A highly respected venture capitalist recognized for his leadership in life sciences investing, Sam Colella co-founded Versant Ventures with six other managing directors in 1999. Over the course of his career, Mr. Colella has acquired more than 20 years of successful operating experience in the high technology industry and more than 25 years of investing experience in the healthcare sector.

Prior to founding Versant, Mr. Colella managed one of the first life science-focused investing groups in the industry as a general partner with Institutional Venture Partners (IVP). Previously, he was president of a New York Stock Exchange company and held a variety of functional positions in a broad array of diverse businesses, including president of Spectra-Physics, the world's leading laser supplier, and senior manager of the Technical Products Division of Corning Glass.

Having managed investments concentrated in medical devices, biotechnology and health care technology companies, Mr. Colella is credited with an extensive list of successful public life science companies, including Alexza Pharmaceuticals, Argonaut Technologies, Arthrocare, Athena Neurosciences, Aviron, CV Therapeutics, Endosonics, Genomic Health Inc., IVAC Holdings, Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Pharmacopeia, Symyx Technologies, Thermage, Tularik and Vivus. He is currently a director of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, EuroVentures, Flexion, Genomic Health Inc., Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Rennovia, Veracyte, and he is Chairman of Fluidigm.

Mr. Colella’s professional affiliations include terms of service as an officer in the National Venture Capital Association, the Western Association of Venture Capitalists, and American Entrepreneurs for Economic Growth and Chairman of the Stanford Council on Interdisciplinary Biosciences. Mr. Colella has a B.S. degree in Business and Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.B.A. degree from Stanford University.

Camille Samuels specializes in early-stage biotechnology investing at Versant. Cami brings 14 years of venture capital and operating experience to her portfolio companies. She enjoys helping talented entrepreneurs build exceptional companies.

Cami joined Versant in early 2000, shortly after its formation. Prior to Versant, she was responsible for business development at Tularik, Inc. (subsequently acquired by Amgen) where she in-licensed two of the company's clinical-stage products and led Tularik’s Technology Acquisition Group. Before Tularik, Cami worked in corporate development at Genzyme and Millennium Predictive Medicine, and was a management consultant to healthcare and biotech companies at LEK Consulting.

Cami currently serves as a board member of the following companies: Achaogen, APT Pharmaceuticals, Muse Therapeutics, Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, and Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (TSPT), a public company. Cami was previously a board member at NovaCardia (acquired by Merck) and ParAllele (acquired by Affymetrix). In addition, she served as a board observer at several companies, including Alexza (public), Fluidigm, Genomic Health (public) and Syrrx (acquired by Takeda).

Cami earned her Bachelor's degree in Biology from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. In 2002, The Aspen Institute named Camille a Henry Crown Fellow.

Brian Atwood specializes in biotechnology investing at Versant. Brian is a cofounder of Versant Ventures and before this spent four years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and bioinformatics. He also has more than 15 years of operating experience in the biotechnology industry, with emphasis on therapeutic products, devices, diagnostics, and research instrumentation.

Prior to launching his career in venture capital, Brian was founder, president, and CEO of Glycomed, a publicly traded biotechnology company. At Glycomed, Brian concentrated on business development and strategic alliances, closing deals with Eli Lilly & Company, Millipore, Genentech and Sankyo, before leading the sale of Glycomed to Ligand Pharmaceuticals. Prior to this, he co-founded and served as director of Perkin Elmer/Cetus Instruments, a joint venture for robotics automation and genomics research instruments and products later acquired by Perkin Elmer. Under Brian's management, the venture developed and launched the GeneAmp® Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) system, the fundamental DNA amplification innovation responsible for fueling the explosive growth of genomics research. Brian served on the Board of Directors at Pharmion Corporation (sold to Celgene in 2008). Brian currently serves as a Board member at the private companies FivePrime Therapeutics, Inc., Veracyte, Inc., Trius Therapeutics, Inc., OpGen, Inc., PhaseRx, Inc., Clovis Pharmaceuticals and Immune Design Corp., as well as the public companies, Cadence Pharmaceuticals (CADX), and Helicos Biosciences (HLCS).

Brian received a Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine; a Master's degree from the University of California, Davis, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Barbara Lubash specializes in healthcare services and healthcare information technology investing. Prior to co-founding Versant Ventures, Barbara was a Venture Partner at Crosspoint Venture Partners.

Barbara is the former President of Pacific Review Services, a division of Pacific Care, and was SVP of Private Healthcare Systems, a national PPO. Her operating career also includes management roles at the hospital information systems division of Hewlett Packard and the Harvard Community Health Plan, where she managed one of the first electronic medical records installations in the U.S.

Barbara serves on the boards of Advanced ICU Care, Cogent Healthcare, Fidelis SeniorCare, NewHope Bariatrics, RedBrick Health, Titan Health Corporation,Vantage Oncology, and led Versant’s investment in CodeRyte. She is the founder of the Innovation Conference Series for CEOs of Health Services and HCIT companies, and is a Director of the California Healthcare Foundation.

Barbara received a BS from Tufts University and a Master’s in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University.

Bill Link specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices at Versant. Prior to co-founding Versant Ventures, Bill was a general partner at Brentwood Venture Capital. He has a proven record of building and operating large, successful medical product companies. With extensive knowledge of medical devices, particularly in ophthalmology, his operating experience spans more than 23 years in general management in the healthcare industry.

Perhaps Bill’s greatest operational success was as founder, chairman and CEO of Chiron Vision, a subsidiary of Chiron Corporation specializing in ophthalmic surgical products, which was sold to Bausch and Lomb in 1997. Prior to Chiron Vision, Bill founded and served as President of American Medical Optics (AMO), a division of American Hospital Supply Corporation, which was sold to Allergan in 1986. Later Bill served on the Board of AMO’s successor company, Advanced Medical Optics. AMO was acquired by Abbott in 2009.

While at Brentwood, Bill invested in a number of early-stage companies, including eyeonics (sold), Genyx (sold), IntraLase (sold), Intra Therapeutics (sold), and OraMetrix (private). His Versant investments include the following private companies: AcuFocus, Cameron Health, ForSight, Glaukos, Inogen, LenSx, NeoVista, Neurotech Pharmaceuticals, Rox Medical, Second Sight and Wavetec. Bill also serves as a Director of Edwards Lifesciences.

Before entering the healthcare industry, Bill was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Bill earned his Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

Beckie Robertson specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices and diagnostics at Versant. Beckie’s career encompasses 23 years of venture capital and operating experience in medical products as an engineer, entrepreneur, corporate executive and investor. Before co-founding Versant, Beckie was a general partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP).

From 1994-1996, Beckie served as Senior Vice President at Chiron Diagnostics, a division of Chiron Corporation, where she had responsibility for the $200 million Critical Care business unit. In addition, Beckie was Vice President of Business Development where she led numerous deals in support of Chiron Diagnostics business and technology objectives. Prior to that, she was a co-founder and Vice President at Egis, an IVP portfolio company, and held senior management positions in operations and finance at Lifescan, a Johnson & Johnson Company. During her seven-year term at Lifescan, the company grew from an early-stage venture-funded company to a worldwide market leader in diabetes diagnostics.

Beckie has served as a director of Pro•Duct Health (sold), Appriva Medical (sold), Quantum Dot (sold), Coalescent (sold) and Liposonix (sold), and NeoGuide (sold) and currently serves as a director for Benvenue, ConcepTx Medical, Intuity Medical, Novasys, Novalign and Spiration. In addition, Beckie serves as an advisor to Orametrix, and The Innovation Factory, a medical devices incubator, and is now serving on the Investment Committee for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF).

Ross Jaffe specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices. He brings significant clinical insight and venture capital experience to Versant’s investing efforts. Ross co-founded Versant Ventures in 1999 after spending nine years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in medical devices, drug delivery, and healthcare information systems companies.

Ross is a board-certified internist, having completed his residency training in Internal Medicine/Primary Care at the University of California, San Francisco, where he remained a part-time attending physician until 1995. Before and during medical school, he was an Analyst for Lewin and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm, and a Research Associate at Dartmouth Medical School.

Ross has served as a director of Ablation Frontiers, Aradigm, Atrionix, Micro Interventional Systems, Novacept, Pro•Duct Health, St. Francis Medical Technologies, Therasense, and Webster Laboratories. He currently serves on the boards of Acclarent, Alter-G, Calypso Medical Technologies, ICS, Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD), Portaero and Vital Therapies. He is also a director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC) and a member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Medical Industry Group. Ross earned his BA in Policy Studies from Dartmouth in 1980, his MD from Johns Hopkins in 1985, and his MBA from Stanford in 1990.

Don Milder possesses a strong operating background in healthcare, specializing in medical device and healthcare service investing. Don has 25+ years of venture experience, on both the entrepreneurial and investing sides. Prior to co-founding Versant Ventures in 1999, Don led healthcare investing at Crosspoint Venture Partners, where he was a general partner.

Before joining Crosspoint Venture Partners, Don was CEO of Infusion Systems Corporation, a successful Crosspoint portfolio company, and president of TRIMED Corporation, a manufacturer of dialysis, hemophilia, and IV products. Additionally, he held business development positions with Eastman Kodak and Dynatech. As one of the pioneer venture investors in the healthcare services sector, Don developed a highly successful model for early-stage health service investing.

Don has assumed roles as first round investor and board member in more than 25 companies, including TheraTx (public/sold), Informed Access Systems (merged/public), microvention (merged), Sonus Pharmaceuticals Corporation (public) and Intralase Corporation (public). He currently serves on the boards of Cogent Healthcare, Inc., INC Research, Sequent Medical and Skylight Healthcare Systems.

Don earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics at Union College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brad Bolzon brings more than thirteen years of global pharmaceutical industry experience to Versant’s biotech investment team. He specializes in early stage biotech investing with a particular emphasis on new company start-ups.

Prior to joining Versant, Brad served as Executive Vice President, Global Head of Business Development, Licensing & Alliances with F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. In this role, Brad’s primary responsibilities were to direct the company’s activities related to business development strategy, product licensing, company acquisitions, and R&D alliances. Under his leadership, Roche’s Pharmaceuticals Division established alliances with over 75 biotech companies worldwide and significantly strengthened the company’s product pipeline. Previously, Brad held executive roles at Eli Lilly and Company in drug discovery, business development, clinical research, and regulatory affairs.

Brad currently serves as a board member for Anaphore Inc., Flexion Therapeutics, Metabolex, Inc., and serves as Chairman of the Board of Amira Pharmaceuticals and Synosia Therapeutics. He is also Chairman of EuroVentures Inc., a wholly-owned start-up incubator of Versant Ventures.

Brad received Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Science degrees in Pharmacology from the University of Toronto, and conducted his post-doctoral research training at the Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa, Canada.

Charles Warden has been an active medical device venture investor since 1992. Charles works closely with entrepreneurial device companies from inception along the path to success. Prior to joining Versant he was a general partner at Schroder Ventures Life Sciences (now SV Life Sciences) where he led SV’s medical device effort.

Previously, Charles worked with Boston Capital Ventures, where he concentrated on medical device and other healthcare investments. Before becoming a venture capitalist, Charles was a consultant with Monitor Company, a strategy consulting firm.

Charles has served on numerous medical device company boards, including the following currently: AcuFocus, Celula, Concentric Medical, Glumetrics, Halscion, iTherapeutix, and WaveTec. Prior board memberships include Insulet (Nasdaq: PODD), Confluent Surgical (acquired by Covidien), CardioFocus, Liposonix (acquired by Medicis), Neovista, Sadra Medical, and Heritage Health Systems (acquired by Universal American Financial Corp). Since its inception, Charles has been actively involved with The Innovation Factory, a medical devices incubator. He is also involved in ForSight Labs, an ophthalmic incubator.

Charles holds a Bachelor’s degree from Beloit College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Robin and his team have primary responsibility for Versant's financial, legal, Investor and administrative functions.

Robin brings over twenty years of professional services and financial experience to Versant. Prior to joining Versant in 2000, Robin was a tax partner with Arthur Andersen, and has extensive experience in partnership formation and structuring issues. At Anderson his client base included large real estate partnerships and corporations.

Robin received a Bachelor's degree in Political Economics of Industrial Societies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Master's degree in Taxation from Golden Gate University. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the AICPA and the California State Board of Accountancy. Robin currently sits on the Board of the West Coast Chapter of the Private Equity Chief Financial Officer Association and is a member of the NVCA CFO Task Force.

Kevin Wasserstein specializes in investing and building medical device companies at Versant. His work with entrepreneurs spans the earliest seed or concept stage of development through the entire life cycle of the company.

Kevin has more than seventeen years of venture capital and operating experience in medical device and high technology companies. Prior to joining Versant in 2002, Kevin served in a variety of marketing and business development roles at Guidant Corporation, including most recently as head of marketing in Guidant's Cardiac Surgery Group, where he led the group’s product/market development and launch initiatives. In Guidant's Peripheral and Carotid Group, Kevin developed and launched several first-generation stent and embolic protection devices while leading the carotid stent program’s marketing activities. Previously, in Guidant's Compass Business Development Group, Kevin was involved in acquisition, licensing and investment activities with both private and public medical device companies, and in formulating corporate strategies to develop innovative medical technologies. Kevin's operational experience also includes business development at Heartstream, and engineering design and engineering management responsibilities at Hughes Aircraft Company.

Kevin serves, or has served, in a variety of board or advisory roles with companies which include: Acclarent, Autonomic Technologies, Cardiac Concepts, Cellutions, LipoSonix (acquired: Medicis), Lutonix, Microfabrica, NeoGuide Systems (acquired: Intuitive Surgical), Rox Medical, Second Sight Medical, St. Francis Medical (acquired: Kyphon) and The Innovation Factory. In addition, Kevin serves as a member of AdvaMed’s National Venture Capital Advisory Board, and MDMA’s Venture Capital Advisory Group.

Kevin holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in product design, as well as an MBA, all from Stanford University.

Kirk Nielsen specializes in medical device and healthcare services investing at Versant.

Kirk joined Versant from Medtronic. Most recently, he was a sales representative in the company’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) division, where he was named a national sales rep of the year. Previously, he worked in marketing/business development for Medtronic CRM and Medtronic Neurological. Before Medtronic, Kirk spent time in marketing/business development at Fluidigm (a Versant portfolio company), and he also served as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company, where he advised clients in healthcare, private equity, and other industries. Prior to his business career, Kirk was a professional hockey player.

Kirk currently serves on the board of Confirma, and he is a board observer at a number of other Versant companies.

Kirk earned a biology degree with honors from Harvard College, where he won the John P. Reardon, Jr. award as the school’s most outstanding scholar-athlete, and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar.

Sammy Farah specializes in biotechnology investing at Versant.

Prior to joining Versant, Sammy spent 12 years at Merck & Co., Inc., where he served in several roles. Most recently, Sammy was a Scientific Liaison in the External Scientific Affairs department with primary focus on identifying and evaluating technology acquisition and research opportunities, structuring and negotiating licensing agreements, and building and managing relationships with key external partners for the biologics and oncology franchises. Previously, Sammy worked in the Vaccine Technology and Engineering department at Merck where he managed process development, technical support and manufacturing facility start-up for a number of vaccines including hepatitis A, pneumococcal polysaccharide and haemophilus influenzae type B.

Sammy is currently a board observer at Amira Pharmaceuticals, Anaphore Inc., Flexion Therapeutics, Immune Design Corporation and PhaseRx.

Sammy earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemical Engineering from Stanford University and MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Clare Ozawa specializes in biotechnology investing at Versant.

Clare joined Versant from Novartis Pharma in Basel, Switzerland. At Novartis Pharma, Clare worked directly for the CEO on key strategy initiatives including business development, licensing and organizational change. Previously, Clare was a Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company, a global management consulting firm, where she advised clients on commercial, operational and strategy issues across the biopharmaceutical sector.

Clare is currently a board observer at Flexion Therapeutics.

Clare earned a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Biological Sciences with honors and distinction from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Neurosciences from Stanford University Medical School.

Ian Sheffield specializes in medical device investing at Versant.

Prior to joining Versant, Ian worked at Medtronic. At Medtronic, Ian was Director of Marketing for the company’s Vascular business. In this capacity, Ian served as commercial team leader responsible for the launch of the Endeavor drug eluting stent and helping to grow the US coronary stent business from $20MM to $400MM in two years. While at Medtronic, Ian also held positions with the company’s Cardiac Rhythm Management (CRM) business where he executed several global launches including the introduction of the InSync Sentry and Concerto/Virtuoso line of devices. Prior to Medtronic, Ian held brand management and business development roles at Procter and Gamble and worked in the investment banking group of Lehman Brothers.

Ian is currently involved with several Versant portfolio companies including Alter-G, Autonomic Technologics Inc, Microfabrica, Benvenue Medical, and The Innovation Factory, a medical devices incubator.

Ian holds a Bachelor’s degree from Miami University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.