Mr.Evans-Freke is Co-Founder and Managing General Partner of Auven Therapeutics and has been associated with the biotechnology industry for over 30 years as an investment banker, asset manager, entrepreneur, company CEO, and venture capitalist. During the 1980s, he was lead investment banker to Genentech, AMGEN, Centocor, and a number of other leading biotech companies. He structured and placed over $500 million of highly successful R&D partnership financing, and served on the Development Boards of these companies. During this period, Mr. Evans-Freke was President of PaineWebber Development Corporation and later a member of PaineWebber Inc.’s Board of Directors. In 1990 Mr. Evans-Freke left Wall St. and founded Selectide Corporation, one of the first combinatorial chemistry companies, for which he served as Chairman until its sale to Hoechst in 1994. In 1991, Mr. Evans-Freke founded SUGEN, a drug discovery company focused on small molecule kinase and phosphatase inhibitors. He served as SUGEN’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer through its IPO in 1995 until its sale to Pharmacia for $720 million in 1999. Mr. Evans-Freke was also a co-founder of Fibrogen, Inc. and Royalty Pharma AG. In 2004, Mr. Evans-Freke co-founded Celtic Pharmaceutical Holdings L.P., a life science private equity firm focused on the pharmaceutical industry prior to joining Dr. Peter Corr in 2007 to found Auven Therapeutics. He serves on the Boards of CrossMatch Technologies, Inc. and Inspiration Biopharmaceuticals Inc. Mr. Evans-Freke also serves on the 800th Anniversary Appeal Board of Cambridge University, from which he holds a Degree in Law. Mr. Evans-Freke also sits on the Board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and on the Cambridge Stem Cell Board. Mr. Evans-Freke was recently appointed by the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Science and Technology Council for the Territory.
Current role