Speakers

Dr. Gordon Foulkes has more than 30 years of experience in leading and investing in biopharmaceutical companies. These include serving as the founding CEO of Excaliard Pharmaceuticals which was acquired by Pfizer and as Executive Chairman of Redwood BioScience, helping to negotiate and guide the company through a successful staged acquisition by Catalent. Dr. Foulkes previously served as Managing Director at RiverVest Ventures, where he represented RiverVest’s investments in Mpex (Axcan acq), CGI Pharmaceuticals (Gilead acq), Cabrellis (Pharmion acq), Conforma (Biogen acq), Excaliard (Pfizer acq) and MacroGenics (MGNX). Previously, he headed R&D, and served on the boards of multiple biotechnology companies, including OSI Pharmaceuticals (OSIP) acquired by Astellas for $4 billion, Aurora Biosciences (ABSC) acquired by Vertex for $590M and Elitra Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Merck. At OSI, he pioneered the early development of cell-based high-throughput drug screening and oversaw multiple drug discovery and development programs, including the discovery of the anti-cancer drug Tarceva, an EGFR kinase inhibitor. Prior to joining the biopharmaceutical industry, Dr. Foulkes held academic positions at both MIT and the Medical Research Council (UK). Dr. Foulkes obtained a First Class Honors BSc degree from the University of Wales and his Ph.D. from the University of Dundee, Scotland.