Fellowship
Fellow
Class
4
Current Firm
WaveGuide Corporation
Location
United States

Nelson Stacks

Fellowship
Fellow
Class
4
Current Firm
WaveGuide Corporation
Location
United States
Education

Nelson earned his MBA from Babson College where he focused on entrepreneurship, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester.

Professional

Nelson is a serial entrepreneur with broad turn-around experience in biopharma, diagnostics, and medical devices. He is currently President and CEO of WaveGuide Corporation, which makes the world's smallest and most sensitive handheld nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer for detection of cancer, infectious diseases, oil and gas exploration, and industrial anti-counterfeiting. The technology was developed and licensed from Harvard University. 

Previously, Nelson was CEO of Molecular Insight Pharmaceuticals, focused on cancer diagnostic and therapeutic treatments. He was brought in by the private equity investment groups Highland Capital Management and Morgan Stanley to turn around and restructure this prior-NASDAQ-listed biotech company. Before that, Nelson founded Vascular Pathways. After 2+ years of work to the tune of $14M from VCs, they later sold the products to the U.S. military and government with their first purchase order. 

In his venture investing career, Nelson was a Venture Partner at QBF/QIC, where he brought life science opportunities to the table, assisted in the vetting process, invested, and sat on portfolio company boards. He had been a general partner with 3i and was previously with Oak Investment Partners focusing on all aspects of life science investing. 

Before venture, Nelson was the sales manager for Intermountain Scientific Corporation.

Fellowship

Nelson is a member of Kauffman Fellows Class 4 and served his fellowship under mentor Ginger More at Oak Investment Partners in Westport, CT. He also served as a mentor to Matt Morgan, Fellows Class 12.