Alex Barkas

Bio

Managing Director of Prospect Venture Partners. Prior to co-founding Prospect Venture Partners and establishing Prospect Venture Partners II, was a Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) from 1991 to 1997 where he focused on health care product company investments in the drug, device, and diagnostic sectors. Additionally, during his tenure at KPCB, served as the founding CEO of two pioneering biotechnology companies, Geron (NASDAQ:GERN) and Connective Therapeutics (now Connetics, NASDAQ:CNCT). For both of these companies, worked with the scientific founders to develop the companies' initial business plans, in-license key enabling technology and products, recruit world class scientific talent and advisory board members, secure significant milestone-driven venture financing, and recruit experienced senior executive management teams. Prior to KPCB, was a founder and CEO of BioBridge Associates, a health care industry consulting firm from 1989 to 1991. From 1987 to 1989, he served as the Director of Technology Development at Advanced Biosearch Associates, a regulatory affairs advisory firm where he focused on medical product commercialization and medical device regulatory strategy. His research experience was gained at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Genetics Department at the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children, the Whitehead Institute at MIT, and Duke University. Serves or has served on the Board of Directors of Connetics and Geron, both public companies, and of Archemix, Corazon, NeoMend, Novacept, Tercica, Structural GenomiX and several other privately-held companies. A PhD in Biology from New York University and a BA in Biology from Brandeis University, where he currently serves on the Board of Trustees.