Elaine V. Jones, Ph.D. is an accomplished biopharmaceutical executive with more than 20 years of life science investing experience. She has served on over 35 life science company boards and has both biopharma research and business development expertise.
Until April 2019, Dr. Jones was Vice President, Venture Capital, at Pfizer Ventures (PVI). Prior to Pfizer, Dr. Jones was a General Partner with the venture fund, EuclidSR Partners. Dr. Jones began her investing career in 1999 at S.R. One, GlaxoSmithKline’s corporate fund. Previously, she served as Director, Scientific Licensing for SmithKline Beecham and was a research scientist in SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceutical R&D.
Dr. Jones is a graduate of Juniata College, received her Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, and conducted post-doctoral research at the National Institutes of Health.
“In the ideal world, every individual on the Board brings something to the table and can be given a particular role suited to their skills, like members of an orchestra.” – Prof Randall Peterson, London Business School
Given the significant capital at risk, venture-backed biotech and life science companies usually do not end up with such “an orchestra”. More often than not life science boards are investor-dominated boards. These investor directors, especially in Europe, usually have a different professional background to the CEO and leadership team. Many, if not most, lack the same operational experience of building and scaling a life science venture and above all they have an employer and their own investors in the background with their own goals, challenges and motivations.
This creates some particular challenges for both the CEO and board chair.
The role of a Board is primarily to promote the long-term sustainable success of an organization, thereby generating value for stakeholders and contributing to wider society. It is easy to lose sight of this primary goal, when every board meeting is also a de facto shareholder meeting. These corporate governance challenges must be recognised and managed robustly by the CEO and board chair. Otherwise board dynamics will be affected by issues and events that can be completely unrelated and sometimes even quite distant from your company.
What are these issues and events and how do you anticipate them?
As a CEO, how do you manage such an investor-dominated board?
How much influence and control over the board composition and its conduct do you actually have?
How do you best nominate independent NEDs onto your board and when and how