Invests in
Sectors:
Locations:
Min Investment:
$150,000.00Max Investment:
$7,000,000.00Target Investment:
$3,500,000.00
Skills
Education
- QU
- QU
Lists including Kevin
Investments
Wellinks
Total Funding: $42M
Rapid Oxygen Company
Total Funding: $500K
Cafe Learn
Total Funding: $150K
Precipio Diagnostics
Total Funding: $2M
Oxford Performance Materials
Total Funding: $1M
Affinimark Technologies
Total Funding: $1M
Cara Therapeutics
Total Funding: $56M
Work Experience
2006
Senior Managing Director, Investments
2006
I have led CI’s investments in Perosphere, Populi, Enertiv, Enko, Veradermics, Torigen Pharmaceuticals, DeepLook Medical, Cara Therapeutics, Athletic Brewing, HistoRx, Oxford Performance Materials, Solias Lighting, UConn Innovation Fund, Carogen, Wellinks, and others. I currently serve on the boards of many CI investments. I also manage CI's Venture Debt program. In addition to my duties managing equity investments and sitting on boards, I previously managed the $50 million Connecticut BioScience Facilities Fund, which invested in the build-out of wet laboratory space and funds equipment purchases through loan/debt vehicles. This program had only one loss in its history and supported over a dozen bioscience companies in Connecticut. Hundreds of thousands of square feet of laboratory space were created with help from the fund. The fund's return for CI have been significant (interest and warrants) over its life allowing reinvestment of the proceeds into additional companies. Upon the launch of the State's $100MM Stem Cell fund, I was responsible for coordination, contracting, and first distributions of the fund -one of the first in the Country to make investments. In 2012 I also took over Connecticut Innovations PreSeed Program, a program designed to make very early stage investments in new companies. The PreSeed Program is a feeder to CI's larger funds and one of the most successful in the country. CI has made over 100 investments through the fund (over 300 closings and tranches). Other past experience included managing CI's two incubator laboratories at 25 Science Park in New Haven.
2023
Board Member
2023
Perosphere's PoC Coagulometer provides an unprecedented global view of coagulation status where and when it's needed the most, in emergency care. The PoC Coagulometer is the only diagnostic tool that effectively and swiftly monitors clotting processes across drug classes-including DOACs. Adopting the PoC Coagulometer as a new standard of care in the ER holds potential for improved efficiency, significant cost savings, and better patient outcomes due to fast diagnosis and related appropriate treatment decisions.
2021
Board Observer
2021
Enko designs safe and sustainable solutions to farmers’ biggest crop threats today, from pest resistance to new diseases. By applying the latest drug discovery and development approaches from pharma to plants, Enko is bringing an innovation model to agriculture and meeting farmers’ evolving needs.
2021
Board Observer
2021
VeraDermics is a dermatology company that creates novel drug delivery mechanisms for a pain-free cure for skin conditions such as warts. It offers a dissolvable microneedle patch solution that administers immunotherapy without any pain, a treatment that stimulates the body’s own immune system to fight off the wart virus.
2019
Board Observer
2019
BioWave is a non-opioid, FDA cleared, patented, Smarter Pain Blocking Technology that is designed to block pain at the source. It goes beyond old-fashioned TENS products. BioWave is used by over 120 professional sports teams NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB, and over 160 major NCAA college athletic programs. The BioWaveGO product is a new, non-prescription version of the non-opioid, FDA cleared technology that is now for sale direct to consumers that suffer from chronic pain.
2019
Board Observer
2019
Torigen’s experimental autologous cancer vaccine works by generating a vaccine from a patient's (pet's) deactivated tumor cells to stimulate the immune system against specific tumor-associated antigens found on the outside surface of the tumor cells
2017
Board Of Directors (Observer status as of 2021)
2017
Trebel is the only free music download app with offline listening. Trebel enables music fans to download the best songs in the world for free and play those songs offline. Other companies offer excellent paid services, but there are more than 2.5 billion smartphone users worldwide who don't pay for music. We provide an answer for anyone who wants an offline option for free music on their smartphone.
2017
Board Observer (Previous Board Member)
2017
At Wellinks, we leverage our empathic and innovative spirit as a catalyst for creating a constellation of care around our members. Through virtual-first human-centered care, we empower greater outcomes for those living with chronic respiratory disease.
2016
Board of Director Observer (Former Board Member)
2016
CaroGen Corporation is an emerging vaccine immunotherapy company employing a virus-like vesicle (VLV) platform technology developed at Yale University School of Medicine and exclusively licensed for the development and commercialization of vaccine immunotherapies worldwide. Our vision is to create different, potentially transformative first-in-class nanoparticle therapeutic vaccine immunotherapies designed to engage the body’s immune system to both recognize and fight off infectious diseases and cancer. The company is leveraging the VLV platform and developing a portfolio of vaccine candidates against the following infections/diseases: •Chronic Hepatitis B Viral Infection (CHB) in collaboration with Yale School of Medicine and Albany Medical College •Clostridium difficile, a bacterial infection, in collaboration with the University of Connecticut Medical School/Health Center •Zika Virus Infection in collaboration with the Center for Excellence for Vaccine Research (CEVR) at the University of Connecticut The hepatitis B program is CaroGen's lead program and has completed initial proof-of-concept testing in animals which was published in August 2015 in the Journal of Virology. Worldwide, approximately 240 million people live with CHB and 600,000 die each year from HBV-associated liver disease and cancer. The HBV program is undergoing optimization for selection of a clinical candidate capable of stimulating the immune system to multiple HBV target antigens.
Board of Directors
2016
A $1.5M fund between Connecticut Innovations, Webster Bank, and UConn devoted to funding early stage UConn related companies.