Our Team

Daniel Von Hoff, MD, FACP

Daniel D. Von Hoff, MD, FACP is currently Physician in Chief, Distinguished Professor Translational Research Division at TGen (Translational Genomics Research Institute) in Phoenix, Arizona. He is also Chief Scientific Officer for Scottsdale Healthcare’s Clinical Research Institute and is the Medical Director of Research at McKesson Specialty Health and the Scientific Medical Officer for US Oncology Research. He holds an appointment as Professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ.

Dr. Von Hoff’s major interest is in the development of new anticancer agents, both in the clinic and in the laboratory. He and his colleagues were involved in the beginning of the development of many of the agents we now use routinely, including: mitoxantrone, fludarabine, paclitaxel, docetaxel, gemcitabine, irinotecan, nelarabine, capecitabine, lapatinib, vismodegib and others. At present, he and his colleagues are concentrating on the development of molecularly targeted therapies particularly for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Von Hoff has published more than 648 papers, 138 book chapters and over 1085 abstracts. Dr. Von Hoff received the 2010 David A. Karnofsky Memorial Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology for his outstanding contributions to cancer research leading to significant improvement in patient care.

Dr. Von Hoff was appointed to President Bush’s National Cancer Advisory Board in 2004-2010. Dr. Von Hoff is the past President of the American Association for Cancer Research (the world’s largest cancer research organization), a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member and past board member of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. He is a founder of ILEX™ Oncology, Inc. (acquired by Genzyme after Ilex had 2 agents, alemtuzumab and clofarabine approved by the FDA for patients with leukemia). Dr. Von Hoff is founder and the Editor Emeritus of Investigational New Drugs – The Journal of New Anticancer Agents; and, past Editor-in-Chief of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics. He is a co-founder of the AACR/ASCO Methods in Clinical Cancer Research Workshop. He is also proud to have been a mentor and teacher for multiple medical students, medical oncology fellows, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows.

Geoff Ginsburg, MD, PhD

Dr. Ginsburg is focused on developing the scientific construct for our investment and business development. He is the founding director for Genomic Medicine at Duke and assumed his current position in the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy in 2004. He is also the founding executive director of the Center for Personalized Medicine established in the Duke University Health System in 2010.

While at Duke, Dr. Ginsburg has pioneered translational genomics, initiating programs in genome enabled biomarker discovery, longitudinal registries with linked molecular and clinical data, biomarker-informed clinical trials, and the development of novel practice models and implementation research for the integration of genomic tools in heath care systems. With a strong commitment to interdisciplinary science he has led projects to develop predictive models for common complex diseases using high dimensional genomic data as well as collaborations with engineering groups to develop novel point of care sensors. His work spans oncology, infectious diseases, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, and his research is addressing the challenges for translating genomic information into medical practice using new and innovative paradigms, and the integration of personalized medicine into healthcare. He is an internationally recognized expert in genomics and personalized medicine with over 200 published papers, and funding from NIH, DOD, Air Force, DARPA, the Gates Foundation, and industry.

In 1990, he joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where he was director of Preventive Cardiology at Beth Israel Hospital and led a laboratory in applied genetics of cardiovascular disease at Children’s Hospital. In 1997 he joined Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., as senior program director for cardiovascular diseases and was eventually appointed vice president of Molecular and Personalized Medicine, where he was responsible for developing pharmacogenomics strategies for therapeutics, as well as biomarkers for disease and their implementation in the drug development process.

He has received a number of awards for his research accomplishments, including the Innovator in Medicine Award from Millennium in 2004 and the Basic Research Achievement Award in Cardiovascular Medicine from Duke in 2005. He is a founding member and former board member of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, a senior consulting editor for The Journal of the American College of Cardiology, an editor for The HUGO Journal, and an editorial advisor for Science Translational Medicine. In addition he is the editor of Genomic and Personalized Medicine (Elsevier) whose first edition was published in 2009.

He has been a member of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Advisory Council on Genomic Medicine and the National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research at NIH. He is currently an international expert panel member for Genome Canada, a member of the Board of External Experts for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Genome-Based Research to Human Health, and a member of the External Scientific Panel for the Pharmacogenomics Research Network. He has recently been appointed to the Advisory Council for the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at NIH and is the Vice Chair for the Cures Acceleration Network Board. He is also a member of the World Economics Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Personalized and Precision Medicine.

He received his MD and PhD in biophysics from Boston University and completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, MA. Subsequently, he pursued postdoctoral training in clinical cardiovascular medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and in molecular biology at Children’s Hospital as a Bugher Foundation Fellow of the American Heart Association.

Paul Keim, PhD

Paul focuses on the advancement of forensics and genomics analysis of bacterial pathogens. The Pathogen Genomics Program will focus on three core missions:

• Bolstering of biodefense through improved forensic analysis
• Understanding interactions between man and microbe to develop new therapeutics and diagnostics that will alleviate the human ailments caused by dangerous pathogens
• Developing an improved understanding of disease movement to reduce and control the incidence of disease

The Pathogen Genomics Program is a joint program between the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and the Northern Arizona University (NAU), which results in a unified approach to protecting America against dangerous pathogens, in particular Bacillus anthracis (anthrax).

While infectious agents have a long history as biological weapons, these agents pose significant danger to the United States, now more than ever. Generally, the biothreat agents themselves do not threaten our country’s overall public health, however these agents do have unique attributes that facilitate their weaponization. Forensic analysis is particularly valuable as evidenced by the 1993 anthrax attack in Japan that was successfully linked to Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese doomsday cult, by my laboratory at NAU. During the 2001 anthrax investigations, my lab was called upon to play a critical role in providing the US military and intelligence community with cutting edge assays for biological weapons. We successfully delivered assays that were far superior to the assays used previously and available through the military labs. This was critical to both the investigations and the cleanup efforts on the east coast.

Building on the existing work at NAU and the genomics tools at TGen, the Pathogen Genomics Program will provide high-resolution genomic forensic analysis of biothreat pathogenic agents such as Bacillus anthracis (anthrax), Yersinia pestis (plague), Francisella tularensis (tularemia), Burkholderia mallei (glanders), Brucella melitensis (brucellosis), and Coxiella burnett (Q fever). These are considered the most dangerous of the bacterial bioterrorism and bioweapons agents.

The Program also will build upon our collaborations with state and federal agencies in developing molecular identification tools for public health related pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella, Listeria, and tuberculosis, which cause illness in billions of individuals worldwide. We will continue to create the scientific base to launch responses for acts of bioterrorism and to develop strategies to optimize public health management.

In addition to development of advanced assays for dangerous pathogens, the Program focuses on understanding the interaction between the pathogen and its environment (ecology), the movement of the pathogen and the associated ailments though a population (epidemiology), and the changes associated with the propagation of the pathogen over time (evolution).

P. Cosmo Smith

Cosmo is responsible for strategy and business development, primarily matching unique business opportunities to the scientific advantages of the partnership. He is currently leading commercializations in the following areas: early detection, personalized medicine, genomics, advanced imaging, immunotherapy, microbiome and sustainable food supply.

Cosmo is involved at the early stages, working with scientists to design their vision based on unique intellectual property, helping growth-oriented companies achieve their next levels of success or larger entities utilize their existing infrastructure to capture new market share.

He was the Founder and CEO of United Advisors, a leading merchant bank focused on growth strategies and M&A. While at UA, he led the buildout of one of the fastest growing investment companies in the US, eventually listing on the NYSE.

Cosmo started his career with JP Morgan and received his MBA from the University of Connecticut.

Matthew Esposito

Matt focuses on business development and strategy for Origin portfolio companies. He has over 25 years of experience in the health insurance industry, where he has held senior executive and executive management positions with US Healthcare, HIP of NY/FL, and Cigna Healthcare.

He has extensive experience designing and implementing unique healthcare solutions for large employers.

Matt received his B.S. degree from the University of Connecticut

Tess Burleson

Tess Burleson, CPA, MBA, is TGen’s Chief Operating Officer and President of TGen Health Ventures. In addition to the day-to-day operational responsibilities, she works closely with TGen’s Board, Chief Executive Officer, and Scientific Director on strategic planning and oversight.

Ms. Burleson serves as a key link between the scientific and administrative leadership. She is responsible for commercialization of TGen intellectual property, from initial evaluation to capitalization and divestiture. She also maintains responsibility for key strategic business ventures and high priority collaborations with several clinical partners.

Her career began at KPMG, and she subsequently went to work in the healthcare industry, including serving as President of a multi-state clinical research company as well as Chief Financial Officer of its health system and medical research organization.

Ms. Burleson has over 20 years of progressive experience in advising and developing key business support operations across a variety of industries, including healthcare, pharmaceutical, and biomedical R&D.

Ms. Burleson also has experience in managing investment activities, including auditing, developing and maintaining investment policies, selection of investment advisors and money managers, and ensuring compliance while consistently achieving better returns than relevant benchmarks.

Ms. Burleson currently serves on a number of boards, in both for profit and non-profit organizations. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) with experience in taxation, audit, and advisory services.

Tess earned her MBA from The University of New Mexico, Robert O. Anderson School of Management.

Mike Gorman

Mike is responsible for investment and due diligence functions. He brings more than 30 years of investment and operations experience with him.

Mike is the founder of Venture Back Office, a leading services firm that works with numerous venture and private equity firms to support their investment and financial operations.

Mike was the CFO of Aurora Funds and has served in various executive roles for both public and private equity backed companies.

He started his career with Ernst & Young and is both a CPA and CMA. Mike holds a BS in Accounting from Canisius College.

Holly Hammer

A Senior Attorney at Hutchison Law, Holly focuses on labor and employment law. She works with companies at all stages of development and offers clients strategic advice and counsel on employment issues arising under the FMLA, ADA, Title VII and other state and federal statutes. She also assists clients in implementing strategic employment actions, advises on employee performance and prepares complex employment and separation agreements, non-compete and data protection agreements and prepares specially crafted employee handbooks, policies and procedures. Holly also assists companies in designing and implementing on-site training programs to ensure legal compliance. With a legal background that includes in-house and litigation experience, she understands firsthand the challenges employers face in the workplace today.

Holly has the following degrees; BA from University of Virginia and a JD from Pepperdine University School of Law.

Brian Brueck

Brian is responsible for building and maintaining the brands of our portfolio companies. He has over 15 years of experience designing some of the most respected brands in several industries including; healthcare, life sciences and financial services.

He is the founder of Moxie, a brand and strategy firm and Origin portfolio company. Brian serves as integrator, beginning each brand with a novel concept, and then orchestrating the creative, media, science and business teams to ensure a powerful and comprehensive communications and marketing program.

Some of the brands Brian has built and energized throughout his career include AOL, DeWalt, SiriusXM and McCormick Science Institute. He is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University.

Jacob Reinwand

Jacob is responsible for building the foundational components of portfolio company brands and marketing campaigns. He is focused on developing media that point where our brands begin and are positioned on unique ground relative to their competition.

He works across science, business, media and marketing teams to ensure our brand strategies, collateral and campaigns live up to the creativity of their business strategies. Jacob has led several point of origin brand developments from concept to initial public offering. He is a graduate of University of Wisconsin.

Emily Trayers

Emily oversees the marketing team and coordinates all branding and marketing activities for select Origin strategies. She is responsible for organizing timelines, resources and budgets with the portfolio companies to ensure campaigns are executed and achieve extraordinary results.

She is a hands on, operations and marketing professional with a heavy understanding for electronic, social and new targeted media. Tireless, she ensures all players involved are propelling both business and brands forward. She is a graduate of University of Massachusetts.

Helga Leftwich

A partner at Hutchison Law, Helga advises early-stage and established companies on corporate, securities and transactional matters over a broad range of industries, including the biotech, medical device, pharmaceutical, advanced materials, software and healthcare services industries. Helga’s areas of specialization include corporate, venture capital and other equity and debt financings, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, equity and executive compensation and securities law.

Over the course of her career, Helga has represented a range of clients in connection with their initial public offerings and has advised both public and private companies on a wide range of corporate and securities law matters.

Helga began her career with Kilpatrick Stockton LLP, and has the following degrees; BA, magna cum laude, Duke University; MSLS, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; JD, high honors, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Editor-in-Chief, North Carolina Law Review).

Amalie Tuffin

A partner at Hutchison Law, Amalie works with emerging growth companies in a variety of industries, focusing on the corporate and tax-related issues entrepreneurs face. Utilizing creative problem-solving and practical solutions, she guides her clients through all types of matters including equity and other financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, day to day corporate matters and employment issues. Amalie joined the firm after practicing with Whitmeyer Tuffin, the RTP technology law firm of Daniels Daniels & Verdonik and the Boston firm of Peabody & Arnold.

Amalie is a member of the American Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Association, and previously served as an adjunct instructor in the paralegal program at Durham Technical Community College. She writes regularly on tax and other legal issues affecting entrepreneurial companies.

Amalie has the following degrees; BA, with honors, Harvard University; LLM, Tax, Boston University School of Law; JD, University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Holly A. Coldiron

A Senior Attorney at Hutchison Law, Holly works with growing and established companies, primarily in the areas of intellectual property protection and commercialization. Her clients range from mobile application developers to software-as-a-service providers to traditional software companies. Holly assists clients with a variety of commercialization and business agreements, including SAAS agreements, development agreements, license agreements, Terms of Service and Privacy Policies. Holly also works with a number of clients in the medical device and life sciences and pharmaceutical fields in negotiating, drafting and reviewing business agreements such as clinical trial agreements, supply and manufacturing agreements, product development agreements and collaboration agreements.

Amalie is a member of the American Bar Association and the North Carolina Bar Association, and previously served as an adjunct instructor in the paralegal program at Durham Technical Community College. She writes regularly on tax and other legal issues affecting entrepreneurial companies.

Holly counsels clients on protecting and maintaining their trademarks and branding programs, including obtaining and enforcing trademarks in a variety of classes in both the United States and abroad. She also regularly advises clients on copyright matters, including ownership and registration.

Holly also has significant experience in general corporate matters, including counseling clients on regular business, employment and other legal issues.

Holly has the following degrees; BA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; JD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ron Korn, MD, PhD

Ron completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, which provided a solid foundation for his Medical training at Stanford School of Medicine followed by post graduate training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Korn specializes in Nuclear Medicine and Cancer Biology with extensive involvement in clinical research as both a study investigator and clinical publication author that has afforded him in-depth knowledge of the common pitfalls and complex challenges associated with clinical trials. Dr. Korn has received public recognition and awards from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, American College of Radiology Imaging Network, Ibis Foundation of Arizona, and received the Top Doctor Award for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine.

Though his professional accolades accurately reflect his clinical excellence, his current professional associations, education based activities and commitment to clinical research quality make up his core.

Doug Dean Burkett, PhD

Doug Dean Burkett has launched, led and grown publically traded pharmaceutical and biotech companies and brings a wealth of experience to our team in drug and device development, global clinical trials, and research.

He is a founder of Imaging Endpoints, Champions Oncology (OTCBB: CSBR) and served as Chairman, CEO and President of Zila (NASDAQ: ZILA) where he was inventor in six patents for early detection of squamous cell cancer. He further led a successful effort to obtain FDA approval of the world’s first oral cancer screening product and repositioned Zila as a growth leader in the professional oral care marketplace.

Doug received a PhD in Chemistry from the Cancer Research Institute at Arizona State University where he developed and tested anticancer drugs in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute.

Pete Smith, PhD

Pete has over 30 years of experience in drug discovery & development and heads the biopharma initiatives at Origin.

He has held leadership roles at SmithKline, Merck, Monsanto, Pharmacia, Millennium, Takeda and Moderna working across multiple therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, inflammation and oncology. His work has contributed to several new agents including Zocor, Mevacor, Inspra, Celebrex, Velcade and Entyvio.

Pete holds a BS from Fairfield University and a PhD from The University of Arizona.

Örn Almarsson, PhD

Örn has over 20 years of experience in drug discovery & development and heads the drug delivery initiatives at Origin.

He has had leadership roles at Merck, TransForm Pharmaceuticals, J&J PRD, Alkermes and Moderna working across multiple therapeutic areas including anti-infectives, CNS/psychiatry and CV/metabolic disease. He contributed to complex drug products such as INVANZ and ARISTADA, and has significant experience in drug delivery including long-acting formulations and prodrugs.

Örn has a BSc from the University of Iceland, a PhD from the University of California, and post-doctoral experience from MIT.

Brandon Huffman

An Associate Attorney at Hutchison Law, Brandon focuses on intellectual property and internet matters, content clearance and general corporate representation. His area of expertise is in interactive and traditional media, internet and privacy law.

Brandon holds the following degrees: J.D., cum laude, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law; B.A., Journalism and Mass Communication, UNC; Certificate, Political Culture and Economic Development in the Gulf, School for International Training – Muscat, Oman.

Michael Murphy

Michael takes an operational leadership role in Origin companies, ensuring business strategies reach performance goals.

He has built a national network of successful medical clinics and specialty providers. Michael works extensively in the manufacturing through distribution verticals focusing on therapeutics and diagnostics. He has developed ground-breaking lab management programs to drive out-patient services to large-scale hospital partners across the country. His clinical background combined with expertise in specialty pharmacy enables him to work on novel partnerships with manufacturers aimed at delivering the greatest value to patients.

Michael Graduated from East Carolina University as a Physician Assistant focused on allied health.

Molly Downhour, MHA, BSN, NEA-BC, OCN, CCRC

Molly is one of the industry's leading clinical research professionals, focused on building the operations that support game changing novel therapies with our partners.

She provides research leadership, business development, and overall operational management across investigators, clinicians, patients, and biopharma.

Molly has been integral to the formation and growth of some of the nation’s premier Phase I cancer programs. She has served as Director of Clinical Oncology at HonorHealth as well as Clinical Research Operations at TGen.

Dan Bedard, CPA

Dan is responsible for the oversight of all matters related to the finance and accounting operations of the group.

He has extensive experience working with small and middle market companies and advising them on strategic matters related to accounting, finance and tax. Dan founded Bedard & Company and Bedard Advisors, a Certified Public Accounting firm and Advisor focused on the unique needs of entrepreneurs, venture capital and private equity.

Dan is a Trustee on the board of The Connecticut Community Foundation and is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He earned his BS from The University of Connecticut and served four years of active duty in the United States Army as a Combat Engineer.

Michael Mayne, PhD

Dr. Mayne joined forces with Origin and the Clean Health Project in 2015. His considerable research and innovation background along with significant expertise in drug reimbursement programs and national-level drug policy experience, enables him to play a key leadership role in the Clean Health Project.

At the request of Premier of PEI, the Hon. Robert Ghiz, Michael constructed the Island Prosperity Strategy. This $200M economic strategy laid the foundation for continued growth in the innovation economy. Subsequent, he worked as a senior Deputy Minister in the provincial government in which he oversaw the industry and health portfolios. While Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Mayne played a key role in Canada as he co-led the overhaul of how drugs (brand and generic) were purchased for provincial pharmacare programs. Policies outlined by Dr. Mayne and his team led to over $500M in total savings since 2013 for national drug procurement programs. Dr Mayne was the longest serving Deputy Minister of Health in Canada from 2005 to present (served 5 years in the health post).

In 2016, Dr. Mayne became the CEO of the Prince Edward Island Health Authority, which oversees all medical and pharmacare operations for the province. He oversees 6,000 employees and an annual budget of approximately $700M. He currently serves as a director of the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH - oversees drug listing and procurement recommendations for Canada). He has served on 12 national boards in industry and the health sectors. Dr. Mayne has worked at the senior management level for the last 15 years.

Dr. Mayne focused on biology and chemistry at the University of Prince Edward Island and he completed his doctoral degree at the University of Toronto in molecular biology. He trained further in infectious diseases, virology and neuroimmunology at the University of Manitoba and National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. He started his academic career in the medical school at the University of Manitoba where he published extensively in neurological disorders in particular multiple sclerosis, stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. He moved to a management and leadership role early in his career and became the initial director of research for a new research institute within Canada’s premier research organization, the National Research Council of Canada. While director, he played a key role in rapidly growing the bio-research base and infrastructure for his home province (PEI). The bio-cluster on PEI now supports over 2,000 jobs and produces $300M in annual sales.

Derek Cridebring, PhD

Derek is an Origin Partner, responsible for the relationship development and direction of our biopharma initiatives. He is heavily involved in coordinating strategic partnerships, including grants, philanthropy, commercializations and research programs.

Further, Derek focuses on the financial and clinical impact of our initiatives, ensuring the right resources and infrastructure from across our partnerships and collaborations..

Derek is leading the clinical coordination around our cancer early detection strategy. Specifically, how the most promising late stage therapies, diagnostics and protocols shed insights on the prevention, early detection and early treatment of the most difficult to treat cancers.

He received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine where he studied neurodegenerative diseases. From 2003-2004 Derek placed his grad school on hold to deploy for a year long tour of duty in Iraq with his Army Reserve Unit where is he served as a Preventive Medicine Specialist covering roughly 20,000 lives.

R. Christopher Raphaely

Drawing upon years of healthcare experience, Chris helps form the strategic and regulatory basis behind Origin innovations.

Chris serves as co-chair of the Health Care Practice Group at Cozen O’Connor, an international law firm based in Philadelphia. Prior to joining the firm, Chris served as deputy general counsel to Jefferson Health System and general counsel to the system’s accountable care organization and captive professional liability insurance companies. Now in private practice, he provides sophisticated transactional and regulatory counsel to an array of hospitals, health systems, accountable care organizations, physicians, professional liability insurers, and other provider organizations.

Chris has worked in the health care industry for nearly three decades. His practice focuses on major transactions for health care clients and the comprehensive regulatory schemes requisite to doing business in the health care space. Chris handles matters involving payer negotiations, payment disputes and contract enforcement, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, organizational and governance structures, HIPAA, information privacy and security, tax exemption, Stark Law, fraud and abuse matters, clinical integration, provider acquisitions, divestitures, medical staff relations, Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Act, and general compliance.

At Jefferson Health System, Chris served as a legal advisor to the system’s board of trustees and executive team and played key roles in Jefferson Health System’s largest and most complex transactions. During his tenure, Chris helped lead the system’s restructuring efforts in 2010 and the separation of its members in 2014, which resulted in the creation of three autonomous and agile health systems. As a result of his extensive in-house experience, Chris has a deeply ingrained understanding of health care clients’ governance structures, day-to-day operations, goals, and expectations.

Prior to joining Jefferson Health System, Chris spent 16 years in private practice representing health care clients in a wide array of transactional and regulatory matters, the last seven as a partner of an Am Law 100 law firm’s health law practice group.

Chris was an adjunct professor at Widener University School of Law from 2008-2014, where he taught health care finance, and he serves as chairman of the board of The Rock School for Dance Education. He earned his J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law and his B.A. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Gary Gabriel, PhD

Dr. Gabriel has over 20 years of technical and development experience in all phases of drug development, technology and bioinformatics. He regularly advises global informatics initiatives including the American College of Surgeons, PCORI and the American Cancer Society.

His latest work has entailed architecture development, data management and analysis to support population health, genomics and other precision medicine initiatives at leading academic medical centers.

Throughout his career, Gary has enabled technology integration of several complex mergers and acquisitions involving such companies as Astrazeneca, Oracle and Omthera. He holds a BS from Xavier and PhD from Howard School of Medicine.

Cassidy Nix

Cassidy works closely with our investment banking, merchant banking and venture capital functions to coordinate clinical and financial dynamics of the specialized markets we build and operate in.

She is responsible for our analytics group. Cassidy and her team build data driven models to predict and enhance decision making across our partners.

She has a masters in data science, with emphasis in Physics and Mathematics from UNC Wilmington.

William A. Harvey

Bill focuses on Origin’s overall strategy and market selection. He is the Managing Partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg where he has built a reputation as an aggressive advocate and sought-after, experienced litigator whose practice focuses on shareholder, employment, real estate, securities and insolvency litigation. Bill builds and maintains client relationships of all sizes and across a number of industry sectors and represents them all with same amount of passion for justice. Bill prides himself on being a problem-solver for his clients.

Bill is a founding member of the firm and served as the Managing Partner for 22 years. Under his management, the firm became one of the region’s most entrepreneurial, profitable law firms, financing itself organically without any debt.

He is a graduate of Temple University School of Law, J.D. and St. Joseph’s College, B.S.

Patrick J. Murphy, Jr.

Patrick focuses on Origin’s capital markets and business development overall. He is a Partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg where he concentrates his practice on the representation of private investment funds on behalf of general partners, sponsors and investors, privately held companies and publicly traded corporations.

Patrick works with commercial, individual and mid-market clients advising them on their complex day-to-day legal issues. He routinely counsels clients on how to operate their businesses in the most efficient, successful manner, encouraging them to focus on the most important details in order to fully understand the big picture.

These issues are in connection with general corporate governance matters, general corporate counseling and a wide range of complex business and commercial matters including:

• Equity and debt offerings
• Venture capital and private equity financing
• Commercial financing
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Joint ventures
• Strategic investments and similar transactions

Patrick works with an exceptionally diverse compilation of businesses and industries. He has expertly advised private equity funds, international investment firms, manufacturing companies, real estate owners, retailers, restaurants and others.

He is a graduate of Temple University, Beasley School of Law, J.D., cum laude and University of Notre Dame, B.A.

William W. Matthews, III

Bill focuses on Origin’s capital markets and business development overall. He is a Partner at Klehr Harrison Harvey Branzburg where he is the chair of the corporate and securities department. He concentrates his practice in securities, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate counseling for a wide range of clients, from family-owned businesses to emerging growth businesses to public companies. In addition, Bill frequently acts as “outside general counsel” to his clients, representing them on all corporate and financial matters and coordinating other legal issues, ranging from litigation to intellectual property to regulatory matters. He regularly reviews agreements, negotiates employment matters and advises on litigation and regulatory issues.

In the area of securities, Bill represents clients in matters before the SEC, providing particular skill in Exchange Act compliance matters and all aspects of SEC registration, and has experience with Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank Act compliance and related regulatory matters. A significant part of his practice includes the representation of individuals, funds and issuers in connection with equity investments in emerging growth companies.

Bill’s merger and acquisition experience is significant, having participated in numerous purchases and sales of companies, both public and private, in transactions structured as asset sales, stock sales and mergers. These deals have ranged in size from several million dollars to the $1.6 billion merger between EB Games and GameStop, its primary competitor in the specialty retail video game industry.

In an article in GC Mid-Atlantic, Daniel Kaufman, Executive Vice President and Chief Legal Officer at Game Stop, described Bill as a “responsive, capable, very bright lawyer who understands what the company needs, and gives us 110 percent all the time.”

He is a graduate of University of Notre Dame, J.D. and La Salle University, B.A., maxima cum laude.