Nilesh Kumar leads the firm’s investment activity in private biotech, working closely with the Private Equity Team, global industry analysts and other research resources within the firm to identify, conduct due diligence on, and negotiate investments in private companies within the biotech sector.

Prior to joining Wellington Management, Nilesh brings over 15 years of private biotech investment experience investing in early to late-stage life science companies. He joins from Novo Ventures, the venture arm of Novo Holdings, where he served as a partner. At Novo he led investments in and served on the boards of several biotechnology companies including: Morphic Therapeutics (Nasdaq: MORF), Harmony Biosciences (Nasdaq: HRMY), Milestone Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: MIST), Checkmate Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: CMPI), DISC Medicine (Nasdaq: IRON), Inspirna, and Tarveda. Before Novo Ventures, he spent 6 years as a senior investment director at Merck Serono Ventures where he invested in early-stage life sciences companies and served on the boards of Padlock Therapeutics (acquired by BMS), RaNA Therapeutics (Nasdaq: TBIO, acquired by Sanofi), Auxogyn (Nasdaq: PGNY), f-Star and Raze Therapeutics.

Nilesh received his PhD from the department of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University. He holds an MBA from Harvard University and did his undergraduate degree in natural sciences at the University of Cambridge, UK.