Pathways to a career in venture capital

Date: 02/03/2016
Time: 4:00 am – 5:00 am
Location: 121 Snell Library
Speaker: Christopher de Souza, PhD, Director, Broadview Ventures

Pathways to a career in venture capital

Gone are the days when a graduate joined a company and worked there, many times in the same job or department, till retirement. It is expected that today’s graduates will have multiple careers, not just jobs, before they retire. Scary to think of changing careers when one has not yet embarked on one? The goal of this talk will be to share my personal experience with career change all of which came about with very little, if any, advice and mentoring but nevertheless resulted in a long, successful and enjoyable career.

Christopher de Souza, PhD, shares responsibility for the day-to-day operations of Broadview Ventures, including business development strategy, identification and screening of new investment opportunities, negotiation of partnering terms and deal structure, as well as portfolio company board involvement. Christopher started his pharmaceutical career at Novartis where he was a senior scientist in the Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases group and then Director of Strategic Alliances with responsibilities for the therapeutic area strategy, business development and alliance management. After Novartis, Christopher was VP of Business Development at SkyePharma US Inc, a drug delivery company, where he was responsible for out-licensing SkyePharma’s clinical assets and drug delivery technologies. Christopher also founded a business development consulting practice with several clients including JSB-Partners, Diagnostics For All and Metaome. Christopher received an MBA from Rutgers University and a PhD in physiology from Louisiana State University. He completed his post-doctoral training at “The Upjohn Company” and the Joslin Diabetes Center/Harvard Medical School.