Meet the Team

Dr. Shahram Hejazi is a life science investor and entrepreneur with general management experience in both early-stage ventures and large global companies. As Managing Director and CEO, Dr. Hejazi is responsible for the overall leadership and strategic direction of BioAdvance. His areas of investment focus are research tools, devices, diagnostics and digital health. He serves on the boards of Halo Labs Inc., WellTrackOne Inc., Talex Medical LLC, Bainbridge Health LLC, RightAir Inc., Oncora Medical Inc., Wellsheet Inc. and Keriton Inc. He is the Chairman of Philadelphia Pediatric Device Consortium at CHOP. Dr. Hejazi is also the 2014 James Wei Visiting Professor of Entrepreneurship at Princeton University, where he is a part-time faculty and teaches a well-regarded course on the topic of venture capital.

Previously, Dr. Hejazi was the President of Kodak’s life science division (later called Carestream Molecular Imaging), where he had global responsibility for R&D, manufacturing, operations, sales, marketing and service. While holding this position, Dr. Hejazi led the system business to successful double-digit annual growth and directed the launch of a new imaging agent business.

Before Kodak, he was the CEO of Zargis Medical Corporation (an early stage medical device company that spun-off from Siemens), where he led the company’s efforts in areas ranging from raising capital and technology development to completion of several clinical trials, FDA approval and product launch- the company was later sold to 3M. Prior to Zargis, Dr. Hejazi was the Head of the Strategic Business Development group at Siemens where he was instrumental in establishing Siemens first corporate venture fund. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hejazi held R&D management positions within the diagnostic imaging and nanotechnology fields at Kodak and IBM, respectively. In addition to his Board responsibilities at BioAdvance, Shahram is also the Chairman of the advisory board of Integral Molecular Inc. His past Board responsibilities includes FDA Industry Advisory Panel Member for Molecular and Clinical Genetic Devices, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Bioscan Inc., Alpha Innotech Corp. Shahram is the author of over 10 scientific publications and has a PhD in electrical engineering with emphasis in biophysics (SUNY at Buffalo) and an executive business education (Stanford University).

Dr. Gregory Harriman is an accomplished physician, scientist and biomedical executive having over 25 years of experience with increasing responsibilities in academic medicine and the biopharmaceutical industry. He has held leadership positions in both small and large biopharmaceutical companies, having global responsibilities in research and development of pharmaceuticals, biologics, medical devices and cell therapies, which has given him a thorough understanding of the requirements for development of drugs, biologics and cell therapies, from discovery through regulatory submissions. He has led successful regulatory submissions in the U.S. (both NDAs and BLAs), EU (MAAs) and Japan (NDAs) and has presented to FDA Advisory Committees and the EMEA. In previous positions at IVAX, Centocor and J&J, he led clinical R&D groups responsible for development of both drugs and biologics, including Remicade® (infliximab).

Dr. Harriman founded Main Line Ventures, an investment and consultancy company focused on identifying innovative and pioneering life sciences opportunities. He was a member of Robin Hood Ventures, an Philadelphia-based angel investing group, and worked closely with the life sciences community in the Philadelphia area to identify and fund biotech companies and to advance translational medical research.  He was previously a research professor at Drexel and an advisor to its Coulter Translational Medicine Program which provides funding for therapeutic, medical device or diagnostic projects that have significant potential to be successfully developed and commercialized. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the BioAdvance portfolio companies, Opsidio, Ribonova and Treventis, and was previously a Board member for Novira, Immunome, GenPro and Annovis.

He attended the University of California, Berkeley as an undergraduate and received his medical degree at the University of California, San Diego. He trained in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital and completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the NIH. He is board-certified in internal medicine, infectious diseases and clinical & laboratory immunology. He had a successful academic career at the NIH and Baylor College of Medicine, publishing over 40 scientific papers, obtaining R01 and U01 grant funding from the NIH as well as private foundation funding, and conducting innovative research in immunology, vaccines and immune-mediated diseases. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and is a member of several other professional medical organizations.

David Shin, MD, is a trained physician and engineer who brings over 20 years of investment management and executive operating experience to BioAdvance.  His career includes deep focus in both therapeutics and software development for the life sciences, which enables him to support a diverse group of companies in the BioAdvance portfolio.

At Catalytic Life Sciences, a biotech consulting firm, Dr. Shin assisted private-stage, therapeutics clients with company strategy, business development, and preparations for fundraising.  At Limelight Bio, as Chief Operating Officer, he was instrumental in establishing complementary gene therapy platforms that later became the foundations for two new companies. Prior to Limelight, Dr. Shin was VP of Strategy at Alpine Biosciences, a nanotechnology platform company focused on the delivery of large molecules, which was eventually sold to Oncothyreon in 2014.

In 2008, Dr. Shin helped launch Ayer Capital, a long-short, healthcare hedge fund based in San Francisco. During this time, he managed investments in therapeutics, diagnostics, and device companies for the fund.

After his clinical training, Dr. Shin’s initial industry experience was in software and services for drug development.  He held a leadership role at InnaPhase Corporation, a venture-backed company in Philadelphia which was acquired by Thermo Fisher in 2004.  He remained there as Director of Technology in the Informatics division, which was responsible for integrating data across the entirety of Thermo’s product and service offerings.

Dr. Shin earned his BS in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon and his MD from the University of Pennsylvania where he also trained in ophthalmology.  During residency, his research and publications centered on computer vision and augmented reality applications for ophthalmology.

Frederick “Rick” Jones, M.D., M.B.A. is an Advisory Partner. Dr. Jones has over 30 years in the life science industries, serving in roles as physician, executive, consultant, director and investor. At BioAdvance he is responsible for investments in therapeutics and medical devices and serves on the Board of Envara and RightAir.

Previously Dr. Jones was a Director at Broadview Ventures, a Boston-based philanthropic venture fund focused on breakthrough technologies in cardiovascular disease. At Broadview Ventures, Dr. Jones has served as Director on the board of Aeromics and Nido Surgical, and as Observer on the boards of Aria CV, Ischemia Care and Remedy Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Broadview Dr. Jones served as CEO of Anchor Therapeutics, a venture-backed company, which was developing a platform based on peptide modulators of GPCRs.  Prior to Anchor, Dr. Jones held executive positions with Devgen NV (Ghent, Belgium) and BioRexis (acquired by Pfizer). Dr. Jones began his industry career at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, initially in Global Medical Affairs and subsequently in Global Business Development.

Dr. Jones is a board-certified internal medicine physician who practiced in the US Navy, the Lahey Clinic (Burlington, MA) and at the University of Pennsylvania.  He received his BA, MD and MBA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Driscoll brings twenty years of finance expertise in both multi-national corporations and venture-backed life sciences firms to BioAdvance. His career has focused on financial management reporting and consolidation, budgeting and forecasting, treasury management, and internal financial controls.

Prior to joining BioAdvance Mr. Driscoll was controller with BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corporation (acquired by Pfizer Corporation). He also served as controller with Targeted Genetics Corporation (formerly Genovo, Inc.), and he held financial management positions with Nexell Therapeutics, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Pfizer and ICI Americas. Mr. Driscoll holds a Masters of Science in financial management and a Bachelor of Science in accounting from Drexel University.

As program director at BioAdvance, Ms. McCoy is responsible for the maintaining the organization’s outreach to applicants and for internal facilitation of the funding application and review process. Ms. McCoy is also responsible for a variety of research and analysis initiatives at BioAdvance — organizing and maintaining a variety of internal databases focused on quantifying regional growth, summarizing BioAdvance portfolio company progress, organizing data related to venture capital metrics. Previously Ms. McCoy worked with QED in Malvern, PA as research and information manager. QED provided advice and counsel to life sciences companies and organizations. Ms. McCoy completed the Rutgers University Mini-MBA program in 2015. She holds a BA in psychology from Millersville University and is currently working on her Master of Arts degree in counseling.

Ms. Mineo has more than 15 years of experience in management and business development in the life sciences sector. She has worked in various roles in medical device and pharmaceutical industries. At BioAdvance Ms. Mineo is responsible for providing operational support and high-level administration services for C-Suite management. She holds a BFA in Photographic Illustration from Rochester Institute of Technology.