David M. Geliebter, Executive Chairman, Co-founder
David is a serial entrepreneur with significant experience successfully starting, growing and selling businesses. David is the Managing Partner of Carrot Capital Healthcare Ventures, a venture fund that focuses on promising seed-stage investment opportunities across a broad spectrum of the healthcare industry. Prior to starting Carrot Capital in 2001, David founded and ran the Carson Group, one of the world’s most successful financial information and advisory companies with over 450 employees and operations around the world. The company was sold to Thomson Corporation for $200 million in cash. David was also a founding principal and President of Evolution Capital, a NASD broker/dealer subsidiary of Carson and an early-stage and mezzanine level healthcare investment banking firm. Before Carson Group, David started and ran another successful business in the financial services sector: Harvard Capital. This company was sold to WPP Group in 1986. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year for New York in 1993 by Inc. magazine and Ernst & Young. David is the Chairman of Access Scientific, Critical Diagnostics, and Remedy Pharmaceuticals, all Carrot Capital-initiated companies.

Sven M. Jacobson, CEO, Co-founder

Sven has co-founded five healthcare startups for Carrot Capital (St. Camillus Medical, Cure Therapeutics, Access Scientific, Critical Diagnostics, and Remedy Pharmaceuticals) and has served as CEO and CFO of each at various times during their development.  Currently, apart from his role of CEO of Remedy Pharmaceuticals, Sven runs the day-to-day operations of Carrot Capital and represents the fund on the boards of Access Scientific and Critical Diagnostics.

Sven has honed his entrepreneurial skills at both small and large companies.  Prior to joining Carrot at its inception, he consulted to a broad array of companies, from DRM software providers to fabless semiconductor startups, assisting them with strategy development, product commercialization, and project implementation.  At Leisureplanet, he was a key member of the startup team that launched Leisureplanet.com in Europe and the USA, and led a team of 45 people across the ecommerce and information technology functions. At Rennies, he was responsible for acquisitions, disposals, and strategic initiatives, and became the youngest board director in the vast conglomerate’s 100-year history when he was elected to the board of directors of the 1400 person, $2 billion turnover financial services and travel division. 

Prior to his business career, Sven worked on embedded real-time systems, where he developed his love and respect for science and technology.  He is an avid reader of medical journals and a self-taught healthcare patent and intellectual property expert. He has a broad network of clinical, scientific, and venture contacts through his involvement in establishing and communicating with the advisory boards of the Carrot Capital startups.

Sven has a B.Sc. Electrical Engineering and was awarded best final year light current engineering student. For his MBA, he graduated Dean’s list with distinction. Sven lives in Manhattan with his wife Sonia and sons, Jonah and Levi.  He is a “foodie” and never tires of Manhattan's variety.

Eugene D. Means, MD, Medical Director
Dr. Eugene Means received his MD degree from SUNY at Buffalo.  He completed his training in Internal Medicine and Neurology at Northwestern University followed by a fellowship in experimental neuropathology.  Following completion of his training, he served on the Faculty of Medicine at Albany Medical College and the University of South Florida where his research focused on spinal cord injury. Dr. Means moved to the University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine where he served as Professor and Vice Chairman of Neurology and Professor of Pathology.  He also was Chief of Staff of the Cincinnati Veterans Administration Hospital.  He continued his research on neuroprotection and spinal cord injury in association with Dr. Douglas Anderson.  During a nine year period, the work from the laboratory contributed to a better understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of spinal cord injury.

In 1987, Dr. Means joined Industry with the Upjohn Company as Group Director of CNS where he was responsible for the worldwide development of tirilazad, an aminosteroid neuroprotectant.  Six major registration trials for ischemic stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage and traumatic head injury were planned and conducted worldwide. During his tenure with Upjohn, Dr. Means was awarded the Upjohn Achievement in Science and Medicine Award. Dr. Means joined Astra Merck in 1995, as Director of CNS Development and later Director of Emerging Products where he participated in the early development of NXY-059 for ischemic stroke.  He also contributed to the conduct of a phase III trial of Zendra for ischemic stroke in the US.  Following the AstraZeneca merger, he again contributed to the conduct of the NXY-059 phase III SAINT II trial. During his 20 year tenure in industry, Dr Means has been responsible for or contributed to the planning & conduct of numerous clinical trials in acute & chronic diseases in CNS many of which focused on neuroprotection.