Blog

John Shiver, PhD

Dr. John Shiver is a Special Advisor for F-Prime and is also Chief Strategy Officer at IGM ID a wholly owned subsidiary of IGM Biosciences. Established in 2021, IGM ID utilizes a proprietary IgM platform to treat and prevent infectious diseases. The potential utility of this platform for prevention and treatment of infectious diseases is supported by its recent application towards COVID-19 (Ku et al., Nature, published online 03 June 2021).

Prior to joining IGM ID, John was the SVP and Global Head of Vaccines R&D and a member of the Executive Leadership team for 8 years at Sanofi Pasteur, the largest company in the world devoted entirely to vaccines. He previously spent 22 years at Merck & CO where he held a series of senior leadership positions with his last position being VP and Head of Vaccines and Biologics Research. He was a member of Merck Vaccines Integrated Leadership Team and the Global Research Leadership Committee responsible for vaccine research, vaccine clinical assays and biomarkers, and biologics research, and siRNA technologies. Earlier in his career John spent five years at the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

John is a recognized expert and industry leader in vaccine and pharmaceutical research and development. He has guided numerous scientific teams that created novel vaccine and monoclonal antibody candidates to prevent or treat more than 40 infectious and non-infectious diseases, including HIV, influenza, HPV, RSV, CMV, pneumococcus, cancer, and asthma. He has collaborated with other senior leaders to secure the licensure of 14 pharmaceutical products spanning both vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, many of which were first- and/or best-in-class products addressing global infectious diseases. He also championed four acquisitions and three major collaborations to obtain new technologies or clinical candidates/products.

John is a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the International Society of Vaccines (ISV) and a member of multiple advisory boards, including the Board of Directors for the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI), Board of Directors for Icosavax, and previously, the Executive Board of the International Society for Vaccines. He has also served on journal editorial boards, including Nature Partner Journals Vaccines and the Journal of Virology. He is the author of more than 150 articles, including 19 in Science, Nature, Cell, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is a co-author of 68 awarded patents. In addition, he is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania College of Medicine and has been recognized by the Financial Times.

John holds a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biophysics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. He also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC.

Hannah Arnold

Hannah is a Venture Partner at F-Prime and leads Business Development and Mortgage at Argyle. Previously she was on F-Prime’s tech investment team focused on early-stage FinTech investments. Prior to joining F-Prime, Hannah worked closely with startups in Johannesburg as an associate with Secha Capital, where she spent every day on the ground helping teams in Secha’s portfolio scale. She was a consultant with Bain & Company in Atlanta, where she served large tech clients and worked extensively with the Private Equity practice on deals spanning healthcare, e-commerce and industrials. She began her career working for non-profits in international development, where she saw firsthand the impact that innovative financial products can have on people’s lives. Hannah received her BA in Public Policy from Duke University.

Jillian Enos

Jillian Enos is VP of Finance and joined F-Prime in April 2022. Prior to joining F-Prime, she worked at Charlesbank Capital Partners where she held the position of Valuations and Portfolio Reporting Manager. Jill also worked at PwC for six years, most recently as a Manager in their Assurance practice, where she was primarily focused on private equity and private credit fund clients.

Jill earned her BBA in Accounting from the Isenberg School of Management at University of Massachusetts, Amherst and is a certified public accountant in the state of Massachusetts.

Andrew Bognanni

Andrew Bognanni joined F-Prime in April 2022 to assist the finance and operations teams at the firm. Prior to joining F-Prime, he was employed by Standish Management where he held the position of Manager. He also worked at RSM in their audit practice.  Andrew holds a M.S. in Accounting from Northeastern University.

Joshua Gray

Joshua Gray is Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Fidelity Investments and supports the F-Prime team on legal aspects of the firm’s operations, including portfolio company investments and exits, fund formation, ongoing fund administration, and day-to-day management company operations.

Josh joined Fidelity in 2022 from Nutter McClennen & Fish, where he was a Partner and a member of the Corporate and Transactions department. Josh also previously worked as an associate in the Technology and Life Sciences groups of the international law firm Goodwin Procter. He has over a decade of legal experience counseling venture capital and private equity firms, public and private companies, and entrepreneurs on a variety of matters, including company formation, equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, public offerings, securities law matters, corporate governance, intellectual property transactions, employment and equity compensation matters, and other general business matters. Over the course of his career, Josh has worked across a broad spectrum of industries, including life sciences, health care, medical devices, software, information technology, consumer goods and financial services.

Josh received his B.A., cum laude, from Syracuse University and his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he was an Editor of the New York University Environmental Law Journal.

Josh is admitted to the Massachusetts bar.

Rocio Wu

Rocio Wu is a Partner at F-Prime Capital, where she leads investments across AI, Enterprise, and FinTech. She regularly publishes her investment theses in the Forbes VC Column, exploring how emerging technologies reshape industries and global markets.

Previously, Rocio was an investor at Liquid 2 Ventures, founded by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, where she backed companies including Chipper Cash, a leading African cross-border payments platform, and Overjet, an AI company transforming oral healthcare. Before her investing career, Rocio held operating roles at Google and Amazon spanning corporate development, go-to-market strategy, and marketing across the U.S., Japan, Spain, and China.

Rocio is a community builder who convenes founders, operators, and investors across networks such as Xooglers, Women in AI, Female Founders & Funders, and HBS Circles. She is drawn to founders who challenge conventional wisdom and to ideas that connect disciplines in unexpected ways – an orientation that shapes her approach to investing and company-building.

Rocio holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Shanghai International Studies University, through a joint program with Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Spain.

M. Jackson Wilkinson

Jackson Wilkinson is a Venture and Operating Partner with F-Prime, based in the Cambridge office. Jackson supports and advises early-stage healthcare and technology portfolio companies, getting hands-on to help accelerate early product, design, and engineering efforts.

Jackson has led product development at a variety of software companies. Most recently, he was Chief Technology Officer of Project Beacon COVID-19, rapidly expanding access to testing during the pandemic. Previously, he was Senior Vice President at PathAI and led product, design, and engineering, helping grow the company and its technology platform from seed stage through its Series B. Jackson was co-founder and CTO of Kinsights, and following its acquisition, led product and design as part of the management team at Care.com. Prior to his work in digital health and health tech, Jackson led design and UX efforts at consumer technology companies including Posterous (acquired by Twitter) and LinkedIn.

Jackson is a graduate of Bowdoin College, where he holds a degree cum laude in Music and Philosophy.

Grace Root

Grace Root is Director of Finance for F-Prime. Prior to re-joining F-Prime in February 2022, she worked on the management company accounting team at Monroe Capital. Grace also worked as a senior tax accountant at Ernst & Young, where she specialized in providing tax compliance services to clients in the private equity and technology industries.

Grace received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and a Master of Science in Accounting from Boston College. She is a certified public accountant in the state of Massachusetts.

Anastasiya Sybirna, PhD

Anastasiya is a Senior Associate with F-Prime’s London team, focusing on healthcare investments. Prior to joining F-Prime in 2022, Ana was an Engagement Manager at McKinsey in London specializing in Pharmaceuticals & Medical Products. She had also worked as a Strategy Consultant at Advancy. 

Ana holds a PhD in Stem Cell Biology and Medicine from the University of Cambridge (UK), a MSc in Molecular and Cell Biology from École normale supérieure (Paris, France) and a BSc in Biology from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine).

 

Rachel Woolbert

Rachel Woolbert joined F-Prime in January of 2022. She is the Executive Assistant to President and Senior Managing Partner Stephen C. Knight, MD. Prior to F-Prime, Rachel supported the Founder and Chairman of Cambridge Family Enterprise Group (CFEG), a consulting firm advising wealthy family businesses. Prior to CFEG, Rachel supported the CIO of HighVista Strategies, an investment management firm co-founded by a Harvard Business School finance professor. Rachel started her administrative career at Harvard Business School, where she served as a Faculty Assistant and Unit Coordinator for 17 years.

Rachel received her BA from Harvard University Extension School, graduating cum laude.