The rest of the 100 (in alphabetical order): Tracy Saxton, investment director, Roche Venture Fund
Tracy Saxton joined pharmaceutical firm Roche’s venture fund in early 2015. She took her role there after making a name for herself at the international life sciences venture capital firm SV Life Sciences.
In her short tenure as an investment director at the Roche Venture Fund, Saxton has already made an impact by organising backing for SutroVax, a US-based vaccine developer. In 2015, she helped set up its $22m series A financing to develop vaccines for infectious diseases.
Before joining the Roche Venture Fund, Saxton rose through the ranks at SV Life Sciences, where first she was an associate, later rising to become a principal. While there, she was involved in a number of deals for the venture firm, including firms such as PanOptica, Thesan, Arsanis Biosciences, Rempex Pharmaceuticals, Sutro Biopharma, NKT Therapeutics, Neurotech, Ophthotech, and Catabasis Pharmaceuticals.
Saxton is a graduate of the Simon Fraser and Toronto universities, with a specialty in molecular and medical genetics. After finishing her PhD in 1999, Saxton held a regulatory affairs position with pharmaceutical firm Amgen and later led a product development team at biotech business Threshold Pharmaceuticals before holding a director position with oncology firm Geron. In later employment, she managed the relationship with Pfizer for the University of California San Francisco, while also finding investment opportunities for the institution’s independent university venturing fund, Mission Bay Capital, between 2008 and 2010. After this, she completed an MBA from Columbia University while transferring into venturing full-time.
