Sharon Stevenson

Sharon Stevenson has over 14 years' venture capital experience in all sectors of health care, with a focus on early stage investing. She has held senior operating roles in several early stage companies. Prior to her entrepreneurial/venture capital career, she spent 12 years in academic research positions.

Sharon currently serves as a Managing Director of Okapi Venture Capital, which she co-founded in 2005, and is responsible for the firm's life sciences investments. She led Okapi's investments in Helixis (acq: ILMN 2010); Obalon Therapeutics (Director); Orthalign (Director); PathCentral (Director), Wisercare (Director), Focal Therapeutics (Director) and WellTok (Observer). Prior to founding Okapi, Sharon was Senior Vice President of Technology and Planning for SkinMedica, an early stage pharma company acquired by Allergan.

Earlier, she was a Principal with Domain Associates, serving at the same time as President and CFO of Volcano Therapeutics, a company whose growth she led from product design through clinical trials. Sharon's past board affiliations on behalf of Domain include MicroVention (acquired by Terumo Corporation), Neuropace, NuVasive, Santarus, SkinMedica, and GenVault. Prior to Domain Associates, she was Executive Director of the Advanced Tissue Sciences/ Smith+Nephew NeoCyte joint venture, during which time she lead a multidisciplinary team and moved the product from bench-top research to IDE submission.

Prior to moving to the private sector, Sharon was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Orthopedics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. She is the author of more than 130 publications, including two guest editorships, and has made more than 50 presentations at scientific meetings. Her clinical training was in veterinary surgery and she is a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS). She has served on the governing boards of the ACVS and the Orthopedic Research Society, and is a member of the Board of Governors of the Pardee RAND Graduate School of Public Policy. Sharon received an MBA from the UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management, a PhD in Comparative Pathology from UC Davis, and a Master of Science in Veterinary Pathology and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from The Ohio State University.