This panel, consisting of entrepreneurs, investors and industry executives will discuss current and future investment opportunities in women’s health. At the end of the discussion, panelists will be presented with short case studies in which they will have the opportunity to comment and then YOU, the audience, will vote to determine which company should receive funding!

 Moderator:

 KarenDrexlerphotoKaren Drexler, Founder, advisor, board member, investor

Karen Drexler has spent the last 20+ years co-founding and building medical device companies, mainly in the diagnostics space. Karen was President and CEO of Amira Medical, a glucose monitoring company that was sold to Roche in 2001. She is passionate about women’s health and is an active mentor and angel investor through Astia. She serves as an active chairwoman and adviser for several healthcare companies and is on the Board of the Keller Center for Innovation in Engineering Education, Princeton University.

Panel Members:

AnulaJayasuriyaphotoAnula Jayasuriya, Founder/investor, EXXclaim Capital

Anula has been investing in health care since 2001. She combines investment and industry operating expertise together with scientific and medical knowledge. Most recently Anula formed EXXClaim Capital to address an under served area in women’s health. In 2007, Anula co-founded and raised an $85M investment fund, Evolvence India Life Science Fund. Anula sits on several industry and nonprofit boards.

TracyWarrenphotoTracy Warren, Founder/investor Astarte

Tracy Warren serves as general partner of Astarte Ventures, an early stage venture firm focused on women’s & children’s health & wellbeing. Currently, Tracy also serves as a general partner of Battelle Ventures and its affiliate fund, Innovation Valley Partners, for which she focuses on investments in health & life sciences. Tracy has led investments in NuPathe, which completed its IPO in 2010 and was subsequently acquired by Teva Pharmaceuticals. Tracy also provides early-stage leadership to other businesses, currently serving as an adviser & mentor to female entrepreneurs through Springboard.

SurbhiSarnaphotoSurbhi Sarna, CEO, nVision

At age 13, Sarna suffered from ovarian cysts so painful they made her faint. She vowed to create a technology to detect ovarian cancer quickly and early. She is now CEO and founder of nVision Medical. nVision is developing products related to infertility and ovarian cancer and secured $4.5M in a venture-led round. Surbhi has authored numerous patents, been an invited speaker at universities including UCSF and Harvard, and has been featured in publications such as Bloomberg, Entrepreneur Magazine and GigaOm. She was named on the Forbes 30 under 30 list for 2014.

JanicaAlvarezphotoJanica Alvarez, CEO, Naia Health

Janica is the Co-Founder and CEO of Naya Health, a consumer health company making more informed parents through smarter products. Naya was born from many years of frustrating and comical scenarios lived by Janica while using a breast pump and other baby care products. This is why Naya’s initial focus is making a better breast pump that is also really smart. Prior to Naya, Janica played an active role on clinical research teams at top tier pharmaceutical corporations where she previously lead efforts contributing to the review and approval of oncology and HIV therapies by the FDA.

Here’s the video of the panel discussion: