Team
Michael Kuran, Managing Director
Seattle, WA
Mike is the Managing Director of KGI Life Science Advisors. He is a life science executive and serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of industry experience, ranging from multinational pharmaceutical companies to mid-sized biotechnology companies, CROs, and start-up ventures. Mike has led or participated in numerous strategic transactions and partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies worldwide. His current deal sheet includes 35 transactions valued at over $1.8 billion, with several ongoing deals under negotiation. After working in Tokyo for several years, Mike founded KGI Life Science Advisors as a boutique life science advisory and consulting practice to provide transaction advisory and consulting services with a focus on cross-border transactions between the US/Europe and Japan/Asia. He has served as BD&L Advisor to several life science companies, including Bantam Pharma, Kubota Vision, Alivexis, Regeneus, TwoCells, Melzi Corp, Sunflor Pharma, Partner International, and many others. Previously, Mike was founder and CEO of Artemisia BioMedical developing targeted trioxane dimer cancer therapeutics based on novel analogs of the gold standard malaria drug Artesunate. He served as CEO of ACLIRES International Ltd, a global boutique full-service clinical CRO with operations in Latin America and Southeast Asia. Mike has also held senior management positions at Novo Nordisk and IQVIA/IMS in Tokyo, and ZymoGenetics with responsibilities that included licensing and alliances, strategic transactions, financing, corporate and strategic planning, financial modeling and analysis, P&L, strategic marketing and disease management systems. Mike obtained a B.A. degree from the University of Michigan and subsequently participated in the Executive MBA Program at Temple University Japan. He has also completed the Biotech R&D Project Management Program at the University of Washington, and the Socio-Economic Evaluation of Medicines Program at the University of York, UK.
Thomas Hancock, Senior Partner
Boston, MA
Tom serves as a Senior Partner of KGI Life Science Advisors and is concurrently a Managing Partner at NMT Capital, a globally oriented private equity firm. He has over 20 years of experience both in venture capital and as a securities analyst. Tom has led investments in numerous successful private companies and sits on the Boards of several life science companies. Prior to joining NMT Capital, Tom was a Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst at U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray covering publicly traded biopharmaceutical companies and drug discovery vendor companies. While at Piper, he published research notes, reports, industry overviews and technology updates for the benefit of the investment community on Gilead Sciences, Tularik, Human Genome Sciences, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Applied Biosystems, Charles River Laboratories, Invitrogen and Millipore, among others. Tom’s earlier assignments include Senior Analyst at Leerink Swann & Company, Senior Research Associate at NationsBanc Montgomery Securities, and Business Development at Genentech. He began his professional career as a research scientist at Cor Therapeutics and Genentech. Tom holds a B.S. degree in Molecular Biology and an MBA, both from the University of California, Berkeley.