Jennifer Cochran, PhD is a Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor at Red Tree Venture Capital, a West Coast-centric, early stage-biased investment fund focused on therapeutics for unmet needs in the areas of oncology, neurology, and immunology.

Dr. Cochran is the Senior Associate Vice Provost of Research and the Addie and Al Macovski Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University. A founding member of the Stanford Bioengineering department, she served as its Chair from 2017 to 2022.

She is a serial innovator and brings extensive company formation and entrepreneurial experience, having founded several companies, including TwoStep Therapeutics, Photinia Biosciences, xCella Biosciences (acquired by Ligand, now OmniAb (LGND and OABI) in 2020) and Combangio (acquired by Kala Pharmaceuticals (KALA) in 2021).

In addition to Kivu, Dr. Cochran currently serves on the boards of directors of OmniAb, Revel Pharmaceuticals, Biograph 55, and Rondo Therapeutics, and is a board observer at Excellergy Therapeutics.

She obtained her Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Biological Engineering.