In November 2017, Michal Silverberg, started in her new role as a managing director in Novartis Venture Fund, the corporate venturing unit of the Switzerland-based drugs company, moving on from senior director for external innovation at peer Takeda Ventures in Israel.
Silverberg said for her Rising Star award last year: “Although the nature of my role is quite similar, the brass of what Novartis does is much broader.
“While Takeda is more focused on strategy, Novartis is essentially a financial venture. Novartis also has a wider investment scope in that it invests in all therapeutics, and usually with larger funding rounds.”
Silverberg made the first steps of her professional career in 1998, working for the Israel Innovation Authority. With an MBA in economics from Tel Aviv University, Silverberg completed her education with a master’s degree in biotechnology at Columbia University. It was the move to the US that, she said, triggered a shift in her career.
Silverberg’s path within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries soon led her to the Long Island-based group OSI Pharmaceuticals, before moving to Denmark-based firm Novo Nordisk where she worked for seven years.
As part of her new role at Novartis, Silverberg looks after investments around Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and occasionally more widely along the east coast.
