Farah Champsi
Farah Champsi
General Partner at Alta Partners
About
Farah Champsi is a venture capital investor, board member and advisor to companies in the life sciences sector. She has been at Alta Partners since 2000 as a Managing Director and General Partner where she played a key role in raising over $1 billion in venture funds. Farah served on numerous boards of public and private life biotech companies and has had many successful exits through acquisition or initial public offerings. In 2016 she was selected as one of the top 15 female venture capitalists in biotech by Fierce Pharma, a major industry publication.
Prior to Alta, Farah was an investment banker at Robertson Stephens & Company between 1987 and 1999, where she focused on biotechnology and other life sciences companies. She was elected a General Partner in 1992 and head of the global life sciences investment banking group in 1995. During that time, she was responsible for building one of the most successful life sciences investment banking franchises on Wall Street.
Farah holds a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Smith College. She is currently Trustee of Smith College and is on the board of UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals and Peninsula Bridge, an educational non-profit that serves low income, high achieving youth. Previously she served as a trustee on the Stanford Business School Trust, the advisory council of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Smith College’s President’s Council. In 2014 she endowed a fellowship for female and minority students at the Stanford GSB.
Farah is married to Jim Keene (GSB Sloan class of 2010) and has twin daughters. In her spare time, she enjoys cycling, theatre, global travel, and watching the SF Giants.
