Kieren Patel, Ph.D.

Kieren is the Scientific Advisor to Willis & Smith Capital. Kieren has held a number of leadership roles across both small and large life sciences companies, launching and managing a variety of medical device products and services.

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Most recently, he served as Head of Product & Marketing for a revolutionary life science startup founded by Jonathan Rothberg. He is the architect of the company's commercial strategy which resulted in a $550M funding event for a SPAC merger and subsequent listing on NASDAQ (QSI).

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Previously he served in product management leadership at industry leader Illumina (ILMN), managing a genomics product portfolio which grossed $1.5B+ in sales and contributed 75% of top line incremental revenue.

Prior to joining Illumina, Kieren was also a medical device entrepreneur, launching and operating Opticent Health, a startup dedicated to developing novel ophthalmic imaging devices for early detection and prevention of blinding diseases.

He was formerly a scientific advisor at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, an AM LAW 100 law firm, where his primary focus was patent prosecution and IP due diligence in the fields of biotechnology, genomics, and drug therapeutics.

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Kieren received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology, and his J.D. and M.B.A., respectively, from Northwestern University School of Law and Kellogg School of Management, where he was a Zell Scholar. He graduated magna cum laude with an AB in Molecular Biology and Comparative Literature from Cornell University.