Lesley Stolz

Lesley is Regional Vice President, Early Innovation Partnering at Johnson & Johnson Innovation, California. In this role, she leads identification, incubation, due diligence, negotiation, execution, and on-boarding for high-impact partnerships and collaborations in external innovation. Lesley also oversees the region’s partnership portfolio and is responsible for a wide range of dealmaking solutions including research collaborations, licensing options, venture investments, new company formations, and incubation to establish value-creating partnerships with promising early-stage innovators.

Previously, Lesley served as Head of JLABS @ SSF where she managed lab and business operations for the Johnson & Johnson Innovation incubator site. Most recently, Lesley was Managing Director at Lasana Partners where she successfully facilitated multiple partnerships. Before Lasana, Lesley was the Chief Business Officer of Annexon BioSciences. Lesley serves on the Board of California Life Sciences (CLS) and is a passionate contributor to this region’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in the life sciences industry.