The Convergent team earned its stripes at the lab bench, in the corporate trenches and on the start-up firing line. We are experts at academic-to-industry technology transfer, corporate development, strategic business development, seed-stage financing and venture management.

William L. Robbins
Managing Director

Bill Robbins has more than 25 years of experience as an investor, entrepreneur, start-up executive, and corporate manager in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medtech industries.

Prior to embarking on a career as a bio-entrepreneur and investor, Bill served as VP, Business Development, at Bio-Imaging Technologies, Inc. a medical imaging technology and clinical research services company which went public during his tenure and continues to trade on the NASDAQ exchange. Bill was the 7th employee and first business person to join Bio-Imaging and headed all business development, marketing, sales, and investor relations for the company during its critical early years. Earlier in his career, Bill held marketing and new product development positions at Warner-Lambert Company, a major pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare products company that was acquired by Pfizer. Bill began his career in pharmaceutical advertising account management at the healthcare division of Grey Advertising, in New York.

In the not-for-profit sector, Bill is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Technion Society – Southern California Chapter.

Bill is the author of Seed-Stage Venture Investing: The Ins and Outs for Entrepreneurs, Start-ups, and Investors on Successfully Starting a New Business.

Bill earned his M.B.A. from Columbia Business School and his A.B. from Dartmouth College.

Nima Shiva
Managing Director

Nima Shiva has served in the life science industry since 1990 first as a scientist and later as an investor and a serial entrepreneur. In that capacity he has been involved in formation and executive management of a number of life science start-ups including Proteio, Inc., Encode Bio, Inc., and Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Mr. Shiva is a Managing Director of Convergent Investors, LLC., a seed-stage life science venture capital fund based in Los Angeles.

His prior professional life science experiences include equity research in biotechnology and medical devices at Wedbush Morgan Securities as well as technical and research management positions at UC San Diego and Sequana Therapeutics. Mr. Shiva holds an M.B.A. from the University of Southern California and a B.S. in Physiology and Neurosciences from UC San Diego.

Katherine Hawkes
Associate, Venture & Portfolio Management

Kate Hawkes has overseen administration of business development, finance and human resources at Convergent Ventures' portfolio companies since 2005. Previously, Kate was Manager, Finance and Administration at Neurion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a portfolio company of Convergent Investors, LLC. Prior to joining Neurion, Kate was a Financial Analyst at Accenture LLP. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Claremont McKenna College.

Kenneth C. Aldrich, J.D. is a veteran private equity investor, entrepreneur, and public company chief executive. He has provided early-stage funding for a variety of biomedical and technology start-ups, both individually and as a manager of various private investment partnerships. He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Harvard University, both with honors.

Jonathan G. Lasch, Ph.D.
Venture Advisor

Jonathan G. Lasch, Ph.D. is Director of the Alfred E. Mann Institute for Biomedical Engineering at USC. Previously, he was a Managing Director of Convergent Investors, LLC, of which he was also a founder. Dr. Lasch is an experienced biotech and chemicals industry entrepreneur and corporate R&D manager. He earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Texas at El Paso.



Rivka Sherman-Gold, Ph.D.
Venture Advisor

Rivka Sherman-Gold, Ph.D., Rivka Sherman-Gold, Ph.D., has more than 20 years of operational experience in R&D, marketing, business development, C-level executive management, seed-stage fund-raising, and investing in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical technology industries. Dr. Sherman-Gold earned her B.Sc. in chemistry with honors and M.Sc. in biophysics and physiology from the Technion and a Ph.D. in life-sciences from the Weizmann Institute of Science. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine and earned an M.B.A. from California State University at San Jose.