Christopher GhadbanHead LifeSci Investing at The Venture Collective (TVC)Speaker
Profile
Christopher Ghadban, Head LifeSci Investing, The Venture Collective (TVC)
Chris Ghadban is an entrepreneur & venture capitalist passionate about supporting frontier technologies and aiming to create a more equitable future.
Chris currently serves as Investor @ The Venture Collective, where he supports high potential, early-stage deep tech startups, with a focus on harnessing the power of biology to drive radical advances in human and planetary health. Chris is also an Advisor to Merck's Digital Science Studio (MDSS) and the founder of 1bio (One Ecosystem in Bio), which brings together the vibrant lifesci community to empower individual & collective advancement and catalyze bio-innovation.
Prior to joining TVC, Chris was a Principal at Alix Ventures, where he led their early-stage life science investment practice, and BIOS - the storytelling platform of the life sciences. Before joining the world of venture, Chris was a Strategy & Innovation Lead with AstraZeneca's Emerging Innovations Unit - combining S&E, BD, and innovation strategy. In this role he scouted early-stage bio-innovation to catalyze through collaborative partnerships, built a global startup mentoring program to advise hundreds of companies globally, and helped overhaul the AZ Open Innovation program.
Before AstraZeneca, Chris founded a boutique startup consultancy where he advised several dozen promising bio and technology companies.
Chris completed his MBA @ Wharton (University of Pennsylvania) with a focus in Healthcare Management and received his undergraduate & graduate degrees @ Tufts University, where he completed his MS in Bioengineering and BS in Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology Engineering.
While at Tufts, Chris began his entrepreneurial journey as co-founder of a synbio lab that enables undergraduates to step into the roles of research project design and execution while considering the commercial, social, and ethical implications of their work. Chris continued to develop emerging life science leaders as Director of GapSummit, the international and intergenerational biotechnology leadership summit.
In his spare time, Chris prioritizes spending time with his family and friends, can be found outdoors, making new recipes, exploring used bookstores, filling his sketchbook, learning to salsa dance, and advising new ventures.