Gary Kurtzman

VC

Gary Kurtzman

Managing Director
Safeguard Scientifics

Gary is a Managing Director of Life sciences at Safeguard. He identifies, deploys capital in and supports emerging life sciences companies. Gary has more than 25 years of experience in operations and investments, leveraging his medical expertise to enable businesses to enhance their products and grow their services, as well as to discover new partnering potential in developing entrepreneurial companies. Gary targets companies with solutions that address the high cost of medical care, and safer and more effective treatments. Gary is a board member of Safeguard partner companies Alverix, Good Start Genetics, Medivo, NuPathe Inc. (NASDAQ:PATH) and PixelOptics. Gary joined Safeguard from BioAdvance, a state initiative committed to funding early-stage life sciences companies, where he served as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer. Previously, he was Chief Executive Officer at Pluvita Corporation, a company developing biological and bioinformatic solutions for drug and diagnostic development. Gary also previously served as Chief Operating Officer at Genovo, Inc., a gene therapy start-up company. He was also employed as head of research & development by Avigen, Inc., an early-stage gene therapy company located in San Francisco. Gary began his career with Gilead Sciences, Inc.—at the time, a pre-IPO biotechnology company—as virology group leader. Gary currently also teaches entrepreneurship in life sciences at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.