Geoffrey W. Smith
Founder / Managing Partner
Companies
Base5 Genomics
Girihlet
GRO Biosciences
SchoolCare
Terray Therapeutics
Geoff is the Founder and Managing Partner of Digitalis.
He is also a Co-Founder and General Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences investments. Geoff currently represents Ascent on the Board of Directors of Azevan Pharmaceuticals, BlinkBio, and Orchestra Biomedical.
Geoff serves as a Trustee of The Jackson Laboratory. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. Geoff also serves as the Chair of the Bard Early College Board of Governors. Previously, he was the founding Director of the Mount Sinai Institute of Technology and a Professor in the Department of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
Geoff received a B.A. (with honors) from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Geoffrey W. Smith
Founder / Managing Partner
Amber Kulak
VP, Finance & Operations
Amber is the VP, Finance & Operations at Digitalis.
Prior to joining Digitalis, Amber was a fund controller at Schroder Adveq and a senior accountant at Atlas Venture. Amber began her career in public accounting at Ernst & Young and RSM US. She earned her M.S., Accounting and B.S., Accounting from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also a Certified Public Accountant.
Amber Kulak
VP, Finance & Operations
Steve Allen
Partner
Companies
Kenzen
Second Genome
Steve is a Partner at Digitalis.
Previously, Steve was Chairman of the Board of Chromadex Corp. (Nasdaq: CDXC), an innovator of proprietary health, wellness and nutritional ingredients that creates science-based solutions for dietary supplement, food, beverage and cosmetic companies. He is past President and Member of the Board of the North American Foundation for the University of Leeds where he obtained a B.Sc. degree. He also has a M.Sc. from the School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine at the University of London. Most of Steve’s working career was with Nestlé where he worked in nutrition businesses in several countries and in corporate venturing. Steve co-founded and is a member of the Screening Committee of Nutrition Capital Network, a business that brings together entrepreneurs and investors in the nutrition and food industries.
Steve Allen
Partner
Drew Taylor
Partner
Companies
Animor
Nacho
Pawp
Riverdog
Scratchpay
Somatix
Drew is a Partner at Digitalis.
Previously, Drew was the Head of New Ventures at Taylor Farms, the world’s largest processor of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables. During this time he led the creation and investment activity of Taylor Ventures, which invests in early-stage food and ag technology companies.
Drew represents Taylor Ventures on the Board of Directors at HarvestPort and served in a variety of operational roles with Taylor Farms. He also served on the board of the “Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools” campaign in partnership with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” initiative. Drew received his BA from Stanford University and MBA from Harvard Business School.
Drew Taylor
Partner
Amit Bansal
Partner
Companies
Brella
Cayaba Care
findhelp
Kenzen
Poppins Health
Nuperfect
Smalls
The Mighty
Amit is a Partner at Digitalis.
Amit is on the board of the Fund for Public Health NYC, an independent, nonprofit organization that connects the NYC Health Department with public and private sector partners to build public health programs.
Prior to Digitalis, Amit was at Mars, Inc. in both corporate strategy and corporate innovation roles. Most recently, he was responsible for developing the business model for a new unit focused on affordable nutrition in the developing world. Amit has also worked in rural healthcare in India at Piramal E-swasthya, a start-up leveraging telemedicine to provide last mile access to primary care. Amit began his career at GE Healthcare in corporate finance, where he held a number of roles in finance, risk, and marketing. He received his M.B.A. from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and his B.A. from Boston College.
Amit Bansal
Partner
Samuel Bjork
Partner
Companies
Code Ocean
Elemental Machines
Faeth Therapeutics
Good Therapeutics
Nuvig Therapeutics
Onc.AI
PetMedix
Rejuvenate Bio
SeQure Dx
Scout Bio
Terray Therapeutics
Samuel is a Partner at Digitalis.
He received graduate degrees from Cambridge and Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar and an A.B. in Chemistry from Harvard University. Prior to Digitalis, Samuel was a member of the healthcare and clean energy practices at the Boston Consulting Group.
Samuel Bjork
Partner
Cindy Cole
Technical Partner
Companies
PetMedix
Scout Bio
Cindy is a Technical Partner at Digitalis.
She received her DVM and Ph.D. in cardiovascular pharmacology from the University of Florida. She has served on the faculty of UC Davis and is currently an Associate Clinical Professor and Director of the Racing Laboratory at the University of Florida. Cindy is also a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology. Prior to joining Digitals, she held R&D and management roles with IDEXX, Novartis Animal Health, Piedmont Pharmaceuticals and Mars Petcare.
Cindy Cole
Technical Partner
Dac Nguyen
Technical Partner
Dac is a Technical Partner at Digitalis. He received his Ph.D. in biophysics from Mount Sinai and A.B. in physics from Harvard. His interests include physical and computational approaches to problems in biophysics, genomics and synthetic biology.
Dac Nguyen
Technical Partner
Jonathan Friedlander
Principal
Jonathan is a Principal at Digitalis.
He received his PhD in cell biology from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Prior to Digitalis, Jonathan was an associate at Flagship Pioneering where he worked on the creation of biotech companies for human therapeutics and agriculture.
Jonathan Friedlander
Principal
Victoria Perweiler
Venture Partner
Victoria is a Venture Partner at Digitalis, focusing on the European markets.
Prior to Digitalis, Victoria led growth marketing and product strategy at a number of consumer health startups (Nurx, Ava Women) and is now advising a portfolio of early stage DTC companies. She started her career at Monitor Group’s life sciences consulting practice in Zurich & London and holds a BA in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
Victoria Perweiler
Venture Partner
Charles K. Herman
Venture Partner
Companies
Somatix
Charles is a Venture Partner at Digitalis.
In his role as Venture Partner, Charles is involved in operational support of
Digitalis’s portfolio companies, sourcing of new deals, evaluation of investment
opportunities, due diligence, firm-building, network building, and portfolio
management. He is a senior executive in Lehigh Valley Health Network, the largest
health system in Northeast Pennsylvania, where he is serves in leadership capacities
in business development, strategy, and network integration. For over a decade,
Charles has played a vital role in building venture-backed firms in medical devices,
digital health, and infection control and as an advisor to several private equity and
contract research organizations, including Covance. He is on the faculty of Geisinger
Commonwealth School of Medicine and Albert Einstein College Medicine. As an
author and researcher, he is the editor of four major medical textbooks and has
received awards from the American Publishers’ Association, British Medical
Association, and American College of Physicians. Charles is the President and Chief
Medical Officer of Somatix, Inc.
Charles received an M.D. with Distinction in Research from Albany Medical College,
graduating summa cum laude, and an M.B.A. with Honors from The Wharton School
of Business, graduating at the top of his class as a Palmer Scholar.
Charles K. Herman
Venture Partner
Established as the non-profit arm of Digitalis, the Commons provides capital, expertise, and an institutional home for projects and groups building open solutions and other public goods to address complex problems in healthcare. Visit Digitalis Commons
The distributed Digitalis network comprises experts from a wide range of functional areas — including clinical development, regulatory, design, communications, and recruiting — and technical domains relevant to human and animal health.
Digitalis Fellows work with our team to discover, build, and fund transformative new technologies and businesses. Fellows are integrated into Digitalis on a flexible and rotating schedule and are drawn from technical and professional fields relevant to our portfolio.