Ross Jaffe , MD

Director

Versant Ventures
Menlo Park, CA

Ross Jaffe specializes in early-stage investing in medical devices at Versant Ventures, a leading healthcare-focused venture capital firm with over $1.6 billion under management. Ross co-founded Versant Ventures in 1999 after spending nine years at Brentwood Venture Capital where, as a general partner, he led investments in medical devices, drug delivery, and healthcare information systems companies. He brings significant clinical insight and venture capital experience to Versant’s investing efforts. Ross completed his residency training in Internal Medicine/Primary Care at the University of California, San Francisco, where he remained a part-time attending physician until 1995. Before and during medical school, he was an Analyst for Lewin and Associates, a healthcare consulting firm, and a Research Associate at Dartmouth Medical School. During his more than twenty years in venture capital, Ross has served on the boards of a number of successful life science companies, including Acclarent (sold to Johnson & Johnson), St Francis Medical Technologies (sold to Kyphon and now part of Medtronic), Ablation Frontiers (sold to Medtronic), Insulet (public), Therasense (sold to Abbott), and Novacept (sold to Cytyc and now part of Hologic). He currently serves on the boards of Alter-G, Intersection Medical, Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD), Minerva Surgical, Portaero, and Vital Therapies. Ross has been recognized as a leading venture capitalist, including being the highest ranked medical device investor on Forbes Magazines’ 2011 “Midas List” of the top 100 venture capitalists. Active in the healthcare venture capital community, Ross is a member of the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) Medical Industry Group and the Medical Innovation and Competitiveness Coalition (MedIC), and is a Director of the Western Association of Venture Capitalists (WAVC). He also chairs the Board of the Children’s Health Council (Palo Alto, CA), and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice. Ross earned his BA in Policy Studies from Dartmouth in 1980, his MD from Johns Hopkins in 1985, and his MBA from Stanford in 1990.