Jeff Aronin

Jeff Aronin is the Founder and Chairman of Emalex in addition to being the CEO of Paragon Biosciences. He has successfully created seven portfolio companies under Paragon with more continually under development.

Mr. Aronin has more than 30 years of life science expertise and leadership. As an entrepreneur and scientific visionary, with a focus on addressing unmet patient and societal needs, Mr. Aronin has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of nearly a dozen new medicines and technologies and numerous awards throughout his career. His companies are renowned for advancing science, with a record number of breakthroughs helping patients, and economic engines, having created thousands of job opportunities throughout the world. Paragon Biosciences portfolio companies include: Castle Creek Biosciences, CiRC Biosciences, Emalex Biosciences, Evozyne, Harmony Biosciences, Qlarity Imaging, and Skyline Biosciences, and maintains a consistent flow of incubating companies created and supported by the Paragon Innovation Capital™ model.

Outside of Paragon, Mr. Aronin devotes his talents to civic and philanthropic endeavors. As founder and Co-Chairman of MATTER – a health-technology startup incubator – Mr. Aronin has led one of Chicago’s most remarkable, philanthropic venture-innovation successes, with more than 200 healthcare companies at any one time, more than 60 corporate sponsors, and more than $1 billion in deals since 2015. He is a member of The Commercial Club of Chicago and serves on several corporate and civic boards including Discover Financial Services and The Aspen Institute. As a believer in education as a change agent, Mr. Aronin serves as a mentor to students and young professionals and is a frequent lecturer at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business.