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David Schnell, MD

David Schnell is a co-founder and Managing Director of Prospect Venture Partners, a venture capital firm dedicated to investing in and supporting emerging biomedical companies. Since 1997, Prospect has raised and managed more than a $1B of committed capital from foundations, endowments, pension funds and others to identify and support innovative biomedical companies research, develop and commercialize novel drugs and technologies to address important unmet medical needs.

Since 1992, David has helped numerous companies achieve exceptional outcomes by providing strategic leadership and guidance as a founder, active board member, advisor and/or executive. He has built a strong track record working closely with talented entrepreneurs and teams to build and grow innovative enterprises. His successes include identifying and helping grow numerous start-up companies that achieved exceptional success by advancing biomedical research programs and developing novel therapeutics including several that became multi-billion dollar enterprises. He has served on more than 25 private and public biotech and health care company Boards and has invested in 60+ venture-backed companies with his partners across a variety of industries. 

David has served on the Board of Directors of Gloucester Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CELG acquired), Healtheon (NASDAQ: WBMD), Kythera Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AGN acquired), Microcide (NASDAQ: MCDE), Neurocrine (NASDAQ: NBIX), NGM Biopharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: NGM), Rinat Neuroscience (NYSE: PFE acquired), Senomyx (NASDAQ: SNMX), Trubion (NYSE: EBS acquired), Amira Pharmaceuticals (NYSE: BMS acquired) among others.

Previously, David served as a Partner at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), focusing on biotechnology and health care information technology investing. While at KPCB, David co-founded and served as the CEO of Healtheon Corporation, a pioneering health care transaction company that subsequently went public, and later merged with WebMD in a $6 billion transaction. Prior to KPCB, David spent seven years at Sandoz Pharmaceuticals (presently Novartis) in executive management positions in product marketing, strategic operations and business development in the US, and in Switzerland where he reported directly to the CEO and Worldwide Head of R&D in the company’s global headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

David is a Principal Partner (minority owner) in the San Francisco Giants. David is also the author of the award-winning children’s book, "The Night Before Baseball at the Park by the Bay”. David has previously served on the Advisory Council for Make-A-Wish Foundation (Greater SF Bay Area), a non-profit organization dedicated to fulfilling wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions, and on the Dean of Harvard Medical School’s Therapeutics Advisory Council. 

David received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an M.A. in Health Services Research from Stanford University School of Medicine, and a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University.