PARTNERS
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
Managing Partner
Cecilia has held leadership positions in strategy, joint venture startup and program administration. Her career spans more than 30+ years in life science/biotechnology and healthcare industry. Cecilia started her tenure as a strategic planning manager at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research in the early 1990s, as Program Administrator for the Molecular Pharmacology, Clinical Research Division under the leadership of Dr. Lee Hartwell and Dr. Stephen Friend, held a Project Officer role for the National Cancer Institute. Cecilia was part of the original team that founded Rosetta Inpharmatics which eventually became a Merck division. In 1998, the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA) was formed and Cecilia’s skills as a project manager and strategist were recruited to assist with the relocation of clinical staff and programs to its new facility. Cecilia held the position of Director of Strategic Development for the SCCA for two years and eventually became the Director of Affiliate Network and Strategic Outreach, holding that role for 13 years including the implementation of global health initiative at FH. In the summer of 2017, Cecilia returned to her life science and biotechnology roots at 3rdEyeBio, LLC. Cecilia is also CEO of Palmetto InnovaSphere, Inc. A regional life science, biotechnology and digital health Hub in South Carolina.
Prashanth Chintanapalli
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
Managing Partner
President, SRC Wealth Advisors has over 15 years of experience at many of the premier Private Wealth Management and financial services institutions on Wall Street.
Prashanth started SRC Wealth Advisors to leverage that strategic expertise, his network of public and private investment resources and his service background to provide a unique multi-family office experience to a select number of client relationships.
Prashanth attended the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he obtained his degrees in Chemistry with Focus in Biochemistry.
David Matter
Cecilia Zapata-Harms, MS, MHA
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
Managing Partner
David was previously a Managing Director at BlackRock where he served as the Co-Chief Investment Officer of BlackRock Alternative Advisors (BAA), BlackRock’s Hedge Fund Solutions team. He chaired the BAA Investment Committee and was also a member of the BAA Management Committee and the Co-Investment Portfolio Management Group. David started his career as a financial analyst with American Funds-Capital Group and Bankers Trust before joining QuellosGroup in 1998.
At Quellos he was a Principal and member of the Investment Committee responsible for management of Absolute Return Strategy portfolios and Investment Research. The alternative investment management business of Quellos was subsequently acquired by BlackRock in 2007 where David stayed on.
David earned a BA with a concentration in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA with honors and an MA in international studies, both from the University of Washington, and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (“CFA”) designation from the CFA Institute.
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
Scientific Partner
Dr. VK Gadi was named the Cancer Center Deputy Director in 2022. Dr. Gadi, whose laboratory and clinical research has focused primarily on breast cancer, joined the Cancer Center in 2020 as Associate Director of Translational Medicine when he came to the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) after 20 years in Seattle at the University of Washington, where he did his postgraduate training, and the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.
Working closely with Cancer Center leadership, Dr. Gadi continues to lead efforts to identify and recruit novel molecular assets for clinical trials testing from both big pharmaceutical companies and smaller biotech.
Dr. Gadi’s efforts have increased national-level engagement for cooperative group studies and provided access to Cancer Center disease team leaders for clinical trial development opportunities to ensure trials are written to address the needs of diverse patient populations.
In collaboration with several groups of investigators and UIC technology transfer, Dr. Gadi also is accelerating the process of commercialization of multiple diagnostic and therapeutic intellectual properties to build a sustainable licensing revenue stream to support Cancer Center activities.
David Lawrence
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
David Lawrence
Managing Partner
Entrepreneur with over 30 years experience helping build a number of successful enterprises in the hospitality and life science industries.
David brings expertise in traditional marketing, sales, and public relations to cutting edge digital systems targeting audiences in an effective, trackable and streamlined process and with proven trackable results.
David attended Boston University.
David Phinney
VK Gadi, MD, PhD
David Lawrence
General Counsel
David's expertise is in life sciences, software, technology transactions and intellectual property law. He has extensive experience in research and development agreements; license agreements; SaaS agreements; university and government licenses, collaborations; manufacture, supply, and distribution agreements; quality agreements; services agreements; scientific advisory boards; clinical trials; mergers and acquisitions; asset purchases and divestitures and other business transactions. He also served as Vice President of legal affairs for Angiotech Pharmaceuticals a global specialty pharmaceutical and medical device company. Prior to Angiotech, David worked as an associate at Heller Ehrman and as a patent agent at a boutique law firm in the Silicon Valley. David received his J.D. from Stanford Law School in 2002 after graduating Magna Cum Laude from the University of Washington where he received a B.S. in Cell & Molecular Biology and a M.S. in Fisheries Biology.
Andrei Shustov, MD
Andrei Shustov, MD
Andrei Shustov, MD
Partner Emeritus
Scientific Advisor
Dr. Shustov strives to provide state-of-the-art patient care based on current advancements in clinical research and participation in well-designed clinical trials. He believes every patient is different, and he tries to find a unique individual approach to the patient and his disease within the boundaries of current standards of care and recent discoveries of clinical science. Dr. Shustov earned his M.D. at Crimean Medical University. His clinical and research interests include non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphomas, T-cell lymphomas, acute lymphocytic leukemia and Castleman’s disease. He is also founder of the T-Cell Leukemia Lymphoma Foundation.
Consultants and Project Managers
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
Director, Healthcare Strategy
25 years of experience in Oncology and clinical management, specializing in developing strategic plans and implementing these programs as a hands-on leader. With a background as a Registered Nurse, Barbara has experience in executive roles at multiple hospitals, using her skills to develop comprehensive cancer screening programs and bedside rounding initiatives, which support the needs of oncology patients and increased their satisfaction scores.
Barbara is recognized for her work, creating and managing community cancer programs, including budgeting and strategic planning, inpatient and outpatient palliative care, ACO contracting and customer service programs. She is also proficient with ACOS CoC and NAPBC accreditation and ASCO QOPI certification processes.
Barbara holds a Master of Business Administration with an emphasis in Healthcare from Western Governors University, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Seattle Pacific University.
Zac Hamilton, MD
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
Scientific Project Manager and Consultant
Zac has 3 years of life sciences strategy consulting experience at ClearView Healthcare Partners and Artisan Healthcare Consulting. His experiences include supporting both emerging biotech and top-5 pharma companies across the drug development life cycle. In particular, Zac has a passion for supporting clients in the oncology therapeutic space, where he has assisted on a diverse range of projects including commercial assessments, new product planning, and pipeline prioritization across 10+ indications.
Zac received his B.A. in Honors Cellular Neuroscience & Economics at Colgate University and is currently pursuing his MD at the University of Illinois College of Medicine with a concentration in clinician executive leadership.
David Pearsall
Barbara Jensen, RN, MBA
David Pearsall
Strategic Life Science Director
An accomplished commercial professional within biopharma. Therapeutic areas include hematology/oncology, pulmonary and IV cardiovascular specialties. Five new drug launches during a 20-year pharmaceutical and medical device career. Positions include VP of Sales, National Director KOL development, Senior Director, PTCL Customer Engagement and Innovation, regional sales management, national sales training, marketing, managed markets and frontline sales.