Absci Appoints Zach Jonasson, Ph.D., as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Business Officer

Addition of veteran biotech leader to further support Absci’s next stage of growth

VANCOUVER, Wash., Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Absci Corporation, a generative AI drug creation company, announced today that Zach Jonasson, Ph.D., has been appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Chief Business Officer (CBO). In this dual role, Dr. Jonasson will join Absci’s executive leadership team and replace CFO Greg Schiffman, who will retire after a successful tenure with the company and a distinguished career in the biotech industry. Dr. Jonasson is the co-founder and Managing General Partner of Phoenix Venture Partners (PVP) and Convergent Ventures, both venture capital firms. He has served on Absci’s Board of Directors since 2016, including as Absci’s chairman from April 2016 to January 2021. He will leave PVP and Convergent Ventures, as well as step down from the Absci Board of Directors, after a transitional period to take this full-time leadership position at Absci.

Dr. Jonasson brings over 25 years of experience as an investor, entrepreneur, and operator. He co-founded two venture capital firms, PVP and Convergent Ventures, where he led both firms’ life science investment strategies, assembling impressive portfolios of innovative companies developing drug discovery, drug delivery, and drug manufacturing technologies. In addition to serving on his portfolio company boards, Dr. Jonasson has been actively involved in establishing key partnerships and customer engagements between his portfolio companies and large pharmaceutical and biotech corporations. He also spearheaded raising capital from institutional and large strategic investors for all of the PVP and Convergent funds.

Prior to PVP, Dr. Jonasson was CEO and co-founder of Comera Life Sciences, where he built the company from the concept stage and established multiple collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies. He was also co-founder and Head of Business Development at Crop Enhancement, where he established numerous partnerships with large agrochemical companies. Previously, he was a General Partner and Kauffman Fellow at Seaflower Ventures. Dr. Jonasson holds an A.M. and Ph.D. from Harvard University, where, as a Sackler Scholar, his research focused on the neurobiology underlying learning and memory. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Jonasson was a Research Associate at the Federal Reserve Bank.