MANAGEMENT TEAM
Douglas Crawford, PhD
Doug’s goal is to help entrepreneurial scientists create successful startups. To this end, Doug and his colleagues have systematically lowered the barriers between great ideas and successful companies. For instance, Doug created and manages MBC BioLabs. This state-of-the-art co-working laboratory network in San Francisco and San Carlos allows entrepreneurs to rapidly generate data without getting bogged down in facility management. Rather than spending months getting a facility up and running, MBC BioLabs startups can generate important data in their first week.
In the first 6 years, this program has helped launch 210 companies that have brought 53 programs to the clinic and have raised over $4.75B. This incubator program reflects Doug’s passion for startups and his eagerness to help entrepreneurs overcome challenges.
Doug is also the Managing Partner of Mission BioCapital and has overseen the investment in 52 companies, 11 of which have already enjoyed successful liquidity events (Alector, Atreca, Calithera, Cell Design Labs, iPierian, Pionyr, Principia, Redwood Biosciences, True North, Vedere, and Zephyrus). He is a board member of Avexegen, Alessa, Epiodyne, Graphwear, Invenio, Magnamosis, Magnap, Mitokinin, SiteOne (observer), and Tangible Sciences.
Doug received his PhD in biochemistry from UCSF.
Robert Blazej, PhD
Robert is a passionate biotechnologist with a diverse skillset spanning business, life science, engineering and intellectual property. Robert Blazej brings 10 years of operational experience both as a successful entrepreneur and as a leader within an international corporation.
For the previous four years, Robert directed Novozymes’ Digital Biotechnology unit in San Francisco and their global biotechnology scouting team. Previously, Robert was CEO of Allopartis Biotechnologies, a company he co-founded with the vision that mircrodoplets would transform the scale and pace of life science research. Allopartis was acquired by Novozymes in 2013.
Robert earned his Ph.D. in 2006 in Bioengineering jointly from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco. His graduate research focused on the design, implementation and characterization of microfluidic systems for next-generation DNA sequencing. Blazej is a published contributor to the human, drosophila, and canine genome projects, with his work on integrated microfluidic DNA sequencing featured on the cover of PNAS and in Nature.
Peter D. Parker
Peter is a Venture Partner at Mission Bay Capital and Managing General Partner of BioInnovation Capital. For nearly 20 years, Peter Parker was a General Partner at Ampersand Capital Partners, Wellesley MA, where he co-led the firm’s Life Sciences activities.
For the past several years, Peter has played a major role in the greater Boston/Cambridge life sciences start-up community. At MassChallenge, he was the healthcare/life sciences ‘Champion’ for that Boston accelerator for five years. He is a co-founder of BioInnovation Capital, Cambridge BioLabs and the BioLabs network, and is a member of several Angel investing groups. Together with Johannes Fruehauf he has launched LabCentral, Inc., a major addition to the life sciences start-up ecosystem on the East coast.
From 2006–2010 he was President and CEO of Cequent Pharmaceuticals (sold to Marina Biotech). He has served as a director of numerous companies including ACLARA Biosciences, Tomah Products, VITEX, Magellan Biosciences, Dynex, Castlewood Surgical and Pentose Pharmaceuticals and as Chairman of Alexis, NOVEX, CoPharma, Huntington Laboratories, Protein Ingredient Technologies, Cyclis Pharmaceuticals, Nanodyne, Panacos Pharmaceuticals, AC Tech, BioEssences and TekCel. Prior to Ampersand, Peter spent fourteen years at AMAX, Inc. Peter Parker holds BS and MS degrees from Columbia University.
Linda Eng
Linda Eng is Office Manager for Mission Bay Capital, helping the team track investment deals, organize meetings, and provide administrative support. Linda is also Business Manager for QB3@953, a state-of-the-art laboratory incubator, where she manages space and lease interactions, application processes, and faciliites.
She served as assistant to Douglas Crawford at QB3 years ago, where she helped Mission Bay Capital in its formation and launch. Thereafter, Linda was offered a role within UCSF's Department if hematology and oncology as Program Manager of the Translational Research Program under the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, an NCI cooperative group. She managed the requests, approval process, and regulatory requirements for translational studies of biospecimens from all tumor types from the Alliance's federated biorepositories. While there, her role grew into Program Manager of the Prostate Cancer Research Program for UCSF's Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Linda provided project management for a $10M Stand Up To Cancer Prostate Dream Team, a six-institution clinical trial effort to target treatment-resistant metastatic prostate cancer.
Linda enjoys reading, science fiction movies, British TV, time with family, and traveling.
Vivian Dang
Vivian Dang brings over 17 years of finance and taxation experience to Mission Bay Capital where she has been part of the team since 2010. As a part-time CFO, Vivian handles various finance and operational tasks. Prior to starting her own financial operations firm, Vivian was a controller at Mohr Davidow Ventures. She began her career at Andersen and Deloitte where she gained extensive experience in tax and audit. Vivian earned her B.S. in Accounting from the University of California Riverside.
INVESTMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Partner Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield & Byers
Managing Director Manitou Ventures
General Partner Canaan Partners
