Board of Directors
Lou Bock
Managing Director, Scale Venture Partners
Lou is an industry veteran and is focused on identifying emerging biopharmaceutical, device and platform technology companies. Lou sits on the Boards of Ascenta Therapeutics, diaDexus, Horizon Therapeutics, Orexigen Therapeutics, SGX Pharmaceuticals, Sonexa and Zogenix. He is responsible for ScaleVP's investments in Dynavax Technologies (NASDAQ: DVAX), Prestwick Pharmaceuticals, Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: SGEN), and Somaxon (NASDAQ: SOMX). Lou joined Scale Venture Partners in 1997 from Gilead Sciences, where he held positions in research, project management, business development and sales. While at Gilead, Lou was the project manager for Gilead's approved antiviral drug, Vistide, and was responsible for the discovery of Gilead's novel thrombin aptamer. Previous to Gilead, he was a research associate at Genentech. Lou holds an MBA from California State University, San Francisco and a BS in Biology from California State University, Chico.
Jeff Himawan, PhD
Managing Director, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures
Jeff has over 20 years of experience as a scientist, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He began his industrial career in 1987 as a bench scientist at Genzyme Corporation. In 1996, Dr. Himawan co-founded Seed-One Ventures, a venture capital firm that specializes in the initial formation, financing, and early operational development of technology-based companies. As a Managing Director at Seed-One Ventures, he led the formation and management of Elusys Therapeutics, a Fund IV company. He has written several patents in the fields of wireless communication, biotechnology and protein chemistry. Dr. Himawan first joined Essex Woodlands in 1999 as an Adjunct Partner; he became a Partner in 2001. He serves on the Board of Directors of Catalyst Biosciences, Receptor BioLogix, MediciNova, Light Sciences Oncology, Ception Therapeutics, Horizon Therapeutics and Symphogen. Dr. Himawan holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a PhD degree in Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology from Harvard University.
Jeffrey Bird
Managing Director, Sutter Hill Ventures
Jeff focuses on healthcare, including biotechnology and medical devices. He is currently a board member at Artemis Health (noninvasive prenatal diagnosis), Drais Pharmaceuticals (oncology therapeutics), Horizon Therapeutics (novel fixed dose drug combinations), MacuSight (ophthalmic therapeutics), NuGen Technologies (research reagents), Portola Pharmaceuticals (a spin-out of Cor/Millennium focused on cardiovascular therapeutics), Restoration Robotics (aesthetic surgery devices), Roxro Pharma (pain therapeutics), Threshold Pharmaceuticals (oncology therapeutics, NASDAQ: THLD), ViroBay, Inc. (HCV therapeutics) and Xoft Inc. (cancer radiation devices). He also represents the firm’s investments in Acceleron Pharmaceuticals (metabolic therapeutics), Ameritox (pain therapeutic drug monitoring) and Barrx (gastrointestinal devices). Jeff was formerly a director at Akarx Inc., which was acquired by MGI Pharma in 2008, and Idun Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2005. Jeff was previously Senior Vice President, Business Operations at Gilead Sciences, where he worked from 1988 to 1990 and then 1992 to 2000. He was primarily responsible for several alliances with major pharmaceutical companies and helped Gilead to acquire NeXstar in a $550 million transaction. His commercial responsibilities included direct sales in the US and Europe Jeff received a degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford in 1982, a Ph.D. in Cancer Biology in 1988 and a M.D. in 1992 from Stanford Medical School.
George F. Tidmarsh, M.D., Ph.D.
Co-Founder
Dr. Tidmarsh has over twenty years of entrepreneurial and executive experience in biotechnology. He has been involved in numerous successful startups, FDA drug approvals, and IPO’s. Prior to launching Horizon, Dr. Tidmarsh was the founder and President of Threshold Pharmaceuticals in 2001 and went public in 2004 (NASDAQ:THLD). George also held various positions at Coulter Pharmaceuticals, Inc., including chief medical officer from September 1998. During that time he played a key role in the landmark $142MM co-development deal with Smith-Kline. Prior to that he held scientific and clinical positions at SEQUUS, Gilead Sciences and SyStemix, Inc. George led fundamental scientific discovery efforts at Systemix and Gilead Sciences and played a key role in the FDA approval process of Doxil including the successful presentation to the FDA Oncology Drug Advisory Committee. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine where he also completed fellowships in Pediatric Oncology and Neonatal Intensive Care. In addition, he has been a clinical staff member at Stanford Children's Hospital and El Camino Hospital. He is an author of 18 peer-reviewed scientific papers published in leading journals.
Timothy Walbert
President and Chief Executive Officer
Tim serves as our President and Chief Executive Officer as well as a member of our board of directors. He brings to Horizon almost 20 years of proven experience launching and commercializing blockbuster drugs in the pain and arthritis fields, including HUMIRA, Celebrex, Arthrotec, and Daypro as well as broad executive and general management experience in the biopharmaceutical industry. Mr. Walbert's most recent position is as President, Chief Executive Officer and board member at IDM Pharma (NASDAQ: IDMI), which he joined in 2007. IDM Pharma is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative products that activate the immune system to treat cancer. At IDM Pharma, Tim has led a significant turnaround effort, taking the Company from a negative U.S. regulatory decision with its lead drug L-MTP-PE for osteosarcoma to a potential EU approval in less than one year. Prior to IDM Pharma, Mr. Walbert was at NeoPharm, Inc. (a biotech company focused on oncology), where he was Executive Vice President, Commercial Operations. Previously, Tim served at Abbott (NYSE: ABT) as Divisional Vice President and General Manager of Immunology and Divisional Vice President of Global Cardiovascular Marketing. There he had full P&L responsibility for the creation of Abbott's Global Immunology Franchise and led all aspects of the approval and global commercialization of HUMIRA for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). He also led the development of the full life cycle plan for HUMIRA, developing it in RA, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylsoing spondylitis and crohn's disease. HUMIRA became the most successful launch in Abbott’s history, achieving sales over $1.4 billion by 2005 and will exceed $3 billion in 2008. Tim’s team submitted the largest application (BLA) ever to CBER, the biologic division of the FDA, which was approved in only nine months. He was responsible for establishing and overseeing all aspects of marketing, sales, public relations, medical affairs, regulatory affairs, medical liaisons and global supply chain. Prior to Abbott, Tim served as Director, Celebrex North America and Arthritis Team Leader, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Canada at Searle/Pharmacia. During this time Celebrex maintained brand leadership with over $2 billion in sales in 2000. Tim was involved in FDA label negotiations for the pain indication and FDA Arthritis Advisory Committee meetings for Celebrex. He also coordinated launch, and post launch activities in Canada, Australia, and Latin America where sales grew to nearly $400 million in 2000, the most successful pharmaceutical product launched in most of those countries. He also held a number of key marketing and sales positions with Searle/Pharmacia, including the U.S. Launch of Arthrotec (a combination arthritis/pain product which generated over $200 million in first year sales in 1998) and Daypro, a arthritis/pain product which generated over $300 million in peak U.S. sales. Earlier in his career, he held sales positions at Wyeth and Searle (anti-inflammatory, GI, cardiovascular, and sleep products).