Tao Fu

Tao joined the Frazier Life Sciences team as a Venture Partner in 2022. He has over 25 years of business development, general management, operations, strategy, and commercial leadership experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

Tao most recently served as President & Chief Operating Officer and then Chief Strategy Officer for Zai Lab, a publicly-traded biotech company listed on both NASDAQ (ZLAB) and Hong Kong, where he held a broad set of responsibilities including strategy, operations, business development, CMC, quality, and other corporate functions.

Prior to Zai Lab, Tao was Executive Vice President, Chief Commercial and Business Officer of Portola Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: PTLA), a publicly-traded biotech company specializing in cardiovascular disease and cancer. In this role, he led Portola’s commercial operations, marketing, sales, and business development.

Tao was previously Vice President, Head of M&A and Alliance Management at Bristol Myers-Squibb (BMS), leading the company’s corporate development, alliance management and venture capital investing activities.

Prior to BMS, Tao worked at Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for 11 years, holding a number of leadership positions with increasing responsibilities, most recently as Vice President, Head of M&A, responsible for J&J’s global M&A activities in the pharmaceutical sector.

Over his career, Tao oversaw and was the primary deal negotiator for over 50 high impact business development transactions. Earlier in his career, he worked at Scios Inc., a biotech company in California, and McKinsey & Company.

Tao received an MS in biology from the University of Rochester, and an MBA in finance and marketing from Vanderbilt University. He did his undergraduate studies in biology at Tsinghua University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).