Novo Holding A/S, a world-leading life science investor with a focus on long-term, sustainable value creation, today announced the appointments of Abhijeet Lele and Jon Levy as Senior Partners at Principal Investments.

In their roles at Principal Investments, the arm of Novo Holdings responsible for sizeable investments, Abhijeet Lele and Jon Levy will leverage their strong track records and combined experience in the industry to screen for new opportunities and help steer the portfolio companies to optimal growth and the best suited strategic transactions.

They will both be based in Boston and Abhijeet Lele has been appointed Head of Principal Investments in the United States This follows the recent promotion of Christoffer Søderberg as Head of Principal Investments. (link to separate press release)

With these new appointments, Principal Investments establishes a direct presence in the US, the world’s largest healthcare and life sciences market, with the aim of most optimally and efficiently source, execute and manage US investments. Novo Holdings invests USD 1-2 billion annually in life science companies.

Commenting on the news, Christoffer Søderberg, Head of Principal Investments at Novo Holdings said: “With Abhijeet and Jon, we are welcoming two seasoned life science investors who complement each other well to lead our team in the US. With this on the ground presence in the US, we will be better plugged into the ecosystem to manage existing investments and execute new investment opportunities. Novo Holdings has a clear ambition of building on its position as the world’s leading life science investor and establishing a direct presence for the Principal Investments team in the US is a significant step in consolidating that position.”

Abhijeet Lele, Senior Partner, Head of Principal Investments in US at Novo Holdings said: “I’m thrilled to be working with the Principal Investments team whose ownership of leading life science companies puts it in a privileged position to actively support boards and management in realising their strategic ambitions. Novo Holdings has an exceptional reputation and network, and I look forward to contributing my investment experience to help build on their strong track record.”

Jon Levy, Senior Partner Principal Investments at Novo Holdings: “I’m excited to help further Principal Investments’ efforts in the US. I look forward to working with the global Novo team, and to leveraging the vast Novo network to evaluate and identify investments in market leading assets with strong underlying growth drivers.”

Abhijeet offers over 20 years of life sciences investment experience, most recently from a position as US Head of Healthcare at Temasek based in New York. Prior to joining Temasek, Abhijeet was US Head of Healthcare at Swedish investment firm Investor Growth Capital/Patricia Industries for close to a decade. He also worked with McKinsey as well as in business development and marketing roles in pharmaceuticals and life sciences. Abhijeet has a BA and MA in natural sciences (molecular biology) from Cambridge University and an MBA from Cornell University.

Jon brings over 10 years of life science private equity/buyout experience as well as several years as an investment banker. Jon joins from a position most recently as Managing Director in the Healthcare team of the global private equity firm CVC Capital Partners based in New York. Prior to joining CVC, Jon worked at private equity firms LetterOne Health and Tailwind Capital Partners as well as the investment bank Lazard. Jon has a BA in Ethics, Politics and Economics from Yale University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Principal Investments makes sizable investments in leading, well-established life science companies with a flexible mandate to invest in private companies (control and minority positions) as well as in listed companies. The team has a distinct approach, combining deep life sciences expertise and insights with leading transaction and execution capabilities, and flexibility in terms of ownership horizon and ownership structure. At the end of 2019, the Principal Investments portfolio comprised 12 companies, with a total value of more than USD 8 billion.