Makoto (Mark) Ohori Leader
"Mark joined UTokyo Innovation Platform Co. (UTokyo IPC), a venture capital firm established by the University of Tokyo, as a Partner in October 2020. He holds multiple leadership positions including Representative Director and Executive Chairperson at reverSASP Therapeutics, Tokyo, Japan. Mark also serves on the boards of several biotech firms: DEM BioPharma and Carbon Biosciences in Massachusetts, USA; aceRNA Technologies in Kyoto, Japan; LiberoThera Inc. in Tokyo, Japan. His past board memberships include Chordia Therapeutics in Kanagawa, Japan, Heartseed Inc. in Tokyo, Japan, Axial Therapeutics in Massachusetts, USA and he previously served as a Committee Member at NEDO and the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, Japan (METI). Additionally, he is a Board Observer at STORM Therapeutics in Cambridge, UK.
Prior to UTokyo IPC, Mark was Executive Director, Head of Early-stage Partnering at Astellas Innovation Management (AIM) LLC. (Cambridge, MA) where he led the global innovation acquisition team with three offices at Boston, Silicon Valley, and Japan. Mark established strategic partnerships with biopharmaceutical companies and academic institutions, such as Pandion Therapeutics, Modalis Therapeutics, Harvard University, or Boston Children's Hospital. Before that, Mark was working in-residence at Potenza Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA, M&A by Astellas in 2019), where he served as Co-chair of the Joint Steering Committee.
Before that, Mark was an Investment Director at Astellas Venture Management (Menlo Park, CA) from 2011, where he invested in early-stage biotech companies (Verastem, Fate, Epizyme, PhaseBio, eFFECTOR, Crescendo(UK), Bicycle Therapeutics, Mitobridge, Tizona, Potenza, Viamet, etc.), established build-to-buy Joint Venture NewCos such as Potenza Therapeutics, which Astellas acquired after its successful creation of multiple clinical antibody programs. Mark also has experience as a drug discovery researcher at Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma, where he led multiple cross-functional small molecule and antibody therapeutics projects."
