David Allison, Ph.D. is a Managing Director at Westlake BioPartners and has over 15 years of healthcare investing, company formation, and translational research experience. Immediately prior to joining Westlake, David was a Partner at 5AM Ventures in San Francisco and has previously been on the investment teams at Versant Ventures, Split Rock Partners, and PTV Healthcare Capital.

Throughout his career, David has been involved in investments in companies that have gone on to make important medicines for patients, achieve public offerings, and ultimately lead to acquisitions. Such select companies include CinCor Pharma (NASDAQ: CINC, acquired by AstraZeneca), Crinetics (NASDAQ: CRNX), Impel Neuropharma (NASDAQ: IMPL), Inipharm, Magnetic Insight, Neurogastrx, Portal Instruments, Radionetics Oncology, and Recludix Pharma. David received his Ph.D. in Bioengineering from Rice University and a B.S.E in Biomedical Engineering from The University of Iowa with honors.

Mira Chaurushiya, Ph.D. is a Managing Director at Westlake BioPartners. She was previously a Partner at 5AM Ventures where she invested in and served on the boards of companies such as Enliven Therapeutics (ELVN), Escient Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Incyte), GlycoEra, Magnetic Insight, NodThera, Novome Biotechnologies, Precision Nanosystems (acquired by Danaher), Purigen Biosystems (acquired by BioNano), and TMRW.

Mira is a fellow of the Society of Kauffman Fellows. She previously served on the board of Biotech Connection Bay Area and currently serves on the board of Nucleate, both non-profit organizations that advance industry career and entrepreneurship opportunities for academic scientists. She was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow at Genentech. She received her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, in conjunction with the Salk Institute, where she was awarded the Martin Kamen Thesis Prize in Biochemistry for her studies in viral infection and cancer. She received a B.A. in Biology with Distinction in the Senior Thesis from Carleton College.

Beth Seidenberg, M.D. is the Founding Managing Director of Westlake Village BioPartners. She was a General Partner at Kleiner Perkins. Beth has incubated and invested in more than 40 biotech companies since 2005 across many therapeutic areas and modalities. She currently sits on the following public company boards: Acelyrin, Kyverna, Progyny, Sagimet and Vera.

Previously Beth served in leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck Research Laboratories and at Amgen, where she was chief medical officer and head of global development. In these roles she developed new treatments for AIDS, arthritis, asthma, cancer and psoriasis, cardiovascular, metabolic, neurological and renal disorders for more than 20 years. and introduced 10 innovative products to market. Beth received her M.D. from the University of Miami School of Medicine. She completed her medical residency at Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University, and her fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. She received a B.A. in Biology and Anthropology from Barnard College.

Armando Alvarez, CPA is a Finance Manager at Westlake BioPartners, working on accounting, finance and operations. He was previously on accounting teams at PwC and The Walt Disney Company. Armando is a licensed CPA and received an M.S. and B.S. in Accounting from the University of Denver.

Sean Harper, M.D. is a Co-Founding Managing Director of Westlake Village BioPartners. At Westlake he has invested in companies such as Latigo and Recludix. Previously, Dr. Harper served in several roles at Amgen culminating as Executive Vice President of Research and Development and was Senior Director of Clinical Genomics at Merck Research Laboratories.

Named by Time as one of the 50 most influential people in healthcare in 2018, Harper has helped bring over a dozen novel therapies to patients for the treatment of cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease and migraine. He received his M.D. from the University of California at San Francisco, completed internal medicine and gastroenterology training at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Phillip A. Sharp at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He studied Biomedical Sciences at the University of California, Riverside and holds a B.S. in Medical Sciences from University of San Francisco.

Eric Kaufman is a Senior Associate at Westlake BioPartners, working across the portfolio and contributing to strategic firm initiatives. Previously, he was an Associate at Cantor Fitzgerald in Equity Capital Markets and an Investment Banking Analyst at Leerink Partners. During his tenure in investment banking, Eric worked on M&A transactions and helped raise approximately $20 billion in financings for more than 100 companies. Eric received a B.B.A. from Emory University.

Jenn Kercher, J.D. is General Counsel at Westlake BioPartners. She brings over 15 years of operational and strategic expertise in Venture Capital having previously served as Chief Legal Officer and COO at Section32 and General Counsel at GV (Google Ventures). Previously, she served as Senior Counsel, M&A at Google and was an Associate at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati. Jenn received her J.D. from the University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings). She received a B.A. in Law and Society with an emphasis in Criminal Justice from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with honors.

Kelli McKeirnan is Director of Administration at Westlake BioPartners, supporting the firm and portfolio companies as they incubate within Westlake. She was previously at Amgen for over 20 years as an executive administrator and has experience leading teams of up to 90 people across functional areas. Kelli received a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in business from Cal State, Dominguez Hills.

Desmond Padhi, Pharm.D. is an Operating Partner at Westlake BioPartners working broadly with the firm and portfolio companies to conceive, discover, and advance medicines into the clinic in all therapeutic areas and modalities. In this role he has served as founding CEO of Capsida Biotherapeutics and as interim CEO of Latigo Biotherapeutics, among others.

Prior to joining Westlake BioPartners, Desmond spent 20 years at Amgen, rising to Vice President of Translational Medicine and most recently Vice President of Pharmacokinetics and Drug Metabolism and Clinical Pharmacology. He has authored five patents and 45 publications in top-tier journals. Previously Desmond worked at the Schering-Plough Research Institute where he was the team leader for early development clinical programs. Desmond received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Wayne State University and completed his clinical pharmacology fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital. He received a B.S. in Biology and Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

Brogan Perrelli, CPA is the VP of Finance and Operations at Westlake BioPartners, managing Westlake’s accounting and finance, leading operational and strategic initiatives at the firm, and interfacing with portfolio companies. She brings 10 years of experience in accounting, having worked at public accounting firms such as KPMG and Crowe Horwath LLP. She also brings a private equity background having served on the finance team at ICONIQ Capital. Brogan is a licensed CPA and received a B.B.A. in Accounting and Finance from Sonoma State University.

Lauren Popov, Ph.D. is an Associate at Westlake BioPartners supporting new investments and portfolio companies. She was previously Senior Director of Translational Biology at Novome Biotechnologies, discovering and developing microbial based medicines for metabolic and inflammatory diseases. Her work advanced programs from pre-clinical through Phase 2 studies. Lauren completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley, and she received a Ph.D. from the Stanford University School of Medicine where she studied microbiology and immunology. She received a B.A. in Human Biology from Stanford University.