Dr. Skinner is Senior Vice President, Venture at Tekla Capital Management. Prior to joining Tekla, Dr. Skinner Served as Deputy Head and Managing Director of Novartis Venture Fund. In addition, Dr. Skinner has been CEO of SelectX Pharmaceuticals and NeoGenesis Pharmaceuticals and has held positions in Business Development for Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Pfizer, Pharmacia, Pharmacia & Upjohn and Lexicon Genetics. Dr. Skinner was a postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine in the department of Human and Molecular Genetics, earned his Ph.D. in Microbiology and M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois and M.S. and B.S. in Biology/Biotechnology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.