Prior to her role at Pillar VC, Leah served as a Senior Director at Radical Ventures, where she oversaw the firm’s responsible AI strategy and managed research partnerships. Her background includes economic AI research at the University of Toronto and experience in global health and security with the United Nations and through nonprofit work in Jamaica and South Africa. Leah holds an MBA from the University of Toronto, a Master of Global Affairs from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and dual Bachelor’s degrees in International Development Studies (IDS) and Environment, Sustainability, and Society (ESS) from the University of King’s College.

Prior to joining Pillar VC, Leone was Head of Community and Talent at MCJ, where she operationalized a vetted member network of over 3000 founders and funders building climate solutions. Over 3 years she supported 100 portfolio companies and originated MCJ’s talent system. Previously, she’s founded a volunteer-led climate content platform, launched a 1:1 introduction tool during the pandemic and was the first operations hire for pre-seed environmental data startup. Leone holds a BASc Arts and Sciences from University College London.

Bes is a former ML Engineer at Meta who built large-scale deep learning systems. After leaving Meta, he co-founded the Machine Learning Institute - blending engineering expertise with his passion for teaching and research. He's joined the Pillar VC team as a part-time Technical Lead, working with Encode Fellows on their ambitious milestones.

Before joining Pillar, Kayan worked in R&D across several deeptech startups, developing technologies from biofuels to cultivated meat. He co-founded Farrago, a grassroots community supporting hundreds of London-based artists with tools and a platform to grow their careers. Kayan was the inaugural MSc Bio-Integrated Design scholar and also holds a BSc in Biochemistry, both from University College London.

In 2021, he joined the Pillar investing team to support companies across a wide range of biotech and deep tech. Outside investing, Tony’s core interest has been to accelerate science through work with FutureHouse, Nucleate, and Homeworld Collective. His investments include Latent Labs, Nabla Bio, Portal Biotech, and Amber Bio, among others.

Madelyn joins Pillar VC from a biotech startup, Opentrons Labworks. She held multiple roles in the organization across sales, customer success, marketing, community management and product. She is passionate about empowering scientists and growing the life science community. Madelyn graduated from Bates College and spent her first year after university teaching biology for the Spanish Government in Madrid, Spain.

Sarah invests in enterprise and consumer companies and leads our firm’s platform team, supporting founders with access to talent, customers, and leadership development. Her investments include, Hometap, Day AI, JobGet and Hellotickets, among others.

Jamie founded the firm with the ambition to build the next generation of lasting companies. He has spent over two decades working in venture capital, and his investments include Algorand, PathAI, Asimov, Abridge, Jellyfish, Cimulate, Tycho, Zilla Security, Neural Magic, Circle, PillPack and Videa Health, among others. Prior to Pillar VC, Jamie was an investing partner for 18 years at North Bridge Venture Partners. Jamie co-founded PureSpeech, an AI/NLP/speech recognition AI company in the mid 90s.

Thomas has spent his career building biotech companies. Prior to Pillar VC, Thomas was at Flagship Pioneering, where he was part of the founding team of Quotient Therapeutics. Before joining Flagship, Thomas was founder and CEO of Amylon Therapeutics, a biotechnology startup that focused on using RNA therapeutics to treat rare neurodegenerative disease. Thomas created Amylon as a spin-out from ProQR Therapeutics, where he was previously their head of CNS innovation. Thomas holds a B.Sc. degree in International Medicine and Global Health. His work has resulted in multiple patents and publications. Thomas was elected one of the top 10 young European biotech entrepreneurs by Labiotech, as well as one of the 30 rising leaders in life sciences by Invivo. His investmens include, Thymmune, Arvada Therapeutics, and Amplifyer Bio, among others.

Parker fell in love with the startup world when he built and launched a mobile-based outsourcing platform during college. He got his start in venture capital as an intern at Boston-based .406 Ventures, then spent two summers working with Pillar before joining the team full time in 2018. At Pillar VC, Parker actively invests in next generation networks, AI-powered apps, software infrastructure, crypto, and data systems. His investments include, Adaptilens, Reclaim, Acelab, All Hands AI, Boolsi, HALO, Lightblocks, Topologic, and SciPhi, among others. Parker graduated from the University of Michigan, where he earned an interdisciplinary degree and served as captain of the varsity lacrosse team.

Across academic and industry labs, Anjali has contributed to developing and applying technologies at the intersection of synthetic biology, automation, and computation. During her undergrad at MIT, Anjali studied Biological Engineering under pioneers such as George Church, Ron Weiss, and Darrell Irvine. Anjali moved to London to join the Francis Crick Institute, where she is now pursuing a PhD. She served as the Director of Nucleate UK's Activator program, supporting 16 early stage ventures through commercial roadmapping and fundraising. Anjali is excited about scientific storytelling, having pursued a second major in Literature at MIT, and is eager to continue contributing to the UK's innovation ecosystem.