BLSA

Failed

BCLS Acquisition Corp.

Underwriter: Goldman Sachs, Jefferies
Raised
$125M
CIK
1823200
SPAC Ticker
BLSA
Focus
Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals
External link: SEC Filings

SPAC Team

Leadership

Adam Koppel, the Chairman of our board of directors, initially joined Bain Capital in 2003 and is a Managing Director on the investment team and a member of the internal investment committee of Bain Capital Life Sciences. Prior to co-founding Bain Capital Life Sciences in 2016, Dr. Koppel worked within the healthcare vertical of Bain Capital Public Equity from 2003 to 2014. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Koppel served as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Strategy Officer of Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB). Dr. Koppel currently serves on the boards of directors of Aptinyx (Nasdaq: APTX), Dicerna Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: DRNA), Solid Biosciences (Nasdaq: SLDB), and private companies Cerevel Therapeutics and ViaCyte, which are portfolio companies of Bain Capital Life Sciences, and private company Foghorn Therapeutics. Prior to initially joining Bain Capital, Dr. Koppel was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Co, where he served a variety of healthcare companies. Dr. Koppel earned an MD and PhD in neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and an AB and AM, magna cum laude, in history and science from Harvard University.

We believe that Mr. Koppel’s broad investment experience make him well qualified to serve as the Chairman of our board of directors.

Jeffrey Schwartz, our Chief Executive Officer, joined Bain Capital in 2004 and is a Managing Director on the investment team and a member of the internal investment committee of Bain Capital Life Sciences. Prior to co-founding Bain Capital Life Sciences in 2016, Mr. Schwartz worked within the healthcare vertical of Bain Capital Private Equity. Mr. Schwartz currently serves on the boards of directors of SpringWorks Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SWTX), Hugel (Kosdaq: 145020), and private companies Gynesonics and Rapid Micro Biosystems, which are portfolio companies of Bain Capital Life Sciences and private company QuVa Pharma, which is a portfolio company of Bain Capital Private Equity. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Mr. Schwartz worked as an equity research analyst at Lehman Brothers from 2000 to 2004. Mr. Schwartz earned an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Palmer Scholar, and a BA, magna cum laude, in economics from Yale University.

We believe that Mr. Schwartz’s broad investment experience make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

Andrew Hack, our Chief Financial Officer, joined Bain Capital in 2019 and is a Managing Director on the investment team and a member of the internal investment committee of Bain Capital Life Sciences. Prior to joining Bain Capital, Dr. Hack was the Chief Financial Officer of Editas Medicine (Nasdaq: EDIT) where he had responsibility for finance, investor relations, business development, information technology, and operations from 2015 to 2019. Dr. Hack currently serves on the boards of directors of Dynavax Technologies (Nasdaq: DVAX), Mersana Therapeutics (Nasdaq: MRSN), and private companies Affinivax, Atea Pharmaceuticals, Imperative Care, and JenaValve Technology, which are portfolio companies of Bain Capital Life Sciences, and Allena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNA). From 2011 to 2015, Dr. Hack served as a portfolio manager at Millennium Management, where he ran a market-neutral healthcare hedge fund focused on biotechnology, pharmaceutical, medical device, diagnostics, and life science tools companies. Earlier in his investment career, Dr. Hack was a securities analyst at a number of healthcare-focused hedge funds and investment banks in New York, and prior to his investment career, Dr. Hack was Director of Life Sciences at Reify Corporation, a life science tools and drug discovery company. Dr. Hack earned an MD and PhD in molecular genetics and cell biology from the University of Chicago, where he was a Frank Family Scholar and received awards from the American Heart Association and the American Society for Cell Biology, and an AB, with Special Honors, in biology from the University of Chicago.

We believe that Mr. Hack’s broad investment experience make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

Allene Diaz has agreed to serve on our board of directors . She has served on the board of directors of Allena Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: ALNA) since April 2019. She has also led a New Product Strategy and Portfolio Management consulting practice since August 2020 and primarily consults for Xilio Therapeutics. Ms. Diaz served on the board of directors of Erytech Pharma SA, a biopharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for cancer, from September 2016 to September 2019. Ms. Diaz held the position of Senior Vice President of R&D Portfolio Management at GlaxoSmithKline (Lon: GSK) from September 2019 to June 2020. From May 2015 to September 2019, she served as the Senior Vice President of Global Commercial Development and Program Strategy and as a member of the Executive Leadership Team at TESARO (formerly Nasdaq: TSRO). She was integrally involved in the acquisition of TESARO by GlaxoSmithKline in January 2019. Prior to joining TESARO in 2015, Ms. Diaz held a variety of leadership roles in the EMD Serono and Merck Serono divisions of Merck KGaA (Xetra: MRK.DE), including Senior Vice President, Managed Markets, Senior Vice President, Head of U.S. Oncology Commercial, Vice President, Oncology Marketing, Head of Oncology Global Strategic Planning and Head of the Global Oncology Business Unit. Earlier in her career, Ms. Diaz held management, operating, sales and medical affairs roles at various biopharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Biogen (Nasdaq: BIIB) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AMLN) among others. Ms. Diaz earned a BS in Psychology from Florida State University.

We believe that Ms. Diaz’s experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries make her well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

Barry Greene has agreed to serve on our board of directors . Mr. Greene has served on the boards of directors of Acorda (Nasdaq: ACOR) since 2008 and Karyopharm (Nasdaq: KPTI) since 2012. Mr. Greene has more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, including his most recent role as President of Alnylam (Nasdaq: ALNY) since October 2003. Prior to Alnylam, Mr. Greene served as General Manager of Oncology at Millennium (Nasdaq: MLNM) from 2001 to 2003, where he led the company’s global strategy and execution for its oncology business, including strategic business direction and execution, culminating in the successful approval and launch of Velcade (bortezomib) in mid-2003. Prior to joining Millennium, Mr. Greene served as Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer of Mediconsult from 1999 to 2000. Earlier in his career, Mr. Greene held various roles with AstraZeneca (Lon: AZN) from 1997 to 1999 and was a partner with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture (NYSE: CAN)) from 1986 to 1997. Mr. Greene earned a BS in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and served as Senior Scholar at Duke University, Fuqua School of Business.

We believe that Mr. Greene’s experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.

Vikas Sinha has agreed to serve on our board of directors . Mr. Sinha brings more than 25 years of experience in executive finance roles in the life sciences industry. Mr. Sinha is a co-founder of ElevateBio and has served as its Chief Financial Officer since December 2017. Mr. Sinha has served on the boards of directors of ElevateBio since December 2017, AlloVir since September 2018 and Verona (Nasdaq: VRNA) since September 2016. He has also served as the President and Chief Financial Officer of AlloVir (Nasdaq: ALVR), an ElevateBio private portfolio company, since September 2018. Prior to joining ElevateBio and AlloVir, Mr. Sinha served as the Chief Financial Officer of Alexion (Nasdaq: ALXN) for 11 years, where he was responsible for finance, business development, strategy and information technology. During his tenure as the Chief Financial Officer at Alexion, Alexion’s market cap grew from $600 million to more than $30 billion, and its revenue grew from zero to more than $3 billion. Prior to joining Alexion, Mr. Sinha held various positions with Bayer (Xetra: BAYN-DE) in the United States, Japan, Germany and Canada. Mr. Sinha earned an MBA from the Asian Institute of Management. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant and associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Certified Public Accountant in the United States.

We believe that Mr. Sinha’s experience in the healthcare and life sciences industries make him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.