Rom E. Eliaz
Strategic Partner
reliaz@colmengroup.com

“For any business, orchestrating the execution of a strategic plan that emphasizes the competitive advantages of the company and its people is one of the keys to success. Executing the plan creatively while keeping it grounded in the foundations of operational and strategic planning, financial sophistication and agile reaction to market forces empowers and enriches the positioning of the organization, thereby enabling maximum return to the shareholders.”

Rom Eliaz, Ph.D., MBA, based in our San Francisco office, has over 20 years of pharmaceutical and biotechnology development experience as a scientist, entrepreneur, executive and venture capitalist. Dr. Eliaz joined The Colmen Group in 2009 as Strategic Partner. Prior to joining the Colmen Group he founded Elrom Ventures Corp. a venture capital firm that specializes in the formation, financing and early operational development of green and biotechnology-based companies. Dr. Eliaz has substantial academic and industry experience in business development and program management and a track record of shepherding merger and acquisition transactions to completion. From 2007 to 2008 he was Senior Director Development and Project Management at Intradigm Corporation. Intradigm is a private biotechnology company committed to the development of systematic RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics focused on oncology, and raised $16M in Series A round. From 2004 to 2006 he was Director of Product Development and Project Management at Rinat Neuroscience Corporation, which was acquired by Pfizer for $500M in 2006. From 2001 to 2004, Dr. Eliaz served in various Pharmaceutical, Product Development and Portfolio Management roles of increasing responsibility at Alza Corp. Alza was acquired by Johnson and Johnson in 2001 for $12.3B. In his last role at Johnson and Johnson, as a member of the Portfolio Management Group, Dr. Eliaz managed the investment portfolio of 70 different pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In this capacity his focus was to increase the value and life span of existing and new drugs using various drug delivery platforms. During his time at Johnson and Johnson, Dr. Eliaz led to market two drugs which met with blockbuster market success, Doxil® and Viadur®, and also advanced 12 different drug candidates from early discovery research to clinical trials. From 1999-2001, Dr. Eliaz was Assistant Professor at University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the department of Biopharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Eliaz authored over 40 scientific publications in areas of drug delivery, tissue engineering, drug targeting, and gene therapy. He holds 12 patents and has been an invited speaker at over 20 scientific conferences worldwide.

In the nonprofit sector, Dr. Eliaz founded the Ben Gurion University Alumni Society - Silicon Valley and San Francisco Bay Area section. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Lupus Foundation of Northern America and an Advisor to Band of Angels. Dr. Eliaz is an occasional guest and invited speaker and panelist at industry conferences and graduate schools, and has served as a mentor to scientists at early stages of their careers and during career transitions.

Dr. Eliaz did his Post-Doctoral work at UCSF schools of Medicine and Pharmacy, focusing in the areas of drug delivery, drug targeting, tissue engineering and gene therapy. Dr. Eliaz received his Ph.D. (cum laude) in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the Weizmann Institute of Sciences and Ben-Gurion University. He also holds M.Sc. (summa cum laude) in Chemical Engineering, and a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, both from Ben-Gurion University. He earned an M.B.A. (cum laude) from Harvard Business School and Boston University program at Ben Gurion University.