Sigrid Van Bladel, Ph.D. joined Aberdare Ventures as a Venture Partner in 2011.
She previously was a Partner at New Enterprise Associates (NEA), a leading venture capital firm focusing on technology and healthcare start-ups, where she spent 18 years investing in biopharmaceutical and medical device companies.
During her investing career, Sigrid has a long, well established record of backing early-stage healthcare technology enterprises. Successful exits where she was an investor and Board member include Myogen (formerly NASDAQ: MYOG, acquired by Gilead); Kai Pharma (an Aberdare investment acquired by Amgen); Novacept (acquired by Cytyc/Hologic); SurgRx (acquired by Johnson and Johnson); Xcel Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Valeant Pharma); Appriva Medical (acquired by EV3/Covidien); and Spiration Inc. (acquired by Olympus Medical Systems).
For two years in a row during her tenure at NEA, Sigrid was included on Forbes Magazine’s Annual Midas List of the top 100 leading technology money makers, as only one of five women included on the list.
Prior to joining NEA, Sigrid worked as a Management Consultant at McKinsey and Company. She received a “Licenciaat” in Chemistry/Biotechnology (summa cum laude) from the University of Ghent in Belgium, where her first place ranking in the nation earned her a four-year Ph.D. full scholarship from the National Science Foundation of Belgium. Sigrid earned a PhD (summa cum laude) in Molecular Biology from The University of Ghent, Belgium, and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.