Dennis McWilliams Joins Santé Ventures

Serial Entrepreneur to Focus on Building Life Science Companies as Venture Partner

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Jun 25, 2019, 09:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, June 25, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Santé Ventures, a healthcare and life sciences investment firm specializing in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies, digital health technologies, and healthcare services, announced today the appointment of Dennis McWilliams as Venture Partner based in Austin.

Dennis McWilliams, Venture Partner at Santé Ventures

As a serial entrepreneur, McWilliams has created numerous successful medical device and biopharmaceutical companies. In his new role at Santé Ventures, McWilliams will grow the firm's Entrepreneur Program by partnering with and mentoring entrepreneurs and creating new ventures for the fund.

"Dennis has a proven-track record for bringing creativity, energy, and intellect to the process of building new ventures in life sciences," said Kevin Lalande, Managing Director and Co-Founder of Santé Ventures. "We welcome Dennis to the team and in addition to benefitting from his experience and insights, we are confident he can help us leverage our deep network of relationships in identifying and expanding opportunities within our investment focus. Dennis will fit well into our collaborative culture and we are excited to partner with him to advance new products and services to better serve patients."

McWilliams is the founder of SparkMed Advisors, a boutique advisory focusing on bringing creative solutions to life science commercialization. Prior to that, he founded Apollo Endosurgery and served as CEO for 9 years until 2014, where he assumed the role of President and Chief Commercial Officer. Earlier in his career, McWilliams co-founded Chrysalis BioTechnology‚ a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing novel drug therapies for tissue regeneration‚ including bone‚ cartilage‚ and dermal soft tissue.

McWilliams earned his M.S. in Engineering Management from Stanford University and his B.S. with honors from the University of Texas in Aerospace Engineering. He has served on the Board for the Texas Exes, was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate from the University, and in 2019 was named to the Academy of Distinguished Alumni for the Aerospace Engineering school. He is a frequent speaker and lecturer on entrepreneurship and innovation in medicine and serves as faculty for the B.E.S.T. Innovations Courses at IHU Institut de Chirurgie Guidée Par L'Image in Strasbourg France, Taiwan, and Brazil.

About Santé Ventures
Founded in 2006, Santé Ventures is a specialized healthcare and life sciences investment firm with over a half-billion dollars in capital under management. The firm invests in early-stage companies developing innovative new medical technologies, biotechnologies and digitally-enabled healthcare services. Since inception, the Firm has screened over 5,000 opportunities to make 33 portfolio investments, including Claret Medical (Boston Scientific), TVA Medical (Becton Dickinson), Millipede Medical (Boston Scientific), Molecular Templates (MTEM), AbVitro (Celgene) and Explorys (IBM Corp). Santé invests nationally and is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with additional offices in Houston. For more information, please visit www.santeventures.com.

Media Contacts
Santé Ventures Press and Community Relations
[email protected]
512.721.1200

Trevor Gibbons, Prosek Partners
[email protected]
646.818.9238

SOURCE Santé Ventures