Lightstone Ventures partner named IVCA chairperson

Caroline Gaynor elected chair as association enters 40th year

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Caroline Gaynor, Irish Venture Capital Association

The Irish Venture Capital Association has named Lightstone Ventures partner Caroline Gaynor as chairperson. She replaces Gerry Maguire, general partner, Atlantic Bridge, who has completed his term of office.

Gaynor is a graduate in Pharmacy from Trinity College Dublin and holds Masters’ degrees in Pharmaceutical Medicine and BioInnovation from Trinity College Dublin and University of Galway respectively.

She joined the US VC fund, Lightstone Ventures in 2017, after completing the BioInnovate programme in 2013 and having worked on a number of early-stage medical device start-ups. Prior to that she spent 11 years in the pharmaceutical industry, working for IPHA, Schering AG and Bayer Healthcare in regulatory affairs, product management, sales and marketing and market access/reimbursement. She is a director at Amber Therapeutics, ProVerum Medical, Carrick Therapeutics and Volta Medical.

“Moving pharmaceutical manufacturing is a complex and lengthy process, so I don’t think tariffs will impact in the near term,” said Gaynor. “However, it shines a spotlight on our need to embrace a two track approach to industrial development with a more urgent focus on scaling indigenous start-ups, as well as incentivising FDI investment in R&D, which is far ‘stickier’ and less mobile than manufacturing.”

Celebrating its 40th year, The Irish Venture Capital Association is the representative organisation for venture capital and private equity firms on the island of Ireland. Last year venture capital investment into Irish tech start-ups and SMEs totalled over €1.3 billion.

TechCentral Reporters

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