MaryJane Rafii

Entrepreneur-in-Residence

• MaryJane currently serves as the interim CEO for Cavtherx based in New Haven and for SemaThera based in Montreal and serves on the board of SemaThera, Cavtherx, QBioMed, Wombat Capital and Asta Pharma.

• Served as the SVP of an ophthalmology venture group in MA.

• Co-founded Jade Therapeutics in 2011 after leaving Pfizer and was instrumental in the acquisition of Jade Therapeutics by EyeGate Pharma of Waltham MA in 2016.

• Served as an early asset lead at Pfizer in ophthalmology, Neuroscience and Pain division and also interned at the Pfizer Venture Fund.

• Chief Medical Officer for Fovea Pharmaceuticals in Paris, which was successfully acquired by Sanofi in 2009.

• Held several executive roles at Bioenvision Inc. an oncology focused publicly traded company acquired by Genzyme as well as the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (LICR) and LifeCycle Pharma all based in New York City.

• MaryJane has a PhD from Cardiff University, Wales, United Kingdom in NeuroOphthalmology and an Executive MBA from INSEAD in Paris France and a Master of Science in Immunology from Stanford University, Palo Alto. She obtained a Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA.

Mentor Experience: Startup Funding, Venture Capital, Mergers & Acquisitions, Asset Evaluation & Licensing, and Business Plans