Executive Insights Series: Creating a Story that Resonates with Investors

Mark Adams is a Partner at Two Bear Capital, where he focuses on life sciences, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity companies. Mark was most recently COO and CTO at Adaptive Biotechnologies, a public biotechnology company in Seattle, WA. He has previously had C-Suite roles in several biotechnology companies, as well as leading a consulting practice at Booz Allen Hamilton. He has also led artificial intelligence and data science teams in finance at Bridgewater Associates and Leerink Partners. Mark holds a PhD in Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine and he earned his BA in Biology and Computer Science from Oberlin College.

Dr. M. Ragan Hart is the senior associate for strategic investments at Washington Research Foundation, where she leverages over a decade of experience in health economics, diagnostics, artificial intelligence and tech-enabled services to guide WRF’s venture investments in Washington-based startups. Prior to joining WRF, Dr. Hart was a senior associate at MultiCare Capital Partners, leading investments in healthtech and AI-driven healthcare solutions.

Dr. Hart co-founded MDisrupt, a platform connecting life-sciences experts with companies to accelerate healthcare product development, and previously co-led venture creation efforts at F-Prime Capital focused on health data sciences.

Dr. Hart holds a Ph.D. in public health genetics with a concentration in health economics from the University of Washington and completed  postdoctoral research in biomedical data science at Stanford University. She earned a master’s in genetic epidemiology and a certificate in biomedical regulatory affairs from the University of Washington following a bachelor’s in exercise science from Auburn University.

In addition to her role with WRF, Dr. Hart is a member of the board of directors for OUTbio Seattle and serves as a scholarship and community grants application reviewer for Pride Foundation in Seattle.

Kelly is a VP at Curie.Bio where she works alongside founders to advance the development of innovative therapeutics companies. She has a mix of operational and investing experience. Previously, at Third Rock Ventures, Kelly was involved in the formation and launch of multiple companies in the immunology space, including Celsius Therapeutics, Abata Therapeutics, and Asher Biotherapeutics. After the launch of Asher, she joined full time and operated for 4 years as Program Team Lead for AB248, the first CD8 cis-targeted IL-2 to enter clinical development, leading the project from initiation through 18 months of clinical development. Her scientific background is in immunology, and she holds a Ph.D. from MIT, where she trained with Darrell Irvine and Dane Wittrup.