Joan Schmidt

Joan is the founder of Viden Advisors providing strategic advice to early-stage life sciences companies in US, Europe and Scandinavia. Prior to that, she served as Chief Legal Officer and Board Secretary to several clinical-stage public biotech companies including Pharvaris, a Dutch company, developing drugs to treat rare diseases; Arena Pharmaceuticals, which was acquired by Pfizer in 2022 for $6.7 billion; and DBV Technologies, a French company, developing a patch technology to treat peanut allergies in children.

 

Before transitioning to biotech, Joan had a 20-year career at Novo Nordisk in both US and Denmark where she held various positions within legal, compliance and intellectual property supporting the company’s transition from a mid-size diabetes company into a global healthcare giant treating obesity, hemophilia, growth disorders, among other diseases.

 

Joan also serves as a mentor to promising start-ups in life sciences, digital health and industrial biotech through the Nordic Mentor Network for Entrepreneurship, founded by Accelerace and funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation. The organization pairs selected entrepreneurs with globally experienced executives to accelerate fundraising and commercialization.

 

Joan earned her JD from the Elizabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University and her BA from the University of Connecticut.