Team Category: Board of Directors

Jen Pardi is Managing Director and Head of Global Equity Capital Markets (ECM) at Canaccord Genuity.

She is an accomplished capital markets professional with close to two decades of corporate finance experience. Jen is responsible for oversight of the firm’s global ECM business and operates at the forefront of its cross-border ECM activities. She has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Connecticut and a M.B.A. with distinction from Suffolk University. Jen joined Adams Harkness (acquired by Canaccord in 2005) in 2003 and has held roles of increasing responsibility within the firm. Jen has been involved in the completion of over 1,000 transactions with an aggregate value of over $150 billion and has been integral in elevating Canaccord Genuity to a top-ranked midmarket investment dealer.

Jen is passionate about increasing opportunities for underrepresented groups in the workplace and sits on Canaccord Genuity’s Global Diversity Committee, in addition to driving several of the firm’s local community and charitable initiatives. Jen and her wife are proudly raising their son on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

Robert T. Haslam (1911) Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Emeritus, and the Deshpande Center Faculty Director, Emeritus.

He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and his Master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Biochemical Engineering from MIT. After a short post-doc in pharmaceutical manufacturing at the Squibb Institute for Medical Research, he joined the faculty of MIT as an Assistant Professor in 1970 and as a full Professor since 1982. He serves as a consultant to and/or director of a number of Biotech and Pharmaceutical companies and is on several editorial boards of professional journals.

Cooney’s research interests span a range of topics in biochemical engineering and pharmaceutical manufacturing including: computer control of biological processes, downstream processing for product recovery, bioreactor design, continuous manufacturing and mixing of dry powders. The central philosophy underlying his research is the use of a multidisciplinary approach to the development of advanced manufacturing technologies for the biochemical process industry.

Among his awards and distinctions, Professor Cooney was nominated Founding Fellow, American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering; received the Gold Medal from the Institute of Biotechnological Studies; received the James Van Lanen Award for Distinguished Service to the Division of Microbial and Biochemical Technology of the American Chemical Society; and received the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. Professor Cooney is a long-standing member in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; the American Chemical Society and the Division of Microbial and Biochemical Technology; the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioengineering Division of the AIChE; the American Society for Microbiology and the Fermentation and Biotechnology Division of the ASM; the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering; and the Society for Industrial and Microbiology.

Eric O’Brien is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Fall Line Capital, bringing over 18 years of professional investment, financial services and operating experience to the firm.

Prior to forming Fall Line with Clay Mitchell in 2011, Eric spent 12 years at Lightspeed Venture Partners, a top tier Silicon Valley venture capital firm with over $3 billion of assets under management. At Lightspeed, he was a Managing Director responsible for early and growth stage investments in technology and services companies in the U.S. and China.

Eric has a track record of identifying and executing effectively against emerging market opportunities. In 2004, he identified a strategic opportunity for Lightspeed to expand its activities to China, where very few U.S. venture capital firms had established themselves at the time. That year, he sourced the firm’s first investment in the region and led the creation of Lightspeed’s overall strategy for China. In 2006, he moved himself and his family to Shanghai for five months to help formally establish Lightspeed’s China office, build the local investment team, and make several of the firm’s initial investments in the region, one of which became the firm’s first successful liquidity event in China.

Prior to Lightspeed, Eric was an Associate at InterWest Partners, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm where he focused on communications, internet and consumer investments. He has also worked for and consulted to a number of technology startups, and started his career as an Analyst in the mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance groups at Morgan Stanley in New York and San Francisco. Eric holds an AB degree in Economics magna cum laude from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Dr. Kishore is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Spruce Capital Partners.

He has a distinguished track record of accomplishments in biotechnology research and development and business. After receiving a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the Indian Institute of Science, Dr. Kishore received postdoctoral training in chemistry and biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

He then joined Monsanto, where he made contributions to the discovery of Roundup Ready technology and the synthesis of Aspartame. During his tenure at Monsanto, he was named a Distinguished Science Fellow and won the prestigious Queeny Award. Before moving to DuPont, he served as the President of Monsanto’s Nutrition & Consumer Sector.
He joined DuPont as the Chief Technology Officer of Agriculture & Nutrition. He retired from DuPont as Chief Biotechnology Officer to join Malaysian Life Science Capital Fund, as CEO and later co-founded Spruce Capital Partners.

He serves on the board of several companies, academic institutions, and the advisory board of Scientific American. He’s a recipient of Bio’s Legacy Award, ASPB’s Innovation Award.

Martha Schlicher is an Entrepreneur in Residence at BioGenerator. Previously she was Vice President, R&D, Specialty Generics at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.

She has over 25 years of direct agricultural industry experience from previous roles at Monsanto, leading a not for profit, and leading Technology and Business Development for a London based renewables company. Martha held roles within Monsanto leading Global Stakeholder Engagement and Sustainability, the Environmental and Regulatory Sciences and Regulatory Policy Groups, the Agricultural Biotech Crop Teams, Office of the President, and the US Western Corn Belt Commercial Business. Martha has a B.S. degree in Chemistry from Indiana University, a Ph.D. in Bio-organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois and an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Martha serves as an advisor to the current U.S. Secretary of Energy, as a Trustee for the St. Louis Academy of Science, as a member of the United States Department of Energy Biological and Environmental Research Advisory Committee, as a member of the Strategic Technology Council to Nidus Research Partners, and as an industry advisor to the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy Research at Washington University in St. Louis, the Department of Agricultural Economics at University of Missouri – Columba, and the National Corn Grower Association.

Matthew Walker is a Managing Director at S2G Ventures.

His efforts are focused on sourcing and evaluating potential investment opportunities, and contributing to the business development efforts of portfolio companies. Before joining S2G Ventures, Matt was an investment banking Associate at Perella Weinberg Partners in New York focused on M&A and restructuring transactions across a range of industries. Prior to that role, he was a securities attorney in the Funds, Regulation, and Equity Derivatives practice at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, LLP in New York. Matt has an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a J.D. from New York University School of Law, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan.