Acting CEO, Belharra Therapeutics; President & CSO, Inception Therapeutics Discovery Engine; Venture Partner
Richard joined Inception as CSO in 2018 and has served in a variety of leadership roles in portfolio companies since then. He is currently the acting CEO of Belharra, a small molecule drug discovery company built on a chemoproteomics platform. Before joining Versant and Inception, Richard led search and evaluation for immune oncology, immunology and digital therapeutics in the business development group at Novartis. Prior to this role, he led a research and drug discovery group at the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation that contributed to multiple preclinical and clinical development programs. Richard trained in immunology and genetics during his Ph.D. (ICRF, London) and post-doc (HHMI, Stanford), after which he held leadership positions in Eos Biotechnology and Phenomix Corporation, before joining Novartis in 2004.