Leadership | Blacklight Partners

Leadership

Ryan L. Coe, Ph.D.

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

200+ projects

50+ clients

15+ years in life sciences, spanning R&D, strategy consulting, and financial advisory, with deep understanding of innovator technology.
Expertise across buy- and sell-side M&A and corporate & pipeline strategy.
Previously Partner at a boutique life sciences strategy consultancy focused on diligence and corporate strategy across biotech, pharma, and pharma services.

Sr. Fellow, Bioengineering, MIT
Ph.D., Bioengineering, University of Washington
B.S., Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia

Leslie Gautam, M.B.A.

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

25+ deals

$15B+ transaction value

20+ years of strategic biopharma experience across business development, capital raising, diligence, and commercialization.
Former Chief Strategy/Business Officer for three companies and senior investment banker across clinical- and commercial-stage biopharma.
Previously Managing Director at a life sciences–focused strategic advisory & transactions firm.

M.B.A., Columbia Business School
B.S., Psychobiology, UCLA

Senior Team

Danny Talati

Partner

25+ years experience

25+ years of biopharma business development experience, from deal sourcing through negotiation and close, with deep expertise in neuroscience.

25+ years of biopharma experience spanning sales, medical affairs, business development, corporate development, strategy, and investing.
Proven business development leader with deep experience sourcing and evaluating hundreds of opportunities, leading licensing deals, equity investments, joint ventures, and company incubations from initial sourcing through term sheet negotiation and close.
Deep expertise in neuroscience, including psychiatry and neurodegenerative disorders, backed by an extensive network of corporate executives, investors, key opinion leaders, bankers, and consultants.

Pharm.D., Northeastern University
M.B.A., London Business School

Christopher Cano

Operating Advisor

20+ years experience

CEO of Cellergy Pharma with 20+ years building early-stage biopharma companies through partnering, licensing, and strategic M&A transactions.

20+ years of global pharmaceutical and biotech operational and business development experience, currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of Cellergy Pharma.
Specializes in building and growing early-stage companies from seed funding through public offerings, with an emphasis on partnering, licensing, and M&A transactions with strategic collaborators.
Previously Chief Operating Officer and VP of Business Development at TFF Pharmaceuticals; also Managing Director of C2 Strategic Solutions, a BD&L consulting firm serving biotech, pharma, and drug delivery clients.

B.S., Finance, Villanova University
M.S., Business Management, Rider University

Gary Brewster

Finance Advisor

30+ years experience

30+ years advising healthcare and life sciences companies on M&A, financings, and strategic transactions across the biopharma industry.

30+ years of experience as an operating executive and advisor, providing financial and strategic advisory services to healthcare and life sciences companies undergoing mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances, strategic investments, and financings.
Previously a senior member of the Houlihan Lokey biopharmaceuticals practice, where he led development of the firm's FVA industry pivot and served on the FVA business's executive committee.
Career experience also includes senior consulting at PricewaterhouseCoopers and an engineering role at IBM.

M.B.A., Wharton School
B.S., Industrial Engineering, Stanford University

Andrew Dannenberg

Scientific Advisor

200+ publications

Former Weill Cornell Professor of Medicine and founding Director of the Weill Cornell Cancer Center, now a partner at Emerald Bioventures.

Previously the Henry R. Erle, MD-Roberts Family Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College and founding Director of the Weill Cornell Cancer Center.
Authored 200+ scientific articles and edited several books and journals, with research interests ranging from inflammation to the obesity-cancer connection.
Member of the Association of American Physicians and the American Society for Clinical Investigation; received the 2011 AACR/Prevent Cancer Foundation award for excellence in cancer prevention research.

M.D., Washington University in St. Louis
Residency & Fellowship, New York Hospital Cornell Medical Center

100+ years of deep transaction and commercial experience.