and pre-clinical development through clinical development and approval as well as post-approval medical affairs and label expansion.

From 2005 to 2009, Dr. Hsu served as Chief Medical Officer of CoMentis, a privately-held biopharmaceutical company focused on neurologic and ophthalmic diseases. While at CoMentis, Dr. Hsu was a key member of the team responsible for a licensing agreement with Astellas Pharma worth $760M. Previously, Dr. Hsu was Vice President, Clinical Research, at CoTherix, where his clinical team obtained US approval of inhaled iloprost (Ventavis®) for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Prior to CoTherix, he was Vice President, Clinical Research, at InterMune, where he was responsible for clinical development for a number of products. From 1995 to 1999, Dr. Hsu served in various senior positions at Chiron Corporation within both the vaccines and biopharmaceutical divisions.

Dr. Hsu received an M.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, and a B.S. in biology from Johns Hopkins University. He obtained internal medicine training at the University of California, Davis, where he served as Chief Medical Resident, and went on to a research fellowship at Stanford University Medical Center. While at Stanford, he was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and carried out studies in molecular virology.