Peter van der Velden, MBA, MSc.
Managing General Partner, Lumira Ventures
With 28 years of investment and operating experience, Peter has participated in building companies from start-up through to expansion in the life sciences, information technology, and consumer sectors. Known as a results-oriented entrepreneur with demonstrated success in venture and buyout investing, transaction structuring and completion, strategic planning, business development, and operational management and restructuring, Peter has established a strong reputation for leadership, consensus building, judgment, integrity, and clarity of vision.
Responsible for the overall business operations of Lumira Ventures, Peter is also active on the investment-side, focusing primarily on growth equity investments in companies that have made, or are close-to-making, the transition from development to selling and marketing their products. Peter’s specific investment expertise includes non-traditional and consumer-oriented medicines, spin-outs of operating businesses, restructurings, and public companies.
Peter is a very active volunteer in the communities in which he works and plays and is a frequent lecturer at universities and conferences around the world on themes related to venture capital, innovation, and healthcare. Peter works closely with both Federal and Provincial governments advising on policy matters related to healthcare innovation and innovation financing. As the Chairman of the CVCA, he worked closely with the Federal government on their Venture Capital Action Plan and was a member of the Government of Ontario’s Health Innovation Council, whose mission was to enhance the adoption of Ontario-based innovation by the Ontario healthcare system.
Throughout his career, Peter successfully participated on both sides of the value creation equation working both as an entrepreneur and as a partner and mentor to highly successful management teams. Peter’s experience includes: Founder of a boutique merchant bank focused on private IT-based companies, Head of Investment Banking for a boutique investment bank focused on the public IT-based companies, Partner in a buyout partnership targeting retail and consumer-centric businesses; Vice President Business Development for a venture capital-backed drug delivery company; and an Associate role at Canada’s then-largest venture capital firm. Peter started his working career with Canada’s largest independent vaccine manufacturer.