During Harry Hoffman’s 25 years of service as Mayo’s Chief Investment Officer and Treasurer which ended December 2020, Mayo Clinic achieved top decile investment performance among a universe of major tax-exempt institutions and grew its investment assets by over ten-fold. Outside of Mayo, Harry has served on the boards of several large family offices and is a former trustee of the Endowment Board of the American Red Cross, The Investment Fund for Foundations (TIFF) and the Ronald McDonald House of Rochester. He is also a founding member and vice chair of the Southeast Minnesota Capital Fund. Harry earned his B.A. degree from University of Minnesota and his M.B.A. from Yale School of Management.

Dr. Russell is a world-renowned researcher in the field of gene and virus therapy.  He combines more than three decades of leadership as a clinician and researcher with extensive experience in all aspects of drug discovery and development.  A board-certified hematologist, Dr. Russell is a co-founder of Vyriad, the Richard O. Jacobson Professor of Molecular Medicine at Mayo Clinic and President of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.  Early in his career, Dr. Russell pioneered novel methods for engineering viral cancer immunotherapies.  He was a founder of Cambridge Genetics, a biotechnology company, and the European Society of Gene Therapy.  At the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Russell founded the Department of Molecular Medicine and built a comprehensive oncolytic virotherapy program.  He has authored more than 400 peer-reviewed research papers and is a frequent speaker at scientific and medical conferences.  Dr. Russell received his MD from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of London.

During his 40+ years in the venture capital industry, Mr. Kania has been both an investor and partner to entrepreneurial CEOs, supporting the launch and development of numerous biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies.  He is the managing partner of FarField Partners, a personal investment and advisory firm, and the co-founder and former Chairman of Flagship Pioneering, one of the largest venture capital firms launching and investing in U.S. biotechnology companies. Mr. Kania has served on the boards of dozens of public and private companies including Acceleron Pharma, Adolor Corp., Anesta Corp., ChemGenics Pharmaceuticals, Cytyc Corp., EXACT Sciences, IDEXX Laboratories, PerSeptive Biosystems, Somatogen, Taris, and Visterra. He is currently a director for Health Data Analytics Institute, Korrus, DataCore Software, and TransMedics.  Mr. Kania received a master’s degree from Harvard Business School and bachelor’s degree in Physics from Dartmouth College.

Dr. Russell is a biotechnology executive with a track record of building strategic partnerships in the gene therapy drug development sector. He combines scientific training in cancer immunotherapy with extensive leadership experience across business development, corporate strategy, and operational administration of a clinical-stage biotechnology company. Dr. Russell serves as President of Vyriad, where he holds overall responsibility for driving the company’s strategic direction and leads its Executive Leadership Team. Since joining Vyriad in 2018, he has held roles of increasing responsibility across the company, leading its alliance management function from 2019 and expanding to lead business development and strategic alliances from 2022, including the negotiation and oversight of pharma partnerships with Novartis, Regeneron, and Merck KGaA. Early in his career, Dr. Russell’s research focused on oncolytic virotherapy and the antitumor immune response. He is a named inventor on patents in oncolytic virotherapy, a principal investigator on NIH SBIR awards, and an author on more than a dozen peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Russell received his PhD in Neuroscience from The Ohio State University and his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

Dr. James Hampton is a biologist and science program leader with extensive experience in molecular biology education, biotechnology training, and the development of research initiatives linking academia, philanthropy, and industry. He served for more than 25 years as Professor of Biology at Buena Vista University, where he led programs in genetics, cell biology, and plant bioengineering while mentoring students pursuing careers in medicine, biomedicine, and scientific research. His interest in the intersection of business and science helped establish collaborative initiatives supported by agribusiness and philanthropic partners that expanded undergraduate research, internships, and global scientific experiences. As the inaugural Stine Chair for High Impact Learning Strategies, he helped guide the use of the Stine Endowment to support student research and innovation initiatives in the sciences.  He served as a plant breeding consultant at Stine Seed, the largest privately held seed company in the world, designing experiments to streamline the classical soybean breeding program. He has focused his academic career on advancing biotechnology education and developing future scientific leaders and his business career on connecting transformational companies with the funding to support their development. Dr. Hampton received his doctorate in Genetics and Development from Cornell University.