Blakes Breakfast Speaking Series: Navigating Life Sciences M&A: Thought Leader Insights

Dr. Alicia Levey
Venture Partner
Versant Ventures

Alicia Levey is a Venture Partner in Versant’s San Francisco office where she is focused on both investing and new company creation. Alicia has an established track record as a company creator, operator and deal maker. She was most recently the President and COO at Pionyr Immunotherapeutics and was instrumental in the company’s collaboration and partial acquisition by Gilead Sciences and eventual merger with Ikena Oncology.Prior to Pionyr, she served as both a member of the Versant Investment Team as an Operating Principal and as the business development lead for portfolio companies as CBO of Tempest Therapeutics (TPST) and VP of Business Development for Versant’s Inception Sciences drug discovery engine. During this time, she was a key contributor to multiple Series A investments including Novira, Audentes and Therachon.

Sean MacGregor
Executive Director, Healthcare Investment Banking
J.P. Morgan

Sean MacGregor is an Executive Director in J.P. Morgan’s Healthcare Investment Banking Group based in New York covering biopharma companies. Sean joined J.P. Morgan in 2021, having previously spent 6 years in Citi’s Global Healthcare Investment Banking Group. Sean previously was an attorney at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Sean received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial & Labor Relations from Cornell University and a Juris Doctor from Duke University School of Law.

Steven McKoen
Partner
Blakes

Steven practises securities and corporate law. His practice emphasizes domestic and cross-border mergers & acquisitions, corporate finance, and corporate governance. He acts for a wide variety of issuer, underwriter and private equity clients in a variety of sectors including biotech, high-tech, and others. Steven is a Life Bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia and, as an Adjunct Professor, has taught classes on public company mergers and acquisitions at both UBC’s Allard Hall and UVic Law.

Siobhan Pomeroy
VP, Corporate Development
Gilead Sciences

Siobhan Pomeroy joined Gilead Sciences Corporate Development team in June 2019 and has held roles of increasing responsibility, including oversight of the company’s oncology group. In her current role as Vice President, Corporate Development, Siobhan oversees a team responsible for executing transactions, including M&A, R&D collaborations, licensing and equity investments, across Gilead’s core therapeutic areas – virology, oncology and inflammation. Since joining Gilead, Siobhan has been instrumental in executing a variety of transactions and partnerships, including the acquisitions of Immunomedics and Miro Bio, as well as strategic collaborations with Arcus, Dragonfly and Tentarix. She sits on the Board of Tizona Therapeutics and is a Board Observer for Tentarix Biotherapeutics.

Siobhan previously spent four years at AbbVie, where she focused primarily on oncology opportunities and led negotiations for several transactions, including novel early-stage collaborations with Pure MHC and Genomics Medicine Ireland.  In 2015, Siobhan was involved in AbbVie’s acquisition of Pharmacyclics and later transitioned to California, as AbbVie built out their West Coast presence. Siobhan began her BD career as an Associate in Smith & Nephew’s Strategy & Business Development group.

Siobhan received a B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In her free time, Siobhan enjoys traveling, skiing, and spending time with her husband, son and two cats.

Nigel Sheail
Venture Partner
Versant Ventures

Nigel Sheail is a venture partner based in Basel, Switzerland. He brings exceptional business development capabilities and deep insights into our industry from over two decades of leadership roles within the pharmaceutical sector. Nigel has been one of the pharma industry’s top dealmakers and his unique set of capabilities is intended to build on Versant’s track record of partnerships across the firm’s portfolio.

Prior to joining Versant, Nigel was Global Head of Mergers & Acquisitions and Business Development & Licensing at Novartis, where he served as a member of the company’s senior leadership team. In that role, he was responsible for the execution of a broad range of healthcare deals spanning research and technology collaborations through to large M&A transactions. Prior to Novartis, Nigel was Head of Business Development and Licensing for Bayer Healthcare, and before that served as Head of Group M&A at Roche and Head of Licensing for its Pharma division.

For more information, please contact:

Claire Nelson

Manager, Events

cnelson@lifesciencesbc.ca