Prospect Venture Partners’ Alex Barkas Dies Suddenly

Xconomy is sad to report that Alex Barkas, a prominent biotech venture capitalist with Prospect Venture Partners, died suddenly on Monday.

He was 64. The cause of death hasn’t been determined, but it was sudden and unexpected, said David Schnell, a longtime colleague and fellow managing director at Prospect.

“Alex was genuinely a wonderful person, partner and friend and will be missed by many,” Schnell said in an email.

Barkas was a managing director of all the Prospect funds, dating back to 1997, and before that was a partner with Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, according to his biography on the Prospect website. He served on the boards of multiple biotech companies over the years, including Geron (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GERN]]), Complete Genomics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:GNOM]]), Amicus, Tercica, and Novacept, among others.

Prospect posted a brief memorial to Barkas on its website, which said:

“Alex
 was 
an 
extraordinary father, 
and 
husband, 
friend
 and 
colleague, 
deeply 
admired 
and respected
 by 
all 
who had
 the special 
privilege 
to 
know 
and 
work 
with 
him,” the statement said. “Alex
 brought 
passion, 
wisdom, 
sincerity 
and 
an 
unrivaled love 
of 
life. 
Alex 
leaves 
behind 
for 
us 
a 
legacy 
of 
hope 
and 
commitment
 to 
achieve greatness 
with 
kindness, 
care 
and 
perseverance. 
He 
will 
be 
very 
deeply 
missed.”

Drew Senyei, the managing director at Enterprise Partners Venture Capital in San Diego, said he served on the Complete Genomics board with Barkas and knew him for 25 years. Here’s what he said in an e-mail this morning:

“The venture world lost too soon a true visionary who will be greatly missed by everyone he touched,” Senyei wrote. “Alex leaves a legacy of great companies in healthcare that were shaped by his passion for excellence and innovation. My deepest condolences for his family.”

Bob Nelsen, a managing director with Arch Venture Partners in Seattle, added: “Its a tragic loss for his family, friends and for the industry. Alex was one of the great early-stage biotech investors. He was not afraid to create companies that were against the conventional wisdom, and he was more often right.”

If you have any memories of your experiences with Barkas you’d like to share, please feel free to leave a comment in the comment section below.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.