Ken Horne is an experienced healthcare investor, entrepreneur and executive with over two decades of professional success. He currently serves as the Managing Partner of AN Ventures, a Japan focused biotech fund. Previously he was the chairperson of RDiscovery, Remiges Ventures’ company creation entity. In this role, he has helped start and invest in Capacity Bio, Typewriter Therapeutics, and Viage Therapeutics as President or CEO. Previously as an entrepreneur, he co-founded or led Aline Aesthetics (acquired by Allergan), Symic Bio (acquired by Nordic Bio), and Teon Therapeutics. Before that, he was a founding member of TauTona Group, an early-stage life science venture capital fund back by Stanford Management Company and other top LPs. He started his career working for The Foundry, a preeminent medtech incubator, and he was an early or founding employee at eValve (acquired by Abbott), Cierra (acquired by Terumo) and others.

Ken has a BS and MS degree from Stanford University in mechanical engineering, and as a Kauffman Fellow (Class 17) was the Jeff Timmons Leadership Awardee.

Takashi Futami is an experienced healthcare investor, entrepreneur and executive. Starting a career as researcher in Astellas Pharma Inc. and led and managed more than ten drug discovery projects, mainly in oncology and metabolic disorders. Then, joined corporate venture capital in Menlo Park/Cambridge as capitalist and invested, including Potenza Therapeutics, acquired by Astellas, Bicycle Therapeutics (IPO: NASDAQ) and managed collaboration with academic institutes, including Dana-Farber Cancer institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine etc.

Then, Takashi has joined Fast Track Initiative in 2020, key role of global investment and company creation from academic discoveries via identification and evaluation of new life sciences technologies. He was co-founder of reverSASP Therapeutics and other incubating assets based on Japanese academic discoveries.

Takashi’s goal is to transform innovations in academia, especially in Japan, into actual products that improve people’s lives and society.

Ari Nowacek, M.D., Ph.D. is a Partner with ARCH Venture Partners as well as an Operating Partner with ANV. Dr. Nowacek focuses on identifying and evaluating new life sciences technologies and is involved in company creation. He helped the form ROME Therapeutics, Walden Biosciences, HiberCell, Arbor Biosciences, and TFC Bio. He also serves as a board member or observer on Synchron, Basking Bio, and Ultivue.

Dr. Nowacek is a physician-scientist by training. He holds a B.S. in Biology and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Indiana-Bloomington where he graduated Magna Cum Laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He also holds an M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and an M.B.A. from the University of Nebraska-Omaha. He has 20 peer-reviewed publications in the areas of neuroscience, virology, antiretroviral therapeutic development, and immune oncology. He subsequently completed a medical residency in pathology and post-doctoral research at The University of Chicago and Massachusetts General Hospital.

For nearly a decade, Mike Hickey has focused on helping companies build, scale, and manage their finance departments and operations. Most recently, Mike was Head of Finance at Alliance, a $50M investment adviser and crypto-focused start-up accelerator, where he currently serves as an advisor.

Prior to Alliance, Mike was CFO and Partner at Prime Movers Lab, a >$1B deep tech venture capital firm investing in scientific breakthroughs. As the first finance hire, Mike built the finance team, designed the compliance program, and implemented systems to scale its operations from $100M to over $1B in regulatory assets under management. As an operating partner, Mike worked closely with founders for all back-office and finance-related needs.

Mike also held Controller positions with 137 Ventures (SEC Registered Investment Advisor) and Versant Ventures (discovery engine and biotech venture capital firm), managing $1.3B and $3.5B portfolios, respectively.

Mike began his career at Rothstein Kass (acquired by KPMG) where he conducted audits in accordance with US GAAS on venture capital and hedge funds. Mike holds a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Accounting from San Francisco State University. Mike was a VP of Beta Alpha Psi and President of ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals For America).

Yumiko Nejo joined AN Ventures in January 2024 as Controller.

Prior to joining AN Ventures, Yumiko worked at Z Ventures Capital, the Corporate Venture Capital of LINE Yahoo Japan, as a Manager of Investment Management, where she was responsible for portfolio management of 6 funds (AUM 78 billion yen), FMV valuation, and various aspects of venture capital fund management, including strengthening internal governance, building and improving business processes. In addition, she was responsible for strengthening the governance of the firm and building and improving business processes. Yumiko also contributed significantly to the exit of the fund’s portfolio at the 2023 closing of YJ1, Yahoo’s first CVC, which was established in September 2012. Prior to this, Yumiko worked at Digital Garage’s CVC to ensure that the investment operation always worked efficiently and effectively.

Prior to that, Yumiko worked as a researcher in the investment banking division of Morgan Stanley for about 7 years, where she primarily focused on providing advisory support to clients and their investors, as well as M&A research and assistance in closing deals. She also has extensive experience in middle office and front office support at a major foreign securities firm.