Board of Directors

Clare Ozawa became a Versant Managing Director in 2017 and leads investments in San Diego and the Bay Area. Clare previously oversaw strategic business operations for all Inception Sciences research sites across North America. During her tenure at Inception, she assumed leadership roles in the creation and management of six new companies launched in partnership with academic researchers and major biopharmaceutical companies. Clare joined as Inception’s founding chief business officer in 2011 and was promoted to COO in 2014. She previously was an investment professional at Versant, where she was involved in several successful investments including Flexion (2014 IPO), BioTie (sale) and Quanticel (sale). Clare joined Versant from Novartis Pharma, where she worked in the Office of the CEO, leading strategic initiatives for the Novartis Pharma Executive Committee. Previously, Clare was at McKinsey & Company where she advised clients across the biopharmaceutical sector.

Clare earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences with honors and distinction from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in neurosciences from Stanford University Medical School.

Dr. Mehta is a Managing Director on the Avidity Partners private investment team. Prior to joining Avidity Partners, she was a Director at Pfizer Oncology, where she was a key member of the Business Development team responsible for several preclinical and clinical-stage licensing and acquisition opportunities. Dr. Mehta also served as Alliance Manager for Pfizer Oncology and spent time at Navigant Consulting in the Life Sciences practice.

Dr. Mehta holds a PhD in Cancer Biology and Pharmacology from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and was a National Science Foundation fellow.

Dr. Behbahani is a General Partner on the healthcare team at NEA since 2018, having worked for the fund since 2007, specializing in investments in the biopharmaceutical and medical device sectors. He is also currently a member of the board of directors of CRISPR Therapeutics, Adaptimmune, Nkarta, Black Diamond and Monte Rosa Therapeutics. He has previously worked as a consultant in business development at The Medicines Company and held positions as a Venture Associate at Morgan Stanley Venture Partners from 2000 to 2002 and as a Healthcare Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers from 1998 to 2000. Dr. Behbahani conducted basic science research in the fields of viral fusion inhibition and structural proteomics at the National Institutes of Health and at Duke University.

He graduated summa cum laude and received his bachelor's degree with distinction in Biomedical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Chemistry from Duke University, earned an M.D. from The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and an M.B.A. from The Wharton School at The University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Jeffrey Stafford is the CEO and cofounder of 858 Therapeutics. Jeff started his drug discovery career at Glaxo Research Institute in 1991 and has held research and executive management roles in both large pharma and privately held biotech. Prior to his role with 858, Jeff was the CEO of Jecure Therapeutics, a company focused on inhibiting the NLRP3 inflammasome and acquired by Genentech in 2018. Prior to his role with Jecure, he was the founding CSO of Quanticel Pharmaceuticals, a company pioneering a single cell genomics platform for precision targeting of cancer stem cells. In 2015, Celgene acquired Quanticel for its portfolio of novel epigenetics drug candidates and its platform technology, consummating a successful “build-to-buy” collaboration between the parties. Jeff’s discovery teams have been responsible for the discovery of three FDA-approved drugs – Votrient^™ (pazopanib); Nesina^™ (alogliptin); and Byfavo^™ (remimazolam) – and several others in clinical trials. He is a co-author of numerous peer review publications in the areas of organic chemistry, medicinal chemistry, and drug discovery.

Jeff received a B.S. in Chemistry from UCLA and a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Cornell University. He completed an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley.

Dr. Huang is the President and Chief Medical Officer of Prelude Therapeutics. Prior to joining Prelude, she served as Chief Medical Officer of Hematology at BeiGene, Ltd., where she created a global development organization encompassing clinical pharmacology to global product safety and had strategic oversight of the development of five hematology medicines. During her tenure with BeiGene, she oversaw the approval of zanubrutinib in three diseases spanning more than 45 countries and was responsible for the first approval of tislelizumab in Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Prior to joining BeiGene in 2016, Dr. Huang served as Vice President, Clinical Development at Acerta Pharma, where she oversaw global clinical development of the BTK inhibitor, acalabrutinib. Prior to this, she worked at Genentech, where she played a leading role in drug development programs for multiple therapies throughout all stages of development, including, Rituxan^™️, Avastin^™, Kadcyla^™, Venclexta^™ and Gazyva^™️.

Dr. Huang holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and an M.D. from University of Washington School of Medicine. She is board certified in hematology, oncology, and internal medicine, and she completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Hematology and Oncology at Stanford University.