Carol leverages her scientific and venture business backgrounds to find, evaluate and recommend for funding high quality potential venture investment targets for iMCI managed funds. As Vice President and Director of Investments, Carol is responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities. She manages investment proposals throughout the approval process, including ongoing staff diligence efforts and preparation for potential closing.
Carol joined i2E in 2015 as a Venture Advisor and in 2019 was named Vice President and Director of Investments for iMCI. She has provided business advice and venture investment analysis with respect to over 30 companies across multiple life sciences and tech-based industries. Of these companies, 15 ultimately received over $14 million in funding from iMCI managed funds in venture investment rounds totaling more than $36 million.
Carol received her bachelor’s in biochemistry, and her masters and doctorate in molecular and integrative physiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She spent 4 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation before joining the preclinical startup biotech firm, EpimedX. While working for EpimedX and then as a consultant to 5 additional biotech startup companies, Dr. Curtis managed operations, supervised scientific projects, interacted with the FDA, wrote grants to secure funding, and worked closely with investors. Carol was critical in securing over $800K in non-dilutive funding to support preclinical research and development efforts at EpimedX and Jortan Pharmaceuticals.
Beyond her formal education, Carol has continued education in project management, financial modeling, bioscience business and biotechnology entrepreneurship, and venture deals as well as advanced training in building start-ups. Carol has published numerous peer-reviewed papers and sits on several advisory boards.
