Felix Frueh joined Third Rock Ventures in 2012. He focuses on providing strategic input on new and existing portfolio companies with a particular focus on personalized medicine.
Felix is a thought leader in personalized medicine with 15 years of R&D, management and policy experience. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Felix served as president of the Medco Research Institute™, leading Medco's real-world, outcomes-oriented research initiatives and collaborations after having formed Medco's personalized medicine research and development organization. Prior to joining Medco, Felix was associate director for genomics at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he built and led the core genomics review team in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) and chaired the first FDA-wide, interdisciplinary pharmacogenomics review group (IPRG). Before joining the FDA, he held senior positions at several biotechnology companies.
Felix has been a member of various working groups on genetics and genomics at the FDA and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). He serves on the board of the Personalized Medicine Coalition and is also a board member at Enterome Biosciences. He is an adjunct faculty member at the Institute for Pharmacogenomics and Individualized Therapy (IPIT) at the University of North Carolina (UNC) and held faculty appointments in the Departments of Pharmacology and Medicine at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Felix was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and the University of Basel, Switzerland, where he also received his Ph.D. in biochemistry.
James Geraghty joined Third Rock in 2013. Having helped Genzyme launch rare disease therapies around the world, Jim will assist the firm in creating companies focused on rare genetic diseases and support existing portfolio companies in related spaces.
Prior to joining Third Rock, Jim served as Senior Vice President, North America strategy and business development, at Sanofi. Before Sanofi, Jim spent 20 years at Genzyme Corporation, most recently as Senior Vice President and an Officer. While at Genzyme, his roles include President of Genzyme Europe and General Manager of Genzyme's cardiovascular business. He also led strategic transactions that brought important new products into Genzyme. He served as a director of GTC Biotherapeutics (formerly Genzyme Transgenics Corporation), where he was previously Chairman, President and CEO. Jim also oversaw Genzyme's Humanitarian Assistance for Neglected Diseases program, under which Genzyme helped develop innovative therapeutic programs on a non-commercial basis. He served as co-chair of the executive committee for BIO 2007, and continues to serve on the board of Bio Ventures for Global Health (BVGH). A graduate of the Yale Law School, he has published articles in the Yale Law Journal, Health Affairs and other publications. He holds an MS from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Georgetown University.
Bob Kamen joined Third Rock Ventures in 2010 as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. Most recently, he served as President of Abbott Bioresearch Center, where he oversaw the discovery and production of Humira®, the first fully human antibody to achieve marketing approval in the U.S. and Europe, and was a member of the Abbott Pharmaceuticals Executive Management Committee. Bob also served as the President of BASF Bioresearch Corp., until it was acquired by Abbott Laboratories in 2001. Earlier in his career, Bob led discovery at Genetics Institute, Inc.
In 2005, he co-founded BioAssets Development Corporation, a biotherapeutics company focusing on spinal diseases. Cephalon exercised its option to acquire BioAssets in 2010. Bob serves as a director of Harbour Antibodies BV, Lycera Corp. and Opsonic Therapeutics and advises other biopharmaceutical companies. Bob has an undergraduate degree in biophysics from Amherst College and a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University.
Current Roles
Interim Chief Technology Officer of Jounce Therapeutics
Uday N. Kumar joined Third Rock Ventures in 2012 as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, where he focuses on leading the development of new medical devices and technologies.
Uday, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist, is the Founder of iRhythm Technologies, Inc., a medical device company focused on developing cost-effective new devices and systems for cardiac rhythm monitoring. He served as a board member and Chief Medical Officer of iRhythm from founding through broad commercialization of its Zio® Patch cardiac monitoring device. Uday is also Co-founder and board member of Sympara Medical, Inc., a company developing a novel therapy for hypertension. He currently serves on the Consulting Faculty of Bioengineering at Stanford University and is the Fellowship Director for Stanford's Biodesign Global Programs (India and Singapore), programs that teach processes for medical innovation to solve unmet medical needs globally. Additionally, he is on the Steering Committee for Value-driven Engineering and U.S. Global Competitiveness, an initiative focused on developing policies and recommendations to promote and retain U.S. leadership in medical device development and innovation.
Uday was a biodesign fellow at Stanford, a cardiac electrophysiology and cardiology fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, and internal medicine resident at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia University. Prior to his training, Uday was Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Biomedical Modeling Inc., a start-up company that created rapid prototyping models from imaging data for use in numerous medical applications. Uday received his M.D. and B.A. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Harvard University.
Year Joined Third Rock
2012
Uday N. Kumar, M.D.
Entrepreneur-in-Residence Email
Administrative Support
Marcia Hemphill Office Manager and Executive Assistant, San Francisco Email
(415) 766-3638
Mark Perry joined Third Rock Ventures in 2012 as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence, bringing more than 30 years of experience serving in professional and management positions in the biotechnology industry. Mark currently serves as Chairman of the board of Pathway Therapeutics and is a board member of Nvidia Corporation. Most recently, he served from 2007 to 2011 as President and CEO of Aerovance, a biotechnology company spun out of Bayer Corporation, and was a member of the company's board since its inception. Prior to joining Aerovance, Mark served as the Senior Business Advisor for Gilead Sciences, Inc., and was an Executive Officer of Gilead from 1994 to 2004, serving in a variety of capacities, including General Counsel, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Operations. Earlier in his career, Mark spent 13 years with Cooley LLP, serving as a Partner where he maintained a corporate and securities practice with an emphasis on biotechnology and high technology companies, investment banks and venture capital partnerships. He is a member of the California State Bar Association, a member of the Association of Bioscience Financial Officers and serves on several nonprofit boards. Mark received his B.A. from the University of California, Berkley and his J.D. from the University of California, Davis.
