Risa Stack Investment Partner (Life Sciences)
Dr. Risa Stack is a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Since joining the firm in 2003, she has worked to build and support KPCB’s personalized medicine portfolio. Risa has been the founding CEO and a board member of several personalized medicine companies, including CardioDx and Nodality. Risa is a board observer at Tethys, Veracyte and Xdx. In addition to her work directly with portfolio companies, Risa is involved in developing public policy in molecular diagnostics and personalized medicine. Risa is also involved in the development of therapeutics companies, including Corthera and Trius. She was most recently a board member of Corthera (sold to Novartis in 2009), and she is a board observer at Epizyme and Pacific Biosciences.
Risa has 15 years of experience investing in personalized medicine, therapeutics and platform technologies. Her investment career spans from incubations to public companies. Most recently, she has focused on starting companies, often taking operational roles. Before joining KPCB, Risa was a principal at J.P. Morgan Partners in the life science practice for six years. While at J.P. Morgan Partners, she sponsored a series of investments including Acurian, Connetics (acquired by Steifel Laboratories), Diatide (acquired by Berlex), Ilex Oncology (acquired by Genzyme), Illumina, and Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead). Risa was also involved in JP Morgan Partners’ international investing efforts, which included European life sciences companies and managing a portfolio of Israeli early stage life sciences and IT companies. Before joining the venture capital industry, Risa worked as a derivative specialist on the Chicago Board of Trade, where she traded futures and options on government securities.
Risa received her B.S. degree in genetics and development with distinction from the University of Illinois and her Ph.D. in immunology from the University of Chicago. She was also a member of the second class of Kauffman Fellows. Risa also serves as a member of the advisory board of the National Summit on Personalized Healthcare and GE’s Healthymagination effort. In 2004, Risa was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times.