Peter Dudek, PhD, serves as President and Managing Partner of Merck’s MRL Ventures Fund, a $500M fund devoted to supporting early-stage private biotech companies developing transformational new medicines. He has 15 years’ experience in the life sciences industry spanning R&D, company creation, corporate and traditional venture capital, across a broad range of therapeutic areas and modalities. Currently Dr. Dudek is responsible for MRLV’s investments in Caraway, Carisma, Hotspot, LifeMine, Mozart, Photys and Tallac. He also managed MRLV’s investments in Kymera (NASDAQ: KYMR), Imago (NASDAQ:IMGO) and Xilio (NASDAQ:XLO). Prior to MRLV, he was a Principal with Wellington Partners, a Munich and London based European venture fund with more than $1B under management, and before that, held roles at Entrepreneurs Fund and the corporate venture arm of Novartis. In those roles he was involved in investments and operational support across a broad range of life science companies including Atopix (sold to Chiesi), Bicycle (NASDAQ: BCYC), Imevax, iOmx, F-star (NASDAQ:FSTX), Middle Peak (sold to Symetis/Boston Scientific), Optinose (NASDAQ:OPTN), Oxagen, Prosonix (sold to Circassia) and Vasopharm. Dr. Dudek holds a Bachelor of Science with Honors from the University of British Columbia, obtained his PhD from the University of Geneva, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford.