Christine Brennan joined the Novartis Venture Fund in November 2013. Prior to joining Novartis Venture Fund, she spent 3 years at Vitae Pharmaceuticals as Chief Business Officer responsible for strategy & business development. Prior to Vitae, she spent 5 years at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research in Strategic Alliances, most recently as Executive Director and Head of Strategy & Operations. Prior to Novartis, she held positions in business development and marketing at the biopharmaceutical companies, EnVivo Pharmaceuticals (now FORUM Pharmaceuticals), Biovail (now Valeant Pharmaceuticals) and Cogent Neuroscience. In addition, she was Director at Fidelity Biosciences Group, a venture capital company. She received her Ph.D. in neuroscience from Dartmouth Medical School in 1995 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health in 1999.