Dr. McWilliams is a Principal of Sanderling Ventures, the lead investor of Axikin Pharmaceuticals, and brings with him more than fifteen years of experience in biomedical research and management. In addition to Axikin Pharmaceuticals and its predecessor Actimis, Dr. McWilliams also serves in the capacity of Director, Chief Executive Officer and member of the management team in several other Sanderling portfolio companies. Prior to joining Sanderling, Dr. McWilliams worked at Genentech where, as a Product Manager in Oncology Commercial Development, he managed a pipeline of oncology products in clinical and pre-clinical development and was the Commercial Team Leader for Avastin. Prior to that he was an Associate with Booz.Allen & Hamilton in San Francisco where he focused on projects for major US and International life science companies. Prior to that, he worked for Oxford Molecular, one of the first companies in the field of rational drug design and bio-informatics, helping to set up and establish their US operations prior to their successful IPO on the London Stock Exchange. Dr. McWilliams received an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, where he was an R.C. Kopf Fellow and was elected to Beta Gamma Sigma. He received a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University where he received a Hugh Scott Taylor fellowship. He received a B.A. in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University.
