Chad has earned a global reputation for successfully protecting the intellectual property rights and assets of pharmaceutical companies in high-stakes patent litigation in the U.S. and internationally. For his clients, such cases are not mere inconveniences — they are make-or-break disputes that determine returns on multibillion-dollar investments and decades of research. Over the course of his career, Chad has represented clients in disputes involving some of the leading drugs on the market, including name brands such as SOVALDI®, HARVONI®, EPCLUSA®,RANEXA®, VEMLIDY®, DESCOVY®, ODEFSEY®, and DESCOVY for PrEP® (Gilead Sciences); LATUDA® and APTIOM® (Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. Ltd./Sunovion); ZORVOLEX® and VIVLODEX® (Iroko Pharmaceuticals); COREG® and FLOVENT® (GlaxoSmithKline). Many of these cases are global in nature, often involving multiple jurisdictions and major markets in Europe, North America, and the Asia/Pacific region. Despite the scale of these matters, Chad is known for his approachability, pragmatism, legal and business acumen, unwavering dedication to his clients, and unflappability in even the most challenging of circumstances.

Mr. Purcell is the Founder of Aisling Capital LLC. Previously, he served as Advisor and Senior Managing Partner. Prior to Aisling Capital, Mr. Purcell served as Managing Director of the Life Sciences Investment Banking Group at Chase H&Q (formerly Hambrecht & Quist, “H&Q”) for over five years. While at H&Q, he was directly involved with over two hundred completed transactions and supervised over $10 billion of financing and advisory assignments in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical products industries. During his tenure, BioWorld and other industry publications cited H&Q as the leading underwriter of life sciences securities. Prior to joining H&Q, Mr. Purcell was a Managing Director in the Healthcare Group at PaineWebber, Inc.

Ms. Kirsten Kester is Obsidian’s Vice President of Business Development, a role in which she defines and executes the company’s corporate and business development strategy. Previously, she was Senior Director at Huron Consulting (formerly Frankel Group), where she served on the leadership team for the life sciences practice. At Huron, Ms. Kester advised a diverse set of biopharma companies and their investors on corporate strategy, commercial strategy, pipeline and portfolio planning, and clinical development strategy. She also advised clients on business development transactions and led due diligence in support of investment decisions. Prior to joining Huron, Ms. Kester held roles in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Goldman Sachs and at Generation Health, a start-up pharmacogenomic testing company that was acquired by CVS Caremark. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Caroline is CEO and co-founder of Elasmogen, a company that discovers and develops soloMER biologics for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer. Before establishing Elasmogen, she successfully led teams at Wyeth and subsequently Pfizer in Global Bio-therapeutic Technologies progressing early platform technologies to late stage clinical development. Prior to this she was Alliance and Programs Manager at Haptogen Ltd and a key part of the acquisition team that successfully exited the business to Wyeth Inc. She has been awarded a prestigious Royal Society of Edinburgh Enterprise Fellowship, is a doctoral graduate from the University of Aberdeen in Biochemistry and an MBA (distinction) from Robert Gordon’s University, Business School. Caroline is a member of the Enterprise Skills and Strategy Board, is a Senior Associate for the Entrepreneurial Business School, Edinburgh and Entrepreneur in Residence for Queen’s University Belfast.

Joshua Carle, MBA, is a cross-functional executive with over 15 years of strategic transaction and R&D investment experience while in Management Consulting and BioPharma. Mr. Carle has led or advised more than fifty potential strategic transactions, resulting in the successful execution of greater than $2 billion in disclosed deal value and committed R&D funds. Mr. Carle joins from Pfizer Inc., where he drove BD strategy, commercial assessments, and broad transaction support for licensing/M&A efforts for Pfizer Oncology. Previously, Mr. Carle held roles of increasing responsibility in business development activities at Daiichi Sankyo Inc. and Clearview Projects Inc., a strategic advisory firm focused on licensing/M&A for the BioPharma industry. Mr. Carle received his undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and MBA from the Villanova School of Business.