K2bio Leadership
Co-Founder and Board Chair
Andrew Strong has extensive experience representing many of the firm’s life sciences clients and routinely advises on corporate and securities, mergers and acquisitions, private and public financing, university licensing, executive compensation, and regulatory matters.
Mr. Strong’s clients include public- and private-sector entities in the emerging technology and life sciences industries as well as public and private academic institutions. He previously served as the general counsel and compliance officer for the Texas A&M University System, where he was responsible for, among other things, business transactions, technology commercialization, research compliance, real estate, and litigation for the system’s 11 public universities, 7 state agencies, and health science center.
Mr. Strong was the founding president and CEO of a start-up biotech company, Kalon Biotherapeutics, formed by the Texas A&M System in 2011. He was integral to the multibillion-dollar award from BARDA in 2012. Over the course of 3 years, Mr. Strong successfully grew Kalon to over 100 employees and secured significant partnerships with MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC) and the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. He then successfully ran a process to secure a strategic exit for Kalon that resulted in the sale of the company to Fujifilm and Mitsubishi in December 2014.
Mr. Strong set his focus on helping grow the Texas biotechnology industry and has represented over 20 Texas private and public biotech companies, a number of which are funded by the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
- Founder and current manager of Resolute Investments
- More than 20 years of experience investing in private and public businesses across technology, biotech, consumer, and retail markets
- Previously an analyst at 2 SEC-registered crossover hedge funds in the Bay Area and a sell-side analyst in San Francisco and New York
- More than 40 years of experience in business, finance, and accounting across a variety of industries
- Began his career with Deloitte & Touche, an international public accounting and consulting firm, where he served clients in manufacturing, distribution, and technology
- Served as the CFO, COO, or CEO of companies in software, healthcare, biotech, and more recently, biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing, including Paragon Bioservices, a CDMO which sold to Catalent for more than $1.2 billion
- Expert in domestic and international operations, debt and equity financings, mergers and acquisitions, and technology licensing
- Currently the managing member of Clipper Consulting, a business advisory firm
- Oncologic and robotic surgeon, biotech consultant, investor, and company founder focusing on disruptive technologies in oncology, T cells and immunotherapy, and other breakthrough healthcare technologies
- Founder and managing partner of Rapha Capital Management, LLC
- Founder of Bellicum Pharmaceuticals, which he led to a successful $161 million IPO in December 2014
- Board member at 3DBio Therapeutics, FIZE Medical, and Demeetra AgBio; guides several investments managed by Rapha Capital
- Board member and interim CEO of portfolio company AsclepiX Therapeutics; engineered their $35 million Series A financing in mid-2020
- Founder and CEO of PONCE Therapeutics, a Houston-based anti-aging company—the first client of K2bio
