When a company splits, there is a natural tendency for senior managers to try to pick star staff to join their arm. A case in point is Marta New, principal at Baxalta Ventures, who is one of the brightest rising stars in the industry.
Geeta Vemuri, managing partner at Baxalta Ventures, said when the company split off from Baxter in July 2015: “I brought New over to Baxalta with a very nice promotion.”
New had been a senior associate at the corporate venture capital (CVC) unit of Baxter, which retained investment abilities after the corporate split.
Her board observer roles at November 2015 included Syntimmune, which raised $8m in its first tranche from the $28m A round in October 2014, and Vitesse Biologics, which was formed in June 2015 as a collaboration model with Mayo Clinic for drug trials and Velocity Pharmaceutical Development for target identification to develop antibody and protein-based therapeutics in the areas of immunology, hematology and oncology.
New has had plenty of experience in these areas. She was a postdoctoral fellow in oncology and immunology at Northwestern University after completing a PhD in the subjects from University of Illinois at Chicago alongside an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.
New said: “I transitioned from an academic research role into technology transfer at Northwestern.
“There, I was responsible for commercialisation activities around the biotech patent portfolio – business development, startup company creation and corporate alliance management. Tech transfer experience exposed me to deal-making aspects of early product development, licensing negotiations and early technology valuation methodology.
“Upon graduating from business school, I joined Baxter Healthcare in a global marketing role. I was a part of a team responsible for managing a $2bn global portfolio of renal products in all global markets.
“Strategic and revenue generation aspects of my commercial role prepared me well for the CVC career, exposing me to the decision-making processes that large pharma uses for portfolio management and new product development.
“As a result, I became interested in the Asia Pacific market dynamics and hope to be more actively investing in China and India one day. At present, I am studying Mandarin Chinese to get me one step closer to my goal.
“We often get asked how our CVC group differs from business development. I feel there is still a lot of confusion among the entrepreneurs, traditional VCs and even internally inside our mother ship about how our activities are different to business development. As a result, we often act as educators, consistently having to communicate our unique mission and objectives.
“I believe there might be an opportunity for the CVC industry to define clearer channels of communication that would enable us to have unified, standardised messages about our industry, to drive clarity and hence drive more business our way, while still acknowledging different types of approaches that each corporation has when building a CVC group.
“CVC has taught me that venture investing is not purely transactional in nature, but is very relationship and people oriented. Building long-lasting relationships, working together with fellow investors, the management and internally with Baxalta’s cross-functional teams on a daily basis, creatively and strategically solving problems and building momentum to make our companies most successful – that is why I love coming to work every day.”