New Leaf Venture Partners Names Reza Zadno, Ph.D., as Venture Partner
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– New Leaf Venture Partners (NLV Partners) announced today the appointment of Reza Zadno, Ph.D., as venture partner, effective immediately. Dr. Zadno was the founder, president and CEO of Visiogen (now part of Abbott Medical Optics) and, following the company’s acquisition by Abbott, served as General Manager of Visiogen. Dr. Zadno also served as a consultant to NLV Partners over the past year.
“We are very excited to have Reza join the NLV team,” stated Jeani Delagardelle, Managing Director of NLV Partners. “Reza brings extensive operational experience, a strong engineering background and a track record as a prolific inventor and serial entrepreneur. These are all experiences and skills that will be extremely valuable to the medical device team within NLV.”
Dr. Zadno commented, “I am very pleased to join NLV Partners. I look forward to contributing my industry experience as the firm identifies and assesses prospective portfolio companies. This opportunity presents a great opening to work closely with a very talented investment team and help grow NLV Partner’s medical device practice.”
Dr. Zadno has had an illustrious career in the medical device industry. In 2001, Dr. Zadno founded Visiogen, while serving as an entrepreneur in residence at Three Arch Partners. At Visiogen, Dr. Zadno and his team were responsible for the timely development and European approval of the Synchrony® lens, a lens implant which may enable patients to have sharp vision at all focal points without glasses. Prior to joining Three Arch Partners, Dr. Zadno co-founded PercuSurge, Inc. and served as the company’s Chief Technology Officer until its acquisition by Medtronic. Previously, Dr. Zadno served as the Director of Advanced Development at Cardiac Pathways Corp. He started his career at Raychem Corporation, now Tyco, after receiving his Ph.D. degree from Ecole des Mines de Paris. While at Raychem, Dr. Zadno developed shape memory materials and products such as Superelastic Nitinol, laparoscopy instruments, guide wire materials, dental arches, and industrial products including electrical connectors. Dr. Zadno is on the Board of Directors of Transcend Medical and Oraya Therapeutics.
About NLV Partners
New Leaf Venture Partners is a leader in healthcare technology venture investing. Our investment professionals bring a unique blend of technological, clinical, and operational experience to our investments. We work closely with our entrepreneurs to help build successful portfolio companies. We focus primarily on later stage biopharmaceutical products, early stage medical devices, and laboratory infrastructure technologies.
New Leaf currently manages $1.1 billion in assets. This includes our newest fund, New Leaf Ventures II, L.P., which closed with commitments of $450 million in October 2007, New Leaf Ventures I, L.P. and the healthcare technology portfolio of the Sprout Group, one of the oldest U.S. venture capital fund groups. For more information please visit http://www.nlvpartners.com.
Contacts
Burns McClellan on behalf of NLV Partners
Justin Jackson, 212-213-0006
jjackson @burnsmc.com
or
Michelle Szwarcberg
mszwarcberg @burnsmc.com