Scion Team Page Image

The ten companies our team has been part of founding or building over the past ten years have realized uncommon success and, together, have given rise to &gt;15 clinical-stage therapeutics, advanced six promising therapeutics into pivotal clinical trials and have generated &gt;$14 billion in combined public equity value and announced M&amp;A proceeds. We are excited to discover what the future holds.

Investment Team

Operations

Innovations

Fellows & Alumni

Sam is a founder and Managing Partner of Scion. He has more than 20 years of experience in the life sciences across roles as an investor, scientist and entrepreneur. From 2013 until October 2019, Sam was a Partner at Apple Tree Partners (ATP) where he focused on creating and building therapeutics companies. During his tenure at ATP, Sam contributed to the formation, financing and build-out of Syntimmune (acquired by Alexion Pharmaceuticals), Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ: STOK), Chinook Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis), Marengo Therapeutics and Ascidian Therapeutics and served as a member of each company’s Board of Directors. 
Before joining ATP in 2013, Sam was an immunologist at the University of Cambridge in the UK where his research focused on novel therapeutic strategies for autoimmune diseases. Previously, Sam was a member of the investment team at Symphony Capital, a private equity firm dedicated to structured investments in development-stage therapeutics. Sam began his career as a member of the healthcare investment banking team at Citigroup, where he advised leading biotechnology, medical device and healthcare services businesses on numerous completed strategic and debt and equity financing engagements. In addition to his professional responsibilities, Sam serves as a Director of the Burke Neurological Institute, an independent neuroscience research institute affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine.
Sam holds an A.B. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and completed his M.Phil. and Ph.D. research at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Taylor Research Scholar and was awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for his work.

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Samuel Hall, PhD

Aaron is a founder and Managing Partner of Scion. He has spent over a decade specializing in founding, building and investing in life sciences companies, focusing primarily on therapeutics. Aaron currently serves as a board member of Tourmaline Bio (NASDAQ: TRML), where he has been serving since the company’s inception. Previously, he was a Venture Partner at Medicxi, where he was a founding board member of Centessa Pharmaceuticals PLC (NASDAQ: CNTA) and assisted the team with other privately held therapeutics investments. Before joining Medicxi, he was a co-founder and founding board member of RayzeBio (NASDAQ: RYZB), which was recently acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY). 
From 2011 until 2019, Aaron was a Partner at Apple Tree Partners (ATP), a life sciences venture capital firm. At ATP, Aaron was a key member of the therapeutics investment practice, playing a leading role in assembling several ATP portfolio companies, and most notably, serving on the boards of Akero Therapeutics (NASDAQ: AKRO), Corvidia Therapeutics (acquired by Novo Nordisk) and Syntimmune (acquired by Alexion), as well as two privately held companies (Marengo and Ascidian). During his time at ATP, Aaron was also a board observer at Stoke Therapeutics (NASDAQ: STOK) and led many of ATP’s crossover and public biotech investments. Before joining ATP in 2011, Aaron held various roles in private equity and investment banking. 
Aaron received a B.S. in Finance and International Business from NYU Stern’s School of Business.

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Aaron Kantoff

Tadd Wessel is the founder and Managing Partner of Petrichor, a private investment firm focused on the healthcare sector. He is also a founder and Managing Partner of Scion. Tadd has more than 25 years of experience, primarily focused on investing and building companies the life sciences sectors. Previously, he was a Partner at OrbiMed Advisors, where he led the build-out of the structured investment business. Prior to OrbiMed, Tadd was a Vice President at Fortress Investment Group focused on healthcare investments. Tadd began his career in the life sciences investment banking groups at Citigroup and Robertson Stephens.
Tadd has served on more than 30 boards most recently including Aurion Biotech, Cryoport (NASDAQ: CYRX), and ITM. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the AIM at Melanoma Foundation, whose mission is dedicated to finding more effective treatments and, ultimately, the cure for melanoma. He also serves on the Board of the International Centers for Precision Oncology (ICPO) whose mission is to scale access of molecularly targeted precision oncology diagnostics and therapeutics for the benefit of cancer patients globally.
Tadd holds an AB in biology from Princeton University.

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Tadd Wessel

William is an Associate at Scion. Prior to joining the Scion investment team in a full-time capacity William worked with the firm as a member of the inaugural cohort of Scion Fellows. 
William holds an M.D. from the Keck School of Medicine of USC and a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, where he worked in the laboratory of James R. Heath to develop immunotherapy technologies for oncology and COVID-19. He received his A.B. in Chemistry from Princeton University.

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Wiliam Chour, MD, PhD

Sam is an Associate at Scion. Prior to joining the firm in April 2023, Sam was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of David Baker within the Institute of Protein Design at the University of Washington. Sam holds a B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Amherst College, and a Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from MIT, where he was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

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Samuel Hendel, PhD

Andreas is a Partner at Scion. He is a 20+-year industry veteran, with protein engineering and structural biology expertise at large and small pharma. Before joining the firm, he was the founder and CSO of Marengo Therapeutics, a developer of transformational protein therapeutics targeting TCRvβ chains for cancer. Previously, he led New Technologies for Biologics at Novartis, heading a research group responsible for the discovery and development of complex biologics, cell, gene and nucleic acid therapies.
In addition to discovering many innovative protein therapeutics, he was the principal inventor of core technologies that established Novartis’ adoptive T-cell therapy portfolio that ultimately led to the first FDA-approved CAR-T product, Kymriah. At Abbott Laboratories, he was instrumental in solving the crystal structure of Humira bound to its target TNF. Andreas is an inventor on &gt;450 patents and patent applications.
Andreas received his Ph.D. in Germany at the University of Bayreuth followed by post-doctoral education in biochemistry and structural biology at the University of Illinois, Birkbeck College London and UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas TX. He received the prestigious Novartis VIVA award for his many contributions to the life sciences.

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Andreas Loew, PhD

Andy is a Venture Partner at Scion Life Sciences. For over two decades, he headed Nature Biotechnology, one of the biopharmaceutical industry’s leading journals in translational research. In 2015, he was cited by Scientific American as one of the 100 most influential people in biotechnology. As well as writing over 500 articles and editorials, he has hosted scientific conferences with leading academic institutions around the world. He was also a co-founder of the Nature SciCafe 10-year event series of faculty networking events with top venture and industry stakeholders in Boston, New York, San Francisco, San Diego, Houston, London and Singapore. 
Andy obtained his Ph.D. in molecular biology and microbiology at King’s College London, where he also carried out his postdoctoral research. He was an adjunct professor at the University of Miami and a recipient of the Helen White Prize.

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Andy Marshall, PhD

David Katona is the Head of Business Development and Investor Relations at Petrichor. Dave has 20+ years of capital formation experience and leads all marketing, development, and fundraising initiatives for Petrichor and affiliate firm Scion. Prior to joining Petrichor in March 2021, Dave was part of the Capital Introductions Group at Jefferies Group, where he managed institutional relationships, spanning endowments, foundations, family offices, and others. He also ran the group’s uncorrelated/niche co-investment outreach programs. Previously, Dave was a Partner at Abundance Partners. He holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Political Science with a concentration in Economics from Bates College.

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David Katona

Baabur Khondker is the Chief Financial and Chief Compliance Officer of Petrichor. He is also a member of our Valuation Committee. Mr. Khondker is responsible for all financial and compliance related matters of the firm. Prior to joining Petrichor in March of 2020, Mr. Khondker was the Chief Financial Officer of Colbeck Capital Management and Controller of the Merchant Banking Division for Morgan Stanley Asset and Investment Management. Prior to this, he was an Assistant Vice President of the IPO team that took Blackstone Public and held various other finance position within Blackstone. Mr. Khondker began his career with Deloitte &amp; Touche in their Assurance and Advisory practice. Mr. Khondker holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Accounting from Baruch College of the City University of New York.

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Baabur Khondker

Eddie Hossein is a Finance Controller at Petrichor. He previously served as Controller at Colbeck Capital Management and DiMaio Ahmad Capital, in addition to earlier roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers and JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Hossein holds a dual degree in Economics and Accounting from the Queens College of CUNY.

Team

United by our conviction in the power of therapeutic innovation to improve human health.

Meet the Scion team

Samuel Hendel, PhD