BioVenture VoiCes with Chris Garabedian

Jessica Owens discusses the many experiences she has had in her career, including working on the venture side at Kleiner Perkins and Versant Ventures and on the operating side at Genomic Health and Grail. She highlights the value of VCs being able to understand how operators like CEOs think, and describes the type of investing INITIATE focuses on.

Brett Zbar describes his early career, including working at Aisling Capital and Foresight Capital, and now managing the healthcare strategy at General Atlantic. He describes how he sees the difference between private equity and venture capital, and discusses which themes in biotech and healthcare appeal to him today.

Art Pappas describes his early career, which involved numerous overseas posts for large companies, and how it let him to eventually found Pappas Capital. He discusses the various ways the firm invests, and how having corporates partners as LPs and co-investors has been a recipe for success.

While describing his early life in Washington and formative years at the University of Chicago that led to the founding of ARCH, he shares his thoughts on leadership, risk taking, changes he thinks are need to keep the United States competitive in life sciences, and his belief in AI's promise to transform our industry.

She describes her career beginnings as a lawyer, which led to general counsel and business unit head roles at Pfizer, and then joining the VC world at Polaris Partners (at Bob Langer's urging). She discusses the firm's investment philosophy, the nuances behind how companies choose lead assets, and the cycles biotech has been through over the last ten years. Plus, other roles she currently serves, including being the chair of Alnylam.