Jane is Managing Partner of Militia Hill Ventures and Executive Chair of Talee Bio. Jane is also former Executive Chair of Immunome Inc., a cancer immunotherapy company, and co-founder and former CEO of NuPathe Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company focused on diseases of the central nervous system and sold to Teva in 2014. Jane also co-founded and served as EVP of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, a biopharmaceutical company focused on urology and sold to Endo in 2015. Prior to launching and leading successful biopharmaceutical companies, Ms. Hollingsworth was VP, Secretary & General Counsel of IBAH, Inc., a publicly-traded, multinational clinical research organization. Before joining IBAH, she practiced law at the Philadelphia law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads and served as law clerk to the Honorable Jane R. Roth of the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.
Ms. Hollingsworth is one of the leaders of the entrepreneurial and life sciences communities and serves on various industry and community boards, including DS Biopharma, S1 Biopharma, Inc., Talee Bio, the University City Science Center, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Wilma Theater and Breastcancer.Org.
Joan Lau, PhD MBA – Founding Managing Partner
Joan is Managing Partner of Militia Hill Ventures, a business focused on building and growing high quality life sciences companies, and Chief Executive Officer of Talee Bio, a gene therapy company with an initial focus on cystic fibrosis. Joan was also President and CEO of Azelon Pharmaceuticals, a venture-backed clinical stage company and President and CEO of Locus Pharmaceuticals, a computational chemistry discovery company. Prior to her role as CEO of Locus, Joan served in various leadership roles at Merck & Co, including roles in R&D drug development and business development. Dr. Lau also serves on various community and industry boards, including Talee Bio, the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) and the Human Rights Campaign.
Dr. Lau earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and a BS in Bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania.
Katie McGinty – Partner
Kathleen A. “Katie” McGinty is Partner at Militia Hill Ventures as well as a leader in business and government. McGinty has an academic background in chemistry, has led start up and established companies, and has served at the highest levels of state and national government.
McGinty’s public sector career includes chairing the White House Council on Environmental Quality during President Bill Clinton’s administration and as Secretary of Environmental Protection under Governor Ed Rendell. McGinty served as Chief of Staff to Governor Tom Wolf and most recently was the Democratic nominee for United States Senate in Pennsylvania.
McGinty’s career in government was launched when she was awarded the Congressional Fellowship of the American Chemical Society and went to work for then-Senator Al Gore developing legislation to strengthen the competitiveness of U.S. high tech companies that commercialize basic research. Just prior, and with a degree in chemistry from St. Joseph’s University and a law degree from Columbia University, McGinty was awarded a judicial clerkship on the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the federal appellate court with special jurisdiction over intellectual property matters.
Shawn Bridy, MA, MBA – Venture Partner
Shawn is Venture Partner for Militia Hill Ventures. Shawn has over twenty years of business development & licensing, commercial strategy, due diligence and valuation experience in the life sciences industry. Mr. Bridy currently serves as interim Head of Business Development and Licensing for Immunome and as Managing Director of Bridy Advisors LLC, a strategic and operating advisory firm which advises life sciences companies as well as private equity groups in the areas of business development, commercial diligence, valuation, M&A, and commercial strategy.
At Elan Pharmaceuticals, Mr. Bridy was responsible for out-licensing an oncology and neuroscience portfolio in addition to completing commercial diligence on internal and external investment opportunities in their Business Development group. At GlaxoSmithKline, Mr. Bridy was responsible for due diligence and valuation of select oncology in-licensing and pipeline drugs in the in their Global Commercial Strategy group. Mr. Bridy also served as Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at BTG plc. While at BTG, Mr. Bridy played a key role in the financing of two early stage pharmaceutical companies, Avera Pharmaceuticals and Senexis Ltd. In addition, Mr. Bridy co-founded and served as the CFO of a specialty pharmaceutical company, as well as founded a healthcare IT services company to better manage intelligence around drugs in development.
Mr. Bridy has an MA in Biology and an MBA in Finance from Villanova University. He has a BA and BS degree in Zoology from Miami University.
Eric Yuen, M.D. – Consultant
Eric Yuen, MD is a Consultant to Militia Hill Ventures and the Chief Medical Officer of Talee Bio and a clinical development physician with over 20 years of experience in academia and industry. During his career Dr. Yuen has developed numerous biologics and small molecule therapeutics for a variety of diseases, including rare genetic diseases and neurology, psychiatry, pain and oncology disorders. Dr. Yuen has led departments responsible for Phase I-IV development and submissions of numerous INDs, CTAs, NDAs and MAAs.
Eric was the Director of Clinical Research at Merck & Co., working on CNS and pain indications and later Vice President of Clinical Development at Johnson & Johnson. While at Johnson & Johnson D. Yuen served as the therapeutic area head for CNS and the head of clinical development at a monoclonal antibodies and vaccines joint venture between Johnson & Johnson and Elan. Eric later served as Chief Medical Officer for Ultragenyx, a start-up company focused on rare genetic diseases, and as VP Clinical Development at BioClin Therapeutics, a start-up focused on the rare genetic disorder achondroplasia (dwarfism) and bladder cancer. Eric continues to serve as a consultant to biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Yuen was an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Washington where he conducted clinical research in rare disorders such as ALS and muscular dystrophies. Eric completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, M.D. from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, neurology residency at UCSF, and a post-doc in the lab studying neurotrophic factor signaling at UCSF.