Jay Short

Dr. Short serves as Chairman and is a cofounder of Himalaya Therapeutics. He is also currently Chairman, CEO, and cofounder of BioAtla® (Nasdaq: BCAB), as well as co-inventor of the BioAtla’s patented Conditionally Active Biologics (CAB) / Protein-associated Chemical Switch (PaCS) platform. BioAtla’s successful IPO in December 2020 raised over $217 million, and became the second company Dr. Short successfully advanced from founding to IPO. Previously, Dr. Short cofounded Diversa Corporation (now BASF), a pioneering developer of enzymes, antibodies and biologically active compounds, and served in multiple roles including CEO, President and CTO from 1994 to 2005. He led Diversa’s public offering, raising over $200 million, which was the largest biotechnology IPO at that time. Prior to Diversa, he was President of Stratacyte, an antibody engineering company and a subsidiary of Stratagene (now Agilent), which together with Scripps Clinic was the first to generate and screen human combinatorial antibody libraries in E. coli. During this time he also served as VP of R&D and Operations for Stratagene Cloning Systems. Dr. Short received his B.A in Chemistry with Honors from Taylor University. At Case Western Reserve University he received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry with additional studies in Macromolecular Science. He is the author of more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and is the inventor of over 500 issued patents.

In 2006, Dr. Short was shortlisted by the editors of Nature Biotechnology as one of the people who made the most significant contribution to biotech in the past decade. He is the recipient of numerous other awards, including Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, the American Chemical Society’s Henry F. Whalen, Jr. Award for Business Development, Adaptive Business Leaders’ Innovations in HealthCare Gold Award, two of Connect’s first place Most Innovative Product Awards and in 2010 received an international Best-of-the-Best award from the Young Presidents Organization (YPO). Dr. Short’s board experience includes over 25 years as a director of in public companies serving on audit, compensation and governance committees and is a certified director from the UCLA Anderson School of Business. He is a member of YPO/WPO and a cofounder of Capia IP and founder of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. Dr. Short serves as an advisor to leading educational, commercial, scientific and charitable organizations.