Venture Capital and how to find, approach and work with VC firms

Elliot Parks of Hamilton BioVentures will be on the investor panel that will help evaluate the company pitches at the 23rd Annual Investors Choice® Venture Capital Conference in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Elliot Parks is a fund manager with over 25 years of intimate knowledge and professional experience in biotechnology start-ups, large pharmaceutical companies, and academic research institutions. His corporate and institutional venture capital successes have leveraged his experience commercializing biomedical products in pharmaceutical and biotechnology setting. He serves on the TransOral Board of Directors.

Prior to joining Hamilton, Dr. Parks was Managing Director of Ventana Capital Management, raising and managing two venture funds and successfully overseeing the firm’s life science practice. While at Ventana, he served on several boards of directors and, among the accomplishments, led the recapitalization and venture syndication of Idun Pharmaceuticals, a San Diego biopharmaceutical company recently acquired by Pfizer for close to $300 million.

Dr. Parks served as President and CEO of Myelos Neurosciences Corp, a biopharmaceutical company developing a new family of therapeutics from neurotrophic factors. He led Myelos from a virtual company, to the identification of the lead compound, and into Phase 2 clinical trials in diabetic patients suffering neurologic complications. Dr. Parks raised multiple rounds of venture financing, earning Myelos’nomination by the San Diego Venture Group, as Venture-Funded Company of the Year.

Dr. Parks was Director of the Johnson & Johnson Biotechnology Center, managing the sourcing, and evaluating new technology and developing these technologies into a variety of diagnostic, pharmaceutical, and device products for several J&J operating companies. He oversaw product development to regulatory approval of eight biomedical products during his ten-year tenure.

Dr. Parks came to San Diego in 1974 and engaged in academic research in cell and molecular biology at The Scripps Research Institute, for more than a decade, as a research staff member and served as Director of Operations for the Institute.
Dr. Parks received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University Of Washington School Of Medicine, in Seattle and worked under the office of the Surgeon General of the Army at Letterman Army Institute of Research focused on epidemiology and human virology.