London-based investment manager Downing has appointed John E Milad as partner and co-head of its healthcare ventures team, working with co-head Dr Nigel Pitchford, who joined Downing’s healthcare ventures team as a partner last summer.

Milad has 25 years’ experience working in venture capital, start-up leadership and investment banking in the healthcare and life sciences sectors across the UK, Europe and the US. He was chief executive of Quanta Dialysis Technologies for eight years. Before that, he was an investment director at NBGI Ventures, an executive at the venture-backed start-up Nitec Pharma, an investment professional at Atlas Venture and at Kirkland Investors, and an investment banker at Nomura and Lehman Brothers.

Milad said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Downing’s investment team at this exciting moment in time, when innovative engineers, clinicians and entrepreneurs are creating a proliferation of technology-enabled solutions that have the potential to fundamentally impact healthcare delivery while also easing the burden on health systems. I am eager to apply my experience as both an investor and operator to help these healthcare innovators to build companies with game-changing solutions that can become tomorrow’s market leaders.”

Pitchford added: “I am delighted to be working with John to push our investment proposition forward together. As well as providing insight into maximising the potential of our existing healthcare ventures portfolio, John’s experience will enable us to accelerate our plans to raise funds from institutional investors who are seeking to deploy capital into businesses that can deliver both a financial return and a societal impact.

“We believe that there is currently an attractive market opportunity, driven by rising demand for smart and connected healthcare solutions, which will lead to significant transformation in the healthcare sector. We also believe that there is a funding gap in the UK for healthcare technology companies, which we have the relationships to access and the expertise to address.”

Dr Kostas Manolis, partner and head of private market investments at Downing, commented: “Our strategy in healthcare ventures is to invest into outstanding technology-led companies that can increase patient access to healthcare, reduce the costs of healthcare provision and improve patient outcomes. The inherent impact that these businesses can have aligns perfectly with Downing’s own focus on sustainability and our status as an accredited BCorp.

“John’s appointment will add significant operational experience to the team, it will further strengthen our ability to deliver on this strategy and is the latest example of the progress we are making here at Downing in developing our private markets offerings.”

Downing stated it is planning additional hires and will launch a new institutional fund to back innovative healthcare companies.