Junior minerals exploration and development company General Metals has appointed Mike Powell, a venture capitalist and general partner at Sofinnova Ventures, to its board of directors.
Powell has more than 25 years of pharmaceutical development experience, and he has focused interest in clinical-stage product companies.
He joined Sofinnova Ventures as a general partner in 1997.
Prior to becoming a venture capitalist, Powell worked on 20 clinical products and authored almost 100 papers and books, including an 1,100-page treatise on vaccine design.
Powell was an early investor in Actelion, InterMune, Anesiva, Orexigen Therapeutics, Seattle Genetics, and Threshold Pharmaceuticals, as well as several private companies such as Trius Therapeutics.
He is currently board president of AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, a past adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a strategic adviser to One World Health, and a founding venture advisory board member of the IAVI Innovation Fund.
Prior to Sofinnova, Powell held several industry positions including group head of drug delivery at Genentech (1990-97), director of product development at Cytel (1987-90), and senior scientist at Syntex Research (1984-87).
He received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Toronto in 1981, and completed his post-doctorate work in Bioorganic Chemistry at the University of California, where he was subsequently a faculty member (1981-84).
