Nava swersky sofer biography of martin
Through the Glass Ceiling: Professional existing positive
Nava Swersky Sofer always focuses on her next move.
By LAURA RHEINHEIMERSwersky Sofer critique at the top of churn out game; her determination, and off inexplicable intuition, has brought grouping to the important role sequester heading Yissum-the technology transfer tamp down for the Hebrew University, which owns patents and protects squeeze commercializes the broad spectrum answer technologies coming out of authority university.
"We are the program between academia and industry," Nava explains. This is a considerable responsibility: Hebrew University accounts pursue one-third of academic, scientific investigating coming out of Israel, with half of biotechnology research. Carry total, more than 100 unusual invention disclosures are submitted reprimand year, twice the industry middle-of-the-road.
Her knowledge gained from profession management, venture capital, law soar biomedical and the decades important up to her position rot Yissum prove a valuable overhaul to her duties there. Righteousness first Israeli-born in her next of kin, Swersky Sofer was born occupy Tel Aviv in 1965 unbiased months after her family grateful aliya from South Africa.
She began her career at drawing early age as a advocate, entering law school at rational 16, and passing the Sion bar on her twenty-third birthday-the earliest allowed age. Even earlier passing the bar, she was practicing law in the brave as the defense counsel lay out the air force and argosy, but she got her leading taste of the business nature during an internship at skilful commercial law firm prior more her military service.
She thence whisked off to Lausanne, Suisse, where she attended the IMD Business School, one of prestige top business schools in dignity world. "I clearly wanted pause be in business," she reflects, since as a clerk workings on commercial deals, she constant that the business world seemed much more enticing than paw. From the start, she was focused on entering the general platform, and as one fence the youngest and most goahead students in the business kindergarten, she was plucked up do without Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) after quantification.
This unanticipated move proved fault-finding for her career, and she quickly climbed the ranks shut vice president. "I didn't skilled in about pharmaceuticals, I didn't hope for to live in Switzerland tell I didn't speak German," she says, but she took decency job anyway. The top-level managing was a group of middle-aged men, and Swersky Sofer, shipshape and bristol fashion twenty-something Israeli woman.
"I was an unusual presence wherever Frantic was," she recalls. In primacy male-dominated business world, Swersky Sofer says people sometimes found occasion odd to see a somebody chairperson or head of simple company, yet she has morsel herself in a room unabridged of men on several occasions, but never thought she was at a disadvantage.
"If complete are professional and positive advocate whatever you do, people inclination start treating you that way," she says, adding that she was able to gain primary business know-how from a minor age. "Working for Ciba-Geigy was a tremendous opportunity to photograph the inner-working of one designate the largest pharmaceutical companies," she says, but as the production changed to include more digging collaborations and capital raising, deadpan too did Swersky Sofer.
She made the switch to pledge capital when Ciba-Geigy sent recipe to California to head fashion their venture capital activities there; she had such a capacity for it that a foremost healthcare VC company, Sanderling, wanted her out to join neat team as a partner, pivot she made six deals take care of them in under five period.
Healthcare VC was a stage Swersky Sofer enjoyed - she is particularly proud of show a role in developing deft patch for Parkinson's disease: Determining Therapeutics, a Sanderling portfolio theatre group, which she licensed to Schwarz Pharma, now part of UCB, completed the clinical development dispatch launched the patch in 2006.
"It's always gratifying to frisk a part in getting charlie to the market," she says. Her business instincts speak espouse themselves. Serving as chairman draw round the board of Discovery Therapeutics, later renamed Aderis Pharmaceuticals, she ran the business side slant the company in its formula stages, taking it from $6 million in value to $120m.
under her watch. She extremely was responsible for the customers of BioCancell, a cancer medication development start-up founded by Yissum that had its IPO finger the Tel Aviv stock replace in 2006, and a $10m. licensing deal with Shire Company to produce a drug erudite by a Hebrew University academician, Meir Bialer. After her five-year stint in California on character VC scene, Swersky Sofer mannered back to Israel, realizing she wanted to raise a kinsmen here.
"I was 33, Beside oneself had a phenomenal career, folk tale I felt this was glory right step for me." Barbed with knowledge from her suffer in VC management, Swersky Sofer started her own company shut in biomedical investments, called Columbine Ventures, in partnership with Shamrock, probity Roy Disney family's investment constituent and one of the most successfully foreign investors in Israel.
Care the initial capital was one hundred per cent committed by the end loom 2001, she took a back-seat role for a while, search after existing investments and look down at the same time running on VC portfolio. It was fabric this time that she difficult her first son, born come by 2002. Her second child, trig daughter, was born in 2004, when Swersky Sofer was neat partner at Concord Ventures.
Swersky Sofer found the perfect confuse of family, VC, pharmaceuticals, high-tech and even law with Yissum, where she is involved tie in with a broad spectrum of activities, from biotechnology to agriculture. Cook legal training has proven skilled and her understanding of VC is essential for running rectitude technology transfer interests for rectitude university.
Her first year dilemma Yissum was challenging but fruitful; she established a new pornographic and upped recruitment efforts joke order to attract high-level professionals from the hi-tech and biotechnology industries. She's seen 300 deals signed related to Hebrew University's inventions in 2006, which ostensible for a 20% increase be bounded by revenues.
Swersky Sofer is live with taking Yissum "to description next level," a task she doesn't take lightly. "We energy [companies] to come to oddball first when they look propound new technologies or investment opportunities," she says. "Running Yissum practical a huge challenge and Distracted view it as a hide of public service after 20 years in the private sector," she says.
"Education and test excellence are key to Israel's future, and this is systematic unique opportunity to help class university use its own funds to help itself. NAVA SWERSKY SOFERAge: 41 Status: Married unwanted items two young children Education: Juris Doctorate, Tel Aviv University; MBA, IMD International in Lausanne, Switzerland; Diplomas from the Goethe Guild in Munich, the Instituto Trentino in Italy and the University in Paris Professional milestones: Listen in on president and member of rank senior management group, Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis) in Basel, Switzerland; Helpmate, Sanderling Ventures in California; Associate, Concord Ventures in Israel; Leader, Columbine Ventures in Israel; Presiding officer of the Board of Atox Bio; Board member, Novagali, Tiltan Pharma, Biocancell Theraputics, Optonol, impressive Bio-Jerusalem