Oxonian Ventures Announces Addition of Heather Preston, Healthcare Investor, as General Partner

Oxonian Ventures, now on Fund III, adds healthcare VC investor to its all Oxford Alumni leadership team

PALO ALTO, CA, UNITED STATES, February 26, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Oxonian Ventures, the leading early-stage investor in Oxford alumni founded companies, today announced that Heather Preston, healthcare investor and Oxford graduate, has joined the firm as a General Partner.  Heather is a senior healthcare venture capital investor, with over 20 years of investing experience at NEA, JPMorgan Partners, TPG Biotech and Pivotal Bioventures. Her primary investing focus has been in biopharmaceutical products and novel technology platforms to enable biopharmaceutical product development. She has broad investing experience from company creation through all stages of venture capital, plus growth equity and buyout investments.  

Heather received her MB, BChir from the University of Oxford, was a Research Fellow at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute at Harvard, trained in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and specialized in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at UCSF.  Heather also worked at McKinsey & Co., advising large biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies on strategic issues.  She has been a Board member at more than 20 companies, helping them grow and achieve liquidity for investors through both M&A and IPOs. 

“Healthcare investing has been my passion for more than 20 years. I am excited to join the team at Oxonian Ventures and to be part of evaluating investments in exciting biotech and healthcare early stage ventures and helping these new ventures to scale.” 

Heather joins Paula Skokowski, Cameron Turner and Neil Wolff, all Oxford alumni, as General Partners in Oxonian Ventures. Since its inception in 2016, Oxonian Ventures has invested in 30+ early stage companies founded by Oxford alumni. Now on its third Fund, Oxonian Ventures invests across industry using investment capital from Oxford alumni and affiliated institutions. Areas of investment reflect the strengths of the University of Oxford including in biosciences, AI, and materials. To date 30% of the Oxonian Ventures portfolio investments have been in early stage life science companies including Granza Bio, Ligo Biosciences, Valink Therapeutics, Probably Genetic, Excepgen, biotx.ai, AOA DX. 

“Heather brings to Oxonian Ventures a wealth of senior level experience in life science VC investments, building companies and exiting them through IPOs and M&A” said Neil Wolff, Co-Founder and General Partner of Oxonian Ventures. “The addition of Heather to our leadership team, provides valuable life science expertise to our existing and future life science portfolio companies as they scale up their ventures.”

The University of Oxford has an 800 year history as an educational institution and has been ranked the #1 University in the World in 2025, for the eighth year in a row, by the Times Higher Education. The word “Oxonian” refers to a student or member of the University of Oxford. 

News summary

• Oxonian Ventures announces that Heather Preston, healthcare investor and Oxford graduate, has joined the firm as a General Partner. 

• Oxonian Ventures is the leading early-stage venture fund investing in companies founded by Oxford alumni, using investment capital from Oxford alumni and affiliated institutions, and led by an all Oxford Alumni leadership team.

• Now on its third fund, investment in Oxonian Ventures Fund III is open to accredited, high net worth or sophisticated investors who have studied at the University of Oxford.

• The target size for Fund III is $15M. 

About Oxonian Ventures

Oxonian Ventures is the leading early-stage venture fund investing in companies founded by Oxford alumni, using investment capital from Oxford alumni and affiliated institutions. With a portfolio of over 30+ companies and an all-alumni investment team, Oxonian Ventures brings together Oxonian founders and investors to move ventures forward and elevate the visibility and reputation of Oxonian innovation. Oxonian Ventures invests in pre-seed, seed and Series A financings by companies founded by Oxford alumni.  Oxonian Ventures is now raising its third fund, and welcomes inquiries from Oxonians worldwide who are accredited, high net worth or sophisticated investors and would like to learn more about investing in the third fund.  

www.oxonianventures.com

Media Inquiries: press@oxonianventures.com

Paula Skokowski
Oxonian Ventures
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