A 22-year veteran of early-stage venture capital investing, Mr. Fleming has helped raise and manage six venture funds totaling more than $500 million and has served on the boards of 19 venture-backed companies. In 1993 Mr. Fleming co-founded Forward Ventures. In his capacity as a founding Managing Member he served as the initial president and CEO of Triangle Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Gilead Sciences, Inc. [NASDAQ:GILD]), Actigen (now part of Corixa/GlaxoSmithKline [NYSE:GSK]), GenQuest (now part of Corixa/GlaxoSmithKline [NYSE:GSK]) and CombiChem (acquired by DuPont (NYSE:[DD]), and now part of Deltagen (Pink Sheets:DGEN). Mr. Fleming was a founding board member of Arizeke Pharmaceuticals, Ciphergen Biosystems [NASDAQ:CIPH] and Gryphon Therapeutics, and formerly served on the boards of Acorda Therapeutics [NASDAQ: ACOR], Converge Medical, Doctors on Line, EndiCOR (acquired by ev3 [NASDAQ:EVVV], First Dental Health, IntensiCare, MitoKor, and Tandem Medical. He currently serves as a director of Ambit Biosciences, Sanarus Medical, and Kémia, and is a founding director of Nereus Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Fleming serves as a director of CONNECT, San Diego’s support organization for the academic-to-early-stage community, and is a past president of the Biotechnology Venture Investors Group.  
 
Venture funds Mr. Fleming has managed have made investments in more than 70 private and public companies, a number of which have gone public and/or been acquired by pharmaceutical companies. He has helped start more than 15 companies, and served at founding CEO of eight. At Forward Mr. Fleming has invested in almost every segment of the health-care industry, including pharmaceuticals, biologics, diagnostics, devices, services and software. He has managed both platform and product companies/investments in the portfolio and led or participated in financings at all levels from pre-start-up to PIPES in public companies, in both debt and equity.  
 
Before establishing Forward Ventures, Mr. Fleming served as the chairman, president and CEO of GeneSys Therapeutics (merged with Somatix and acquired by Cell GeneSys [NASDAQ:CEGE]). He began his venture career with Ventana Growth Funds in San Diego in 1986. He earned his B.A. from Amherst College and his M.B.A. from the UCLA Graduate School of Management.