Pivotal Life Sciences

Glenn Batchelder is a biotech executive with over 30 years of leadership experience across operations, sales, marketing, business development, manufacturing, supply chain, and R&D. He co-founded and served as CEO of Civitas Therapeutics (acquired by Acorda Therapeutics), and previously led BIND Therapeutics (acquired by Pfizer) and Acceleron Pharma (acquired by Merck), after beginning his career at Millennium Pharmaceutical. He holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University.

AJ Velasquez-Mao joined Pivotal Life Sciences' investment team in 2026, supporting the life science portfolio. He previously worked as an early-stage therapeutics investor at Dolby Family Ventures and in equity research at Jefferies covering biotech companies. He holds a PhD in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, where his research focused on cardiorenal disease, and a BS in Bioengineering from Rice University.

Tony Ho previously served as Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development at CRISPR Therapeutics, where he built an R&D pipeline that advanced multiple candidates into the clinic, including CTX001 and several allogeneic CAR-T programs. Before that, he held senior roles at AstraZeneca overseeing oncology programs such as Lynparza and Imfinzi, led Neurology and Ophthalmology at Merck, and co-founded Neuronyx as its CSO. He holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA and an M.D. from Johns Hopkins, and holds academic appointments in neurology at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins.

Brian Mills, PhD, joined Pivotal Life Sciences' investment team in 2022. He was previously a research analyst covering the biotechnology sector at Jefferies, and before that a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University developing translational biomarkers for neurological and psychiatric diseases. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from Oregon Health and Science University and has authored more than 20 peer-reviewed articles.

Jeni Lee joined Pivotal Life Sciences in 2019 and invests across therapeutics and life sciences, focusing primarily on early-stage therapeutics since 2021. She previously worked at Novo Ventures on healthcare investments and interned at Aquilo Capital Management, and co-founded ViVita Technologies, a cardiovascular preclinical medtech startup. She holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with a Designated Emphasis in Biotechnology from UC Davis and a B.S. in Bioengineering from UC Berkeley.

Peter Bisgaard joined Pivotal Life Sciences in 2017. He was previously Senior Partner at Novo Holdings/Novo Ventures (US) Inc., where he oversaw Novo Ventures' investment and portfolio strategy and helped build the US team, having been with Novo Ventures since 2001 in Denmark. Earlier in his career he worked at McKinsey & Co. in the Scandinavian Corporate Finance and Strategy Group, and he holds an M.Sc. in Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (1998) plus a post-graduate degree in Mathematical Modelling in Economics.

Rob Hopfner joined Pivotal Life Sciences in 2017 and has experience across venture investing stages, from early/seed company building to later-stage private and public investing in the life sciences. He was previously a Managing Director at Bay City Capital and earlier worked in DuPont/Merck Pharmaceuticals' Business Development & Strategy group. He holds an RPh in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Saskatchewan, an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and completed post-doctoral work at Harvard Medical School.

Qian Wang is a biotech investor at Pivotal bioVenture Partners with prior experience at BlackRock and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. His investment focus encompasses biotech and biopharma companies, with expertise in drug development within the biotech sector.