Barbara Schilberg, J.D.

Member, Board of Directors and formerly Chief Executive Officer, BioAdvance

Ms. Schilberg has worked with academic technologies and start-up companies in the life sciences sector for over 30 years. Under her leadership as CEO of BioAdvance from 2002 to 2021, the firm committed over $50 million to almost 100 seed-stage companies and academic projects addressing a wide range of human health issues, such as Alzheimer’s disease, infectious disease, cancer and pain. The BioAdvance portfolio companies have attracted over $3.75 billion in subsequent capital and five companies have gone public.

Ms. Schilberg has served as a board member or observer for BioAdvance portfolio companies including Protez, Avid, Immunome, Ceptaris, Novira Pharmaceuticals, Ossianix, Mebias Discovery, Keriton, Pillo Health, ENB Therapeutics and Palvella Therapeutics. In addition to her role at BioAdvance, Ms. Schilberg serves on various boards or advisory boards, including the Alliance for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE), the Drexel-Coulter Translational Research Partnership, the Roy and Diana Vagelos Life Sciences & Management Program at the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn Medicine Research Council Meeting, and the University City Keystone Innovation Zone.  She is the recipient of the Iris Newman Award from AWE, the Hubert J.P. Schoemaker Leadership Award from Life Sciences Pennsylvania and the Entrepreneur Leadership Award from the Pennsylvania Biotechnology Center.

Before joining BioAdvance Ms. Schilberg served as a senior executive with four emerging life sciences companies, and before joining industry, Ms. Schilberg specialized in representing biopharmaceutical companies and research institutions in public and private financings and the commercialization of technology, as a partner in the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius. Ms. Schilberg received a J.D. from the University of Virginia and clerked with the Honorable Edward R. Becker, formerly Senior Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.