Efrem Kamen
Efrem Kamen is Managing Member at Pura Vida Investments, a life sciences investment firm he co-founded in 2012. The firm has significant investments across the healthcare universe, including Medical Technology, Life Science Tools and Biotechnology.
Pura Vida’s flagship fund has had award-winning performance since its inception, including winning 2021 Best Long Term 5-Year Performance, 2019 Best Long/Short Manager, 2019 Best Specialist Equity Manager and 2018 Best US Emerging Fund Manager for Global Equities, all as awarded by HFM Global (Absolute Return) and Pension Bridge.
Efrem is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, where he created and teaches a course on investing in medical technology and is an Assistant Professor in Biomedical Engineering at Columbia Engineering School. Efrem is a board member of the Global Vitiligo Foundation as well as actively involved as an official partner, through Pura Vida, with the Bowery Mission, The Skatepark Project, and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Efrem is also a Director of the National Cannabis Roundtable, an industry trade association focused on federal cannabis reform.
Efrem has given numerous board and leadership presentations to both directors and management teams including those of Baxter International, Trulieve and Establishment Labs. Efrem was a guest speaker at Institutional Investor’s Absolute Return Conference in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016. He also periodically speaks at NYU Stern School of Business and McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management.
Prior to founding Pura Vida, Efrem was a Portfolio Manager at Waterfront Capital Partners and an Analyst at Diamondback Capital Management, LLC. Prior to joining Diamondback, he was an Analyst at Chicago-based Citadel Investment Group, responsible for medical device investments. Earlier in his career, Efrem held positions of increasing responsibility as an Equity Research Analyst covering medical device companies at Cowen Group, Inc. and then Citigroup, where he also conducted due diligence for public offerings and other transactions. Efrem began his career in Investment Banking at JP Morgan. Efrem received a B.A. with Honors from Columbia College in New York, majoring in Economics and Linguistics.