Management & Directors
David Edwards, PhD | Founder and Chairman
David Edwards is a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Harvard University. He is actively engaged in the translation of ideas to improve the quality of life of youth internationally, equally in the form of medical scientific advance and through the arts. He also has published many patents, and two textbooks on applied science. He also published many patents and patent applications, with a special focus on novel medical aerosols.A member of the National Academy of Engineering since 2001, Dr. Edwards is a three-time recipient of the Ebert Prize of the American Pharmaceutical Association (1996, 1997, 1999), and the winner of many national and international awards including the Theodor Herzl Award of the Jerusalem Fun and the Municipality of Jerusalem, the Smoluchowski Award of the European Aerosol Association, and the Professional Progress Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Dr. Edwards is a founder of Advanced Inhalation Research, or AIR, now part of Alkermes, Inc,. Pulmatrix, and Medicine in Need (Mend), and youth arts centers in France and the United States.
He shares his time between Paris and Boston, where he lives with his wife and their three children.
Norm Payson, MD | Director
Norm Payson has been a leader in the transition of the United States' healthcare financing system. He served as Chief Executive Officer of two publicly traded health care insurers. He was a Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Healthsource, Inc., a three million member HMO and insurer, from its inception in 1985 until its sale to CIGNA Corporation in 1997.From 1998 through 2002, he was CHief Executive Officer of Oxford Health Plans, New York City's most prominent health plan. Dr. Payson is actively engaged in advising other insurers and entrepreneurs in health care financing and delivery. Dr. Payson has also been active in philanthropy and post-graduate education. He was a major donor for the Payson Center for Cancer Care and Concord Hospital in New Hampshire.
Dr. Payson is a Board member of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University and the City of Hope in Los Angeles. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Health Sciences Technology Division at MIT-Harvard Medical School and the Board of Overseers at Dartmouth Medical School. Dr. Payson graduated from MIT and Dartmouth Medical School. He lives in Hopkinton, New Hampshire with his wife, Melinda.
Michael Lytton, JD| Director
Michael Lytton joined Oxford Bioscience Partners in January 2001. Prior to that, he was Partner, Chairman of the Technology Group, and a member of the Executive Committee of Palmer & Dodge LLP, a Boston-based law firm. Mr. Lytton serves on the Boards of Directors of Acambis, Alantos, Clinical MicroArrays, Enanta, GPC Biotech, Rib-X, Santhera, and Vaxinnate.He is a member of the Research and Technology Committee of the Center for Blood Research, Harvard Medical School, where he is also a member of the Board of Overseers. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Wildlife Trust, the leading funder worldwide of the field of conservation medicine. Mr. Lytton writes a monthly column for Start-Up magazine, published by Windover Information.
He was a summa cum laude graduate of Princeton University and a recepient of a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the University of London, and he received a JD degree cum laude from Harvard Law School. Mr. Lytton also received a MSc degree in Epidemiology and Medical Statistics from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Paul Bottino, JD | Co-founder, Treasurer and Director
Paul Bottino is a leader in the field of university technology translation. He co-founded and heads the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) in the university's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. TECH is a catalyst for translating science and technology into innovation for the benefit of society. Before starting TECH in 1999, Paul created and managed relationships between Harvard's ten faculties and Fortune 500 companies.Prior to joining Harvard in 1996, Paul practiced law in Boston with Clarkin, Sawyer & Phillips, P.C., where he counseled emerging technology ventures and specialized in technology licensing and other intellectual property matters. He received his BA degree in economics from Middlebury College and his JD from Suffolk University Law School and is an active member of the Massachusetts bar.
Paul is also a member of the Board of Directors of Harvard Startups, Inc. and an advisor to serveral for profit and not-for-profit organizations.
Alexis Wallace, MBA | Executive Director
Alexis Wallace has more than a decade of international business development experience, including a decade with leading biopharmaceutical companies and ventures. Mosts recently, Mr. Wallace was a Principal at Puretech Development, a strategic advisory and partnering group where he closed a number of transactions in the drug delivery area. Prior to joining Puretech, Mr. Wallace was Director of Business Development at deCODE Genetics leading target discovery business activities.Previously, he was Associate Director of Science Strategy at Genzyme Corporation, where he was instrumental in major joint ventures. Mr. Wallace received and undergraduate degree in Biochemistry, Magna Cum Laude, from the University Paris VI, Pierre & Marie Curie, an MS in organic chemistry from Ecole Superieure de Chimie Industrielle de Lyon and an MBA from the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College. Mr. Wallace is a former foreign trade advisor to the French government.
Bernard Fourie, PhD | Chief Scientific Officer - Director of South African Operations
Dr. Bernard Fourie directs the Mend office in South Africa and is responsible for Mend scientific affairs internationally. He is the former Director of the National Tuberculosis Research Programme at the Medical Research Council in South Africa.
Dr. Fourie published some 65 peer-reviewed articles, scientific reviews and book sections, mainly in the fields of TB epidemiology, pharmacology and clinical trials, and has served as a reviewer for Science, Tuberculosis, The Lancet, and The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, amongst others.
Alan Crane, MBA | Director
Mr. Crane is currently President and CEO of Tempo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He has also been a venture partner at Polaris Ventures since April of 2002. From 2002 until 2006, Mr. Crane was President and CEO of Momenta Pharmaceuticals. He joined Momenta as the fifth employee and built the company into a public company, creating an advanced and diversified pipeline, entering into two strategic collaborations with the Sandoz division of Novartis, and raising $275M.
Mr. Crane was senior vice president of global corporate development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals, where he was responsible for leading Millennium's strategic partnering, mergers and acquisitions, and licensing activities, generating over $2B in partner funding and acquiring 19 development stage products.
Prior to Millennium, Mr. Crane was a marketing executive at Dupont-Merck and a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group and Arthur D. Little.
Mr. Crane received his M.B.A. in 1992 and his B.A. summa cum laude and M.A. in 1986, all from Harvard University. Mr. Crane also attended Harvard Medical School from 1986 to 1988 before pursuing a business career.