Hibiscus Capital Management is dedicated to providing the technology, capital, and people necessary to advance novel therapeutic and diagnostic approaches for patients who currently have no therapeutic options.

Chris is a 25+ year veteran of healthcare and biotech. Beginning his career Chris ran clinical laboratories for the U.S. Air Force and civilian hospitals in the early 90’s. Since then, he has held various roles including CEO, General Counsel, Vice President of Drug Discovery, Managing Director and has served as outside counsel to hundreds of life science companies ranging from big pharma to individual inventors. Before co-founding Orchid Chris was a partner in the Washington, DC office of Mintz Levin, where he led a multidisciplinary team specializing in representing biotech and pharma companies in complex corporate, financing and commercial transactions as well as general business advising.

Chris received his Ph.D. training in Biochemistry and Biophysics at Rice University and the University of Houston, where he was a National Institutes of Health Predoctoral Fellow. Following his Ph.D. training Chris was an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he studied the structure of the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Receptor (CFTR). In addition, Chris obtained his law degree from Georgetown University. Bringing years of startup experience to Orchid Chris was the founder of FirstStage Bioventures, Seguro Surgical, EncephRx and Camden Pharmaceuticals, and was the General Counsel and V.P. of Drug Discovery at Alba Therapeutics. In addition to serving as outside General Counsel to numerous biotech companies including Viela Bio and NexImmune, Chris holds adjunct faculty appointments in the School of Business and Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

*Note that Dr. Jeffers is not acting as a lawyer in any capacity in his role as Managing Director of Hibiscus BioVentures. As such, no conversations with Dr. Jeffers are privileged, and Dr. Jeffers will not give legal advice through any interaction with Hibiscus BioVentures or any affiliated company.

Josh Barer is Managing Director of Hibiscus BioVentures, as well as Barer & Son Capital, LLC which forms, restructures and funds early-stage cutting edge biotechnology companies.

Prior to HB and B&S, Josh has spent his career at several boutique investment banks and consultancies, including Trout Capital and the Maxim Group, and has a passion for early-stage drug development to serve patients with unmet medical needs. He is also a Venture Advisor at the Israel Biotech Fund (IBF).

Josh is on the boards of Asclepix, Inc. and NexImmune, Inc. (board observer). He is also on the Boards of several-not for-profit organizations focused on education and economic development, including Trickle Up, Family Promise, and Getting Out and Staying Out (Action Board).

Josh received a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers College and studied Conflict Management at Drew University.

Sia Anagnostou, Venture Partner, also serves as Head of Corporate Development at Immunomic Therapeutics. In this role, she is responsible for several core areas including alliance development, product pipeline, external communications, and government relations.In collaboration with R&D, she has been responsible for the Company’s overall corporate strategy and portfolio started in immune-oncology. She also has sourced in-licensing opportunities, has transacted and advanced them. Further, she has raised awareness about Immunomix with important stakeholders in the science, government and investment communities through directing ITI branding initiatives, messaging, external communications and government relations. Mrs. Anagnostou previously founded and sold her company in the retail and international import space, spent two years in corporate development at Theranostics Health, where she focused on cancer proteomic molecular diagnostics, and spent two years at a consultancy starting and raising seed capital for companies. She earned her executive M.B.A. from Duke University, her M.S. in Molecular Biology from Georgetown University and her B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

He has a very diversified professional background having been a senior partner with PwC where, among other roles, he was the market managing partner for their technology practice and led financial due diligence teams for a significant number of M&A transactions. He also co-founded a registered investment bank and was the COO of an AM LAW 25 global law firm. His career has included national and international public and privately owned clients where he participated in capital raising efforts through numerous IPOs, private equity and venture backed rounds of financing. He advised on a large array of M&A transactions including buy and sell side transactions and carve-outs. He currently sits on the Board of Directors of a global software company and has held numerous other Board of Directors roles. Warren is a graduate of Boston University’s Questrom School of Business.

Michael is the former CFO and CBO of PDS Biotechnology, serving from 2014 through its reverse merger with Edge Therapeutics in March 2019, then continuing as a senior advisor since that time. He has been a senior advisor at Akari Therapeutics since 2014, when he played a key role in the public-private merger and concurrent $75 million PIPE that formed the company in 2015. Michael was CFO and CBO of Aprecia Pharmaceuticals, where he raised more than $70 million in private financing, and CBO of Atrin Pharmaceuticals. He was a member of the US Executive Committee for Sandoz GmbH, the $10 billion subsidiary of Novartis AG.

A former management consultant with McKinsey & Company in its Pharmaceutical and Medical Products practice, Michael also has a background in corporate finance and sell-side analyst research, with deep knowledge of the pharmaceutical/biotech industry. Mr. King holds an M.B.A. with Honors from the Columbia Graduate School of Business.

Shane serves as the Director of Research at Hibiscus BioVentures. He leads due diligence for preclinical and clinical therapeutics and diagnostics. He has conducted preclinical research at Duke University and NYU Langone Medical Center in the fields of mechanobiology and regenerative medicine. He holds a B.S.E in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University, where he graduated with distinction as a National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenge Scholar and Pratt Research Fellow. Shane is also currently enrolled as a medical student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he is pursuing a joint MD/MS in Clinical and Translational Science.

Khatija Ali is passionate about science and has the ability to translate complex medical and scientific information into high-performance deliverables. She uses her knowledge of medicine to assist with investment feedback through scientific and analytical analysis. Skilled with the knowledge of Medicine, and powered by the logic of Philosophy, she aims to provide the field of medicine and life science with new and innovating ideas. Khatija has a deep love for research with over 20 publications, 3+ years of teaching experience, lab experience and two patents.

Outside of HB, Khatija is a serial entrepreneur; currently a CEO of BioSapien Inc. BioSapien’s key asset is a 3D printed drug delivery platform.

Khatija is also involved in non-profit work involving building water pumps in South Asia and volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in NYC to build homes globally. Her recent trip was to El Salvador to build a home with Habitat for Humanity. She has served on the Habitat for Young Professionals Board for NYC.

Outside of professional work, most of the time is spent on snow hills, rock walls and race tracks.

Clay serves as senior analyst at Hibiscus BioVentures. He brings both clinical and industry experience, and he has trained as a vascular surgeon at NYU Langone Medical Center. He has been published in a variety of peer reviewed publications including JAMA; Journal of Vascular Surgery; and Health Management, Policy, and Innovation. His industry experience includes co-founding a venture-backed biotech, Mifcor, that developed therapeutics for ischemia-reperfusion industry and supporting the execution of a Phase II clinical trial in Lewy Body Dementia at Axovant. He has also worked for the Boston Consulting Group as a consultant in their life sciences practice. Clay holds a B.A. in Physics from Columbia University, an M.Phil. in Micro- and Nanotechology from the University of Cambridge, an M.D. from Brown University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Founder of Celgene Corp. and Centrexion Therapeutics Corp., Sol J. Barer is a businessperson who has been at the helm of 14 different companies and is currently the Chairman of the Boards of NexImmune, Inc., Centrexion Therapeutics Corp., Aevi Genomic Medicine, Inc., Medgenics Medical Israel Ltd and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Dr. Barer received a doctorate from Rutgers State University of New Jersey and an undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College.

Mr. Carmer is currently the CEO of NexImmune, Inc. Mr. Carmer brings 25 years of leadership experience with top-tier companies including AstraZeneca, MedImmune, Genentech, Amgen and GlaxoSmithKline. At AstraZeneca, he led the US Specialty Care Division of AstraZeneca with responsibility for the company’s portfolio of specialty care biopharmaceutical products. Prior to AstraZeneca, Mr. Carmer served as Executive VP, Commercial Operations of MedImmune. Mr. Carmer was also VP, Rheumatology Sales & Marketing for Genentech, where he was responsible for the US launches of Rituxan and ACTEMRA. Prior to Genentech, Mr. Carmer held several leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Amgen, most recently as Executive Director of Global Marketing.

Bing is currently the CEO of Viela Bio, which was spun-out of AstraZeneca in order to develop MedImmune/AZ’s autoimmune pipeline. Bing was previously Senior VP, Head of Respiratory, Inflammation, Autoimmune iMED, MedImmune, AstraZeneca. During his tenure at MedImmune, he played key leadership roles in the development and approval of three novel biologics. Bing previously served as Senior VP, Head of Immuno-Oncology Franchise, AstraZeneca, as well as CEO for WuXi-MedImmune Joint Venture. Bing joined MedImmune in 2010 from Genentech, where he was the Head of PTL for Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Neuroscience, and Metabolic Disease, and was Vice President and Head of Research for Tanox. Bing received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Iowa, followed by postdoctoral work at Immunex.

Amy is the Founder and CEO of Juniper Point, Inc., a boutique strategic advisory firm who provides IR and other services to life sciences companies, and brings over 15 years of experience to Hibiscus. Prior to founding Juniper Point, Amy spent over a decade as head of investor relations and corporate communications at San Diego biotech companies Anadys Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Roche in 2011) and Regulus Therapeutics (RGLS), acting as the primary Wall-Street facing leader and solidifying deep relationships with market-moving analysts, bankers and buy-siders. She has been involved in three IPOs, numerous follow-on transactions, pharma partnerships and one acquisition.

Mitch has more than 15 years of finance experience in the life sciences industry and currently serves as Chief Financial Officer of Viela Bio. He joined Viela in 2018 as Vice President, Head of Finance & Corporate Strategy, and was instrumental in supporting the Company through capital raises with leading healthcare investors. Previously, Mitch served as the Director of Investor Relations for AstraZeneca, North America and prior to that held several roles of increasing responsibility at Genentech-Roche including in BioOncology Commercial Finance, R&D Finance, and Mergers & Acquisitions. Mitch is the recipient of Executive Certifications from Stanford University, University of California (Haas), and University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) and earned his BSc, MSc and MBA (Rotman School of Management) from the University of Toronto.

Ed Saltzman is President and Founder of Defined Health, a leading strategic business development advisory firm serving senior executives in pharma, biotech and investment sectors. Ed is an in demand speaker on industry issues and has been recognized widely as an early “spotter” of key trends that go on to have significant impact within the life sciences industry, especially as these pertain to the licensing and business development field. He is a recent recipient of the LES Frank Barnes Mentoring Award for his contributions to education in the life sciences sector. Ed is an advisor to the Israel Biotech Fund, and a member of the Licensing Executives Society (LES) and the New York Pharma Forum. He is a graduate of New York University.