Exceptional Management Team with Expertise in Life Sciences
The Saratoga Ventures team brings specific expertise in medical devices, medicine, venture finance, business development, client relations, engineering, and fund administration. The complementary skills and backgrounds of our fund partners have made Saratoga Ventures more successful in finding new opportunities, and in deciding on investments and funding allocation.

In addition, Saratoga augments our own management team with services from top professional firms. For example, Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati -- one of the top venture law firms in Silicon Valley -- acts as legal counsel for the funds. Mohler, Nixon and Williams, the largest independent CPA firm in Silicon Valley, with offices in Palo Alto and Campbell, CA, provides audit and tax services.

General Partners for the current Saratoga Ventures fund are:

Foster D. Hendrix, Co-Founder, Chief Investment Officer, & General Partner
In 1997, Foster, together with Richard Ferrari, co-founded Saratoga Ventures, which began by providing early stage financing for medical device companies. Foster and Richard had several successful investments with Enteric Medical, Atrionix, Oratec, Endotex, TriVascular, CryoVascular, and Paracor. In 2000, Foster assumed responsibility for the Saratoga Ventures investment portfolio and operations. From 1982 through 2004, Foster maintained an active position with a national brokerage firm, and now acts as a strategic advisor. Prior to that he was a Vice President in commercial lending with United California Bank for 12 years. Foster earned a BS in finance at Weber State University and an MBA in finance from Golden Gate University.

Gwen Watanabe, General Partner
Gwen joined Saratoga after working as a Managing Director & Founder for Lava Ventures, a private equity medical device and high technology investment fund. Prior to Lava Ventures, Gwen was a founding team member in Bacchus Vascular, where she was the business development and marketing manager. Gwen was also a founding team member in AneuRx, where she was an engineer for the stent-graft delivery system team and co-inventor. Gwen has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she also simultaneously completed pre-med requirements, an MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in the design division with an emphasis on biomechanical design, and an MBA from Harvard Business School with focus on finance and marketing. Gwen currently sits on the Board of Directors for Sleep Solutions.

Advisors for the current Saratoga Ventures fund include:

Richard M. Ferrari, Business Development Advisor

Peter Fitzgerald, M.D., Ph.D., Scientific & Clinical Advisor