Ismail Kola, PHD

Board of Directors

Ismail is a Senior Partner at Forepont Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm investing in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medtech companies that improve healthcare outcomes. He has held several senior executive positions at UCB, Merck, Schering-Plough and Pharmacia Corporation. Throughout Ismail’s distinguished career, he has led teams that have successfully brought numerous blockbuster pharmaceutical products to market, with several others currently in pivotal development. Prior to his move to industry, Ismail was Professor of Human Molecular Genetics at Monash University Medical School and Director of the Research Center for Functional Genomics and Human Disease. He is on the Board of Directors of Athersys (Nasdaq:ATHX – Chairman), Invicta Medical, Hemanext, Forepont Capital (Vice-Chair), and BeCareLink. Ismail holds Professorships of Medicine at Oxford University, The Karolinska Institute, Washington University at St Louis, and Monash University and is a Fellow at Pembroke College, Cambridge University. He has more than 160 publications, many in prestigious journals and has been cited more than 17,190 times.