Aytug Kulaksiz is a CEO in Residence at NextGen Growth Partners, focused on acquiring and leading a Life Sciences Services business.
He has built his career in environments where reliability, trust, and execution determine whether important work moves forward. Across roles in strategy, product leadership, business development, corporate development, and general management, Aytug has led businesses at different stages and scales within the broader life sciences ecosystem.
Through leadership roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Fluidigm, IDEX Health & Science, and Life Technologies, he has seen firsthand how the businesses supporting pharma, biotech, diagnostics, and research organizations play a quiet but critical role in advancing the work to understand and treat disease.
Aytug is drawn to Life Sciences Services businesses because many are built the hard way: through years of technical excellence, trusted customer relationships, and cultures shaped by people who care deeply about getting the work right. He believes the best small businesses are not “targets” to be optimized from a distance, but legacies to be understood, protected, and thoughtfully grown.
Today, he is looking to acquire one business and personally lead it for the long term. His goal is to bring the strategic focus, operating discipline, and commercial judgment needed for the company’s next chapter while preserving the culture, relationships, and technical excellence that made it successful in the first place.
Outside of work, Aytug is a devoted husband and father who is happiest outdoors with his family – running trails and paddleboarding mountain lakes around Greater Salt Lake City. He holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Bilkent University.
