Steve Kasok is an operationally oriented financial executive with broad life science expertise. He co-founded and served as CFO of Brammer Bio and Gallus Biopharmaceuticals which are both now part of Thermo Fisher Scientific. He previously served on the Boards of Cognate Bioservices and Brammer Bio. His operational responsibilities have included Finance, Business Development, Human Resources, Information Technology and the Legal functions. Kasok’s broader industry experiences included roles as Vice President and Treasurer of Millipore Corporation, CFO of Cabot Supermetals, and Treasurer and Business Development Officer at Haemonetics Corp, and a variety of roles in GE. He earned a BS in Finance from Clarkson University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Dan is Co-founder, COO, and Board Director of EnPlusOne Bio. He joined the team while attending business school and was introduced to the scientific co-founders through participation in the Nucleate Program at Harvard. During this experience, Dan became convinced EnPlusOne had the technology and team to tackle the many problems facing RNA synthesis. Upon graduation, Dan was selected as a Blavatnik Fellow in Life Science Entrepreneurship which provided resources and mentorship instrumental in founding EnPlusOne. Working in the cutting-edge space of RNA is well-aligned with his passion for the biotechnology industry and rare diseases. Previously, he worked at Sanofi as a process engineer supporting large scale cGMP manufacturing of enzyme replacement therapies. Most recently, he led the design, construction, and validation of purification operations for a new continuous biomanufacturing facility, awarded the 2020 ISPE Facility of the Year. Dan earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from Northeastern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Paxton Major is a Director at Northpond Ventures. He joined Northpond in August 2018 as a member of the investment team, helping lead investments in biopharma R&D tools, precision medicine, and digital health. Paxton is a board director at EnPlusOne, Kytopen, Molecule, QbD Vision, and Teckro. Some of his active and past board observer roles include Elephas, Scitara, Selux Diagnostics, SimBioSys, Syapse, VieCure, Current Health (acquired by BBY), and NanoView (acquired by Unchained Labs). Previously, Paxton was a consultant at Trinity Partners, a life science-focused strategy and management consultancy that advises clients by providing in-depth market, competitor, customer, and financial insights. Paxton earned a B.S. with honors in neurobiology from Brown University.
Julia partners with bold entrepreneurs building the bio-based future. She is a Managing Partner at Breakout Ventures, investing in early stage companies harnessing the power of cells to build solutions in human health and sustainability.
Julia has spent her career as an investor and operator, navigating the translation of new technologies in life sciences to customer adoption and scale. She has been investing in and building venture-backed, science-driven companies for the last 15 years and has worked with multiple companies from founding through IPO or M&A. Julia began her career as a public investor and research analyst on Wall Street. She is also a Kaufman Fellow. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where she studied Finance and Bioethics.
Andrew Lee is a Vice President at Northpond Ventures on the firm’s life science R&D solutions, molecular diagnostics, and environmental sciences teams. Andrew is a Board Director at Culture Biosciences. Previously, he was an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton working in the Biological Technologies Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he supported the development and management of a high-risk, high-reward research funding portfolio in Gene Editing and Synthetic Biology. Earlier, Andrew worked at Sangamo Biosciences (now Sangamo Therapeutics). Andrew earned a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Columbia University. He received a B.A. with honors in Molecular and Cell Biology, with an emphasis in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, at University of California, Berkeley.
