Dr. François Ferré is a renowned biotech entrepreneur and investor with a distinguished track record of building and scaling life science companies. He is currently co-CEO of ALMA Life Sciences and Managing Director at Mesa Verde Venture Partners, both focused on early-stage healthcare innovation. Dr. Ferré co-founded Althea Technologies, acquired by Ajinomoto in 2013, and AltheaDx, a leader in pharmacogenomics acquired by Castle Biosciences in 2022. He serves on the boards of Agendia, NeuraLace Medical, and the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (Chairman). A molecular oncology Ph.D. from the Pasteur Institute and a pioneer in quantitative PCR, he has co-edited seminal books in the field. He was honored with the E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2005 and inducted into the CONNECT Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in 2016.