Edward Willems is the Non-executive Chairman of The Board of Synapto Ventures where his insights and decisions shape the company's direction, as well as Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Gold Nest Capital, an asset management company with a Capital Market Licence regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Through Gold Nest Capital, Edward has spearheaded private equity funds, led direct investments in life sciences, served on numerous Boards, and success fully guided portfolio companies to exit, demonstrating his leadership and vision in life sciences.
Edward has a proven track record of launching successful ventures, having co-founded multiple companies, including Renzoku Biologics, a Japanese CDMO developing an end-to-end, fully continuous biomanufacturing process for protein-based therapeutics; as well as Ginward, a consultancy company providing fundraising, corporate finance & investments, and business strategy services to corporates and investors in the life science sector.
Before embarking on his extensive career in life science venture capital in 2012, Edward's 18year career in investment banking with Crédit Lyonnais/Crédit Agricole Group led him to the global position of Deputy-Head of Fixed Income Capital Markets, responsible for over 1,000 front office professionals and a budget over EUR 1 Bn. He was also a permanent member of the Group International Committee, which oversaw the global international strategy of the bank.
At the outset of his professional journey, Edward worked as a scientific researcher in speech processing at ATR Laboratories in Nara, Japan, culminating in publishing a paper on speaker independent speech recognition using Markov Networks.
Edward holds a MEng in Electronic Engineering with Distinction from Southampton University in the United Kingdom, as well as a MSc in Signal Processing from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris, France.
