Hevolution Foundation Appoints William Greene, MD as Chief Investment Officer

I spoke with William Greene at the Longevity Summit the other week. He has a long history in Biotech venture capital, and got into the longevity field when he went to work for Fountain Therapeutics. He seems like a good fit for the Hevolution foundation, where he’s focused on the investment side of things (not the grant-giving portion).

He’s just getting going right now, and is starting to build his team. I think the only person he’s hired so far is a younger guy named Josh Noah.

Right now William Greene is based in San Francisco, but doesn’t yet have an office.

Its good to see some movement in the Hevolution Foundation, but more generally I have to say that longevity-oriented people (researchers and biotech founders) at the conference have been disappointed at the slow pace of progress of the Hevolution Foundation. The foundation was actually formed a few years ago i believe , and really have very little to show for it so far. Everyone hopes that the pace of progress moves a lot faster in the future.

If you’re starting a new company in the longevity Biotech market and don’t care too much about the Saudi association then this group should be on the list of people to contact.


December 21, 2022 09:00 AM Eastern Standard Time

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia–Hevolution Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides grants and early-stage investments to incentivize research and entrepreneurship in healthspan science, has appointed William Greene, MD, as Chief Investment Officer (CIO). As CIO, Dr Greene will oversee all aspects of Hevolution Foundation’s investment strategy, planning, analysis, and execution.

Over the course of his career, Dr Greene has been a life sciences company founder, operating executive, investor, and clinician. Most recently, prior to joining Hevolution as an advisor in May 2022, he served as CEO of Fountain Therapeutics, a longevity biotechnology company founded by Stanford Neurology professor Thomas Rando, MD, PhD.

“After conducting a thorough search process, and working closely with Bill for over six months, I could not be more pleased to officially welcome him to Hevolution,” commented Mehmood Khan, MD, Chief Executive Officer. “Since our unveiling over the summer we have announced a number of promising collaborations and grants programs. In 2023 and beyond we look forward to building on this momentum, not only on the grants side of our operation but with some key investments and impact-focused initiatives, led by Bill and his team.”

Prior to Fountain Therapeutics, Dr Greene was CEO of Iconic Therapeutics, ushering the start-up through discovery and development through to pharma partnerships and a successful sale of the company. Prior to that, he spent 12 years at MPM Capital where he was a Managing Director and member of its Investment Committee. He also served as founding Chairman of the Board and head of the Investment Committee at the Global Health Investment Fund, an impact-oriented venture fund founded with the Gates Foundation. Earlier in his career he was Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and spearheaded strategy and clinical trials in several therapeutic areas at Genentech. He holds a BA in Biology and Neuroscience from Wesleyan University and an MD from UCSF. He was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Scholar at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr Greene commented, “Hevolution Foundation and its bold mission speak to what has driven me throughout my career: a desire to tackle the most pressing problems, work with great teams, and use science and medicine to drive positive change. I am eagerly anticipating driving Hevolution’s investment strategy in partnership with the scientific team and the rest of the organization as we expand internationally and seek to play a global role in meeting one of humanity’s greatest challenges: unhealthy aging.”

About Hevolution Foundation
Founded in the belief that every person has the right to live a longer, healthier life, Hevolution Foundation is a global catalyst, partner, and convener, on a mission to drive efforts to extend healthy human lifespan and understand the processes of aging. With a focus on aging as a treatable process, Hevolution Foundation aims to increase the number of aging-related treatments on the market, compress the timeline of drug development, and increase accessibility to therapeutics that extend healthy lifespan, also known as healthspan. A non-profit organization headquartered in Riyadh, with an annual budget of up to $1 Billion, Hevolution Foundation plans to open hubs in North America and other global locations to support a cutting-edge, global ecosystem of talent to propel aging and geroscience research forward and achieve medical breakthroughs to help humanity live healthier, longer.

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