Elnaz Menhaji-Klotz, PhD

Senior Director, Corporate Development

Elnaz Menhaji-Klotz is a Senior Director of Corporate Development at Raven. Elnaz’s primary responsibility is to focus on new company creation. Prior to Raven, Elnaz led development strategy implementation at the Gates Medical Research Institute (Gates MRI), a biotech focused on global health, where she built foundational processes, governance structures, and cross functional capabilities during a period of rapid organizational growth. During her time at Gates MRI, Elnaz also held roles in business development, alliance management, and project leadership, working across multiple infectious diseases and leading global, multiparty partnerships spanning non profit and industry collaborators. In these roles, Elnaz helped shape R&D portfolios by identifying and in licensing scientific innovation and establishing the infrastructure required for execution. Earlier in her career, Elnaz was a scientist and team leader at Pfizer and AstraZeneca, advancing drug discovery programs from high throughput screening to delivering candidate quality compounds across several therapeutic areas. Elnaz also built and led strategic external collaborations with academic labs and biotech partners to accelerate discovery timelines and access novel technologies. Elnaz holds a PhD in Chemistry from Yale University and a BA in Biochemistry from Barnard College.