Board of Directors

James L. Currie
Chairman of the Board
Mr. Currie is Managing Partner of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. He has been involved in healthcare ventures for more than 30 years as an investment banker, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. He began his career in investment banking at Evans & Co. and Laird & Co., both of which specialized in emerging companies. In 1972 he co-founded Munger, Baker and Currie, Inc., a boutique investment that specialized in IPOs and private placement. In 1977 he led the leveraged buyout of, and subsequently ran, Central Scientific, Inc., a healthcare-focused laboratory equipment company, which he sold in 1984. During his tenure at Central Scientific, he played key roles in the financing of Critical Care of America and LyphoMed, two of the most successful healthcare companies in the last 20 years.

In 1985 he founded Essex Venture Partners, which eventually became Essex Woodlands. As a venture capitalist, he has led the investment in and the development of numerous successful healthcare companies, including Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, Ethical Holdings, Parexel International, Richwood/Shire Pharmaceuticals and Serologicals. He currently serves on the boards of directors of Control Delivery Systems, InSound Medical, PediaMed Pharmaceuticals, Xanodyne Pharmacal, Integrity Pharmaceuticals, and SleepMed.

Petri Vainio, MD, PhD, MBA
Board Member
Dr. Vainio is Managing Director of Essex Woodlands Health Ventures. He has over 15 years of venture investing experience. Prior to joining Essex Woodlands in 2004, he spent ten years, starting in 1988, as a general partner of Sierra Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firms, with over $1 billion under management. While at Sierra, he was a general partner in five successive funds and led their healthcare investment practice.

Dr. Vainio has been an early-stage investor in numerous successful healthcare companies, including medical device companies HeartPort (which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson) and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), biopharmaceutical companies Onyx Pharmaceuticals (ONXX) and Theravance (private), and specialty pharmaceutical company Connectics (CNTX). He has served on the boards of over 20 private and public healthcare companies and has helped them raise over $1 billion in venture capital financing. He has an MD and PhD in biochemistry, with highest academic honors, from the University of Helsinki and an MBA from Stanford University.

Walter Flamenbaum, MD
Partner - Paul Capital Partners
Walter Flamenbaum, MD, is a founding partner of Paul Capital Partners’ healthcare funds, has led the development and refinement of its investment strategy, processes, and techniques and has actively participated in the majority of the Fund’s investments, including roles in sourcing, negotiating, and other activities.

Dr. Flamenbaum has 35 years of healthcare experience, including the development and evaluation of pharmaceutical and biotechnology-based drugs, medical devices, and diagnostics. During the 10 years prior to joining Paul Capital Partners in 1999 as a founding member of the Firm’s royalty team, Dr. Flamenbaum had extensive experience in the licensing of healthcare product-related intellectual properties and the assessment of healthcare investing opportunities. He also founded a contract research organization, started a biomedical company, and had senior management responsibilities in a biotechnology company.

He is board certified in internal medicine, nephrology, and clinical pharmacology and was a professor of medicine at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Flamenbaum served in the US Army at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He received his MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons and his BA from Washington & Jefferson College.

Jean-Pierre Naegeli
Partner - Paul Capital Partners
Mr. Naegeli is a Partner at Paul Capital Partners, a Firm he joined in 2000. In addition to sourcing and structuring transactions, he is responsible for managing the Firm’s royalty funds’ overall due diligence efforts. Prior to joining Paul Capital Partners, Mr. Naegeli spent nearly a decade at Johnson & Johnson, initially in various operating and corporate roles assessing healthcare technologies across all divisions, followed by nearly five years in principal investing at Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, the strategic investment and venture capital subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Mr. Naegeli also has extensive engineering experience in Europe. He serves or has served on the board of directors of several private companies.

Mr. Naegeli received an MBA from the Yale School of Management, his BSc and his MSc from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.