Prior to coming to Northeastern, Philippe Sommer acted as a Mentor and Angel investor to startups in the Charlottesville and Boston area. Previously,  he had been Director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School, where he oversaw entrepreneurship programs, and managed broader educational efforts around innovation and entrepreneurship, including the Incubator and i.Lab. Sommer also had a joint appointment with “UVa Innovation” (Technology Transfer Office) where he works extensively with the larger U.Va. community on new university-wide entrepreneurship initiatives, such as the U.Va. Entrepreneurship Cup, and the Venture Summit.

Prior to joining Darden, Sommer was a founding partner of WestMed Venture Funds, publicly registered life-sciences venture-capital funds affiliated with CIBC/Oppenheimer, Inc. He has also served as Director of Business Development in the Medical Products group for Pfizer Inc., where he was responsible for valuation and structuring of M&A transactions. Sommer has extensive experience in startups, fund management, venture capital, private investments, M&A, licensing and technology transfer.

Sommer has served on the boards of:

• The Coulter Foundation Grant which funds startups in the Biomedical Engineering Department
• The “nanoSTAR Institute”  (nanotechnology)
• The Buchanan Endowment Program of the Medical School, funding new clinical programs
• The Launch Pad Fund supporting diabetes research at UVa

Mr. Sommer has been on the search committees for the Director of UVa Innovation and the Virginia Center for Translation and Regulatory Sciences (VCTRS). Mr. Sommer has also lectured in the School of Public Health Sciences and the UVa Medical School.

Philippe holds an MBA from Columbia University and a BA with Honors from Amherst College.