BOSTON & SAN DIEGO & TAMPA, Fla. & WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Anzu Partners, an investment firm that focuses on industrial and life science technology companies with the potential to transform their industries, today announced that Jaione Maiz, Ph.D. has joined as a Principal and Andrew Sandford has affiliated as an Executive in Residence to support the firm’s growing life sciences focus.
“Dr. Maiz and Mr. Sandford expand Anzu’s capabilities at a critical point where many of our life sciences portfolio companies have demonstrated the value of their technology and the underlying scientific inventions and are actively building relationships with the global leaders in biotech,” said David Michael, Managing Partner, Anzu Partners. “Their individual expertise in growing early-stage companies will help nurture our portfolio companies and their proven ability to identify game-changing technology will help inform our future investments.”
Prior to joining Anzu, Dr. Maiz was a Director of Business Development at Zymergen, supporting life science and healthcare partnerships with Fortune 500 companies. Before Zymergen, she supported new drug discovery company formation, development, and partnerships at Inception Sciences, an incubator within venture fund Versant Ventures. Dr. Maiz has a Ph.D. in Neurobiology from UCLA, a bachelor’s from Northwestern University, and is a Kauffman Fellow.
“The intersection between technology and life sciences is overflowing with opportunity, and there are exciting new tools and diagnostics companies emerging that could transform industries from precision medicine to next-generation medical interventions,” said Dr. Maiz. “I look forward to fostering growth within our life sciences portfolio and helping the team identify the next breakthrough companies.”
Andrew Sandford, a microbiologist by education, brings over 20 years of experience building businesses around innovative offerings in the biotech space. He most recently served as Vice President of Global Business Development, Biologics, for Catalent Pharma Solutions, a leading global provider of advanced services and technologies for drugs, biologics, and consumer health products. Earlier in his career, Mr. Sandford served as Vice President of Business Development for Selexis, Inc. where he established the U.S. subsidiary and was responsible for global transactional and strategic value creation. He also worked for Cambrex Biopharma, which was latterly acquired by Lonza Biologics. He also spent nearly 10 years in Dow Chemical’s Ventures unit where he established and launched the highly successful Pfenex business unit.
“The team at Anzu has built an extraordinary portfolio within life sciences, and it is clear that the firm serves as a true partner to these early-stage companies to help them realize their market potential,” said Andrew Sandford. “I am eager to apply my experience in commercializing promising technologies in the biotech space and look forward to helping both current and future Anzu portfolio companies secure key partnerships that will propel them to the next level.”
About Anzu Partners
Anzu Partners is an investment firm that focuses on industrial and life science technology companies with the potential to transform their industries. Anzu works with entrepreneurs to develop and commercialize technological innovations by providing capital alongside deep expertise in business development, market positioning, global connectivity, and operations. For more information, please visit https://anzupartners.com/.
