Niall O’Donnell

Niall O’Donnell is a Managing Director at RiverVest Venture Partners based in San Diego, California. Since joining the firm in 2006, he has founded or co-founded five biopharmaceutical companies and helped raise more than $1 billion in venture capital funding. O'Donnell previously served as the interim Chief Executive Officer of Reneo Pharmaceuticals and the interim Chief Medical Officer of Lumena Pharmaceuticals, where he later spun assets out of Takeda to create Mirum Pharmaceuticals in 2018. His investment portfolio includes several notable exits, such as the acquisitions of Amplyx Pharmaceuticals and Excaliard Pharmaceuticals by Pfizer, as well as Horizon Therapeutics' 2020 purchase of Curzion Pharmaceuticals. Holding an MBA and a Ph.D. from the UC San Diego Rady School of Management, O'Donnell currently focuses on early-stage biopharmaceutical investments targeting rare diseases and unmet medical needs.