Virobay

Robert Booth PhD
Chief Executive Officer, Virobay

Robert Booth was the driving force behind the creation of Virobay in 2006. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Research & Development at Celera Genomics, responsible for integrating and leading Celera's therapeutic discovery and development activities.

Robert also served in a series of executive positions at Roche for over 13 years, including Senior Vice President responsible for research and early development of inflammatory, viral, respiratory, and bone disease products.

Robert is a member of the Science Advisory Board of ShangPharma ChemPartner, serves as a consultant to a number of biotech and venture capital groups, and is a board observer with Galleon Pharmaceuticals.  

Robert obtained his PhD in biochemistry from the University of London.

Dan Janney
Managing Director, Alta Partners

Dan was a founding director of Alta in 1996 and focuses on investments in biopharmaceutical products and therapeutics.

He has been directly involved in the funding and development of over 25 life sciences companies and is currently on the board of directors of a number of companies, including Alba Therapeutics, Arete Therapeutics, CoTherix, Kemia and Phenomix Corporation. In addition, he led Alta’s investments in Dynavax, Endonetics, Ilex Oncology, Definity Health, InterMune and LJL Biosystems.

Prior to joining Alta, Dan was a senior investment banker at Montgomery Securities, focusing on life sciences companies.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History from Georgetown University and a Master of Business Administration from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jeff Bird
Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures

Jeff Bird focuses on healthcare, including biotechnology and medical devices.
He is also a board member of 11 other companies, including AkaRx, Horizon Therapeutics, Macusight,  Naryx Pharma, NuGen Technologies, Portola Pharmaceuticals and Restoration Robotics.
Jeff was formerly a director at Threshold Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: THLD) and Idun Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2005.

He also served as Senior Vice President, Business Operations at Gilead Sciences where he was primarily responsible for several alliances with major pharmaceutical companies and helped Gilead to acquire NeXstar in a $550 million transaction.

Jeff holds a degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford in 1982, a PhD in Cancer Biology in 1988 and a MD in 1992 from Stanford Medical School.

Heather Preston MD
Managing Director, TPG Growth Biotech

Heather Preston is a managing director with the private investment firm TPG, one of the founding investors in Virobay.

A hepatologist by training, Heather completed an undergraduate degree in biochemistry from the University of London, a medical degree from the University of Oxford and a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard University.
She finished her training in Internal Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital before specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology at U.C.S.F.

Heather subsequently spent five years at McKinsey & Co. in New York, where she was a leader of their pharmaceutical and medical products consulting practice. She advised large pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies on critical strategic issues such as R&D portfolio prioritization, M&A opportunities, new technology acquisitions, new product launches and product growth strategies.

She also spent two years at JP Morgan Partners where she focused on medical device and biotechnology venture capital investing and served as entrepreneur-in-residence with New Enterprise Associates.