Cynthia "Cindy" Lander

Dr. Lander is Managing Partner of Cynapse Consulting, LLC. Via Cynapse, she has served as interim management or strategic consultant to venture capital, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and diagnostics companies, focusing on operations, commercial opportunity assessment, corporate, product and market development strategy. Cynapse clients have spanned early-stage start-up through large-cap companies, as well as Gehrson Lehrman Group, AlphaSights, and Catalant.

Primary focus areas include core team member for start-up biotechnology and device/diagnostics companies (fractional C-level roles), investment and business development diligence, and new product development, market assessment (including primary and secondary market research conduct and analysis) and commercialization strategies.

Dr. Lander oversaw development of Moerae Matrix (focused on development of novel MK2 inhibitors to treat fibrotic and inflammatory disease) and spin-off VasoPrep Surgical (medical device company focused on preserving structure and function of vein grafts used in arterial bypass procedures) as Founder, Chairman and CEO. Dr. Lander was SVP, Group Account Director at Saatchi & Saatchi/Publicis Group, with responsibility for business development and brand/marketing strategy for biopharmaceutical clients. She was also a Partner in Nascent Enterprises, a venture catalyst partnership commercializing medical inventions, with 24 companies created to date. Portfolio companies have raised millions of dollars in private financing and experienced 4 IPOs and 12 acquisitions.

She received her PhD in Neuroscience from Yale (Neurogen Fellow), where she made discoveries that were subsequently outlicensed, and conducted post-doctoral research at Rockefeller (Revson Fellow). Dr. Lander is an inventor on a number of patents and an author on peer-reviewed publications.. She was a keyboard performance major at The Juilliard School and has a BS in Psychology from New York University.