Darren Carroll, Senior Managing Director

Darren leads the New Ventures Division of Eli Lilly and Company which includes both Lilly Ventures and Lilly Asian Ventures where he is the Senior Managing Director.  Prior to assuming his current role, Darren was the founding chief executive officer of InnoCentive, Inc., a Lilly Venture portfolio company.  Among other positions Darren has held at Lilly, he was the U.S. attorney for Prozac®.  He has also served as senior vice president of RealMed, a venture-backed company based in Indianapolis, which created the first real-time health claims adjudication system. Earlier in his career, Darren practiced law with a large private law firm in New York and negotiated complex technology transactions for General Electric Company.

Darren’s education includes a J.D. degree from Syracuse University College of Law.  He also earned a bachelor's from Syracuse University (Phi Beta Kappa) and a masters of public administration degree from the Maxwell School of Syracuse, where he is a member of the Board of Advisors.  He is also a member of the Board of Directors for Lilly Ventures and Lilly Asian Ventures portfolio companies InnoCentive, GlobeImmune, Novast, and CITIC Pharma.

Yi Shi, Ph.D., Managing Director

Based in Shanghai, Yi oversees Lilly Asian Ventures operations and has been instrumental in managing the fund's investments in China since its founding. Prior to his current role, Yi worked at Eli Lilly and Company with a diverse set of experiences including venture start-up, operations, business development licensing, and international strategy. He was a founding member of InnoCentive, Inc., a Lilly Ventures portfolio company. Yi began his career as a management consultant with Ernst & Young in the US, where he specialized in life sciences practice.

Yi’s education includes a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and a Master of Business Administration degree, both from Duke University. He also earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Science and Technology of China. He is a member of the Board of Directors of HD Biosciences, Chipscreen and Beta Pharma. He also serves as a board observer at Novast and CITIC Pharma.

Ethan Hu, Ph.D., Principal

Dr. Hu has over fifteen years of experience in life science research, marketing, business development, and venture capital business. Before joining Lilly Asian Ventures in 2007, Dr. Hu was an Associate Director at Novartis Oncology responsible for early commercial development. In that role, he led the development of a number of new products, built portfolio strategies, and drove pre-launch activities. In addition, he was a core member of the Business Development & Licensing team and was responsible for the completion of a numbers of in-licensing deals. Previously, Dr. Hu was a research scientist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, after finishing his postdoctoral work there. Dr. Hu is the author of several research articles and a reference book chapter, and was a recipient of a NIH grant.

Dr. Hu received his BS in biology from Peking University (China), Ph.D. in molecular and cell biology from University of Maryland, and MBA from The University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. Dr. Hu is also a member of the Lilly Ventures team and currently serves as a board observer at Intradigm Corporation.

Fei Chen, Ph.D., Manager

Fei joined Lilly Asian Ventures in 2009 as Investment Manager based in Shanghai, China. Previously, he worked as financial advisor in the healthcare team of The Balloch Group, a leading boutique investment banking firm in China, where he made great contributions to the successful closing of several private placement and M&A deals.

Fei’s education includes a Ph.D. in medical and molecular biology and a Bachelor of Science in biology, both from Fudan University (China). As a Ph.D. student, he gained business experience through internships at Monitor Group, a global consulting firm and Vivo Ventures, a life-science focused venture capital firm based in US.