Robert Overell is President of Foundation BioVentures, through which advises life science companies on entity formation, corporate strategy and fundraising. Most recently, he was President and CEO of PhaseRx, which he cofounded and where he raised over $75M through private/public financings and corporate partnerships. Prior to PhaseRx, he was a General Partner with Frazier Healthcare Ventures, where he formed companies and invested in early stage ventures across the life science spectrum from therapeutics, technology platforms and instrumentation to digital health, and participated in raising over $600M in venture funds. Bob joined Immunex in 1984, where he built and led R&D programs in cell and molecular biology and developed the first HIV gene therapy trial in the world. Bob has served on numerous corporate boards, including Array Biopharma (Nasdaq: ARRY), XenoPort (Nasdaq: XNPT) and Chimerix (Nasdaq: CMRX). He holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of London and a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Bob is also involved with YouthCare, a Seattle non-profit that helps homeless youth transition off the streets and into educational, vocational and transitional housing opportunities, where he was a board member from 2005-2020 and Chairman from 2007-2010.