Faculty
Sahirzeeshan Ali
Founder and General Partner, Modi Ventures, United States
Sahir Ali is the founder of Modi Ventures, a venture capital firm at the forefront of investing in the convergence of biology and technology. With a focus on scientific superintelligence and the engineering of life, he has backed breakthrough companies advancing AI-driven drug discovery, diagnostics, and next-generation therapeutics. As a parallel entrepreneur, scientist, and innovator, Sahir has led transformative work across artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and precision medicine. Sahir is also the co-host of Membrane, a flagship gathering co-led with Sir Richard Branson that brings together global leaders in science, medicine, and technology.
Robert Goodwin, MBA, MSC
Chief Operating Officer, Parexel, United States
Rob Goodwin is the Chief Operating Officer of Parexel. In this role, he is responsible for leading the core clinical functions, specifically, project management, clinical and data operations, inclusive of early phase clinical units, real world research, and the operational excellence office. Rob has over 30 years of industry experience in clinical operations, safety and regulatory. Most recently, he was Senior Vice President of Clinical Development and Operations at Pfizer.
Raju Kucherlapati
Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, United States
Since 2001 Dr. Kucherlapati is the Paul C. Cabot Professor of Genetics and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and was the first Scientific Director of the Harvard Medical School-Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics (HPCGG). He was a co-founder of several biotechnology companies including Cell Genesys, Abgenix, Millennium and AVEO Oncology. He served on the Board of Directors of all these companies and is now the Chair of the Board of Directors of a public traded company, Puretech Health. Raju Kucherlapati received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana and did his post-doctoral work at Yale University.
Andrew Lo, PHD, MA, MBA, PMP
Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor of Finance, Sloan School of Management , Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States
Andrew W. Lo is the Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, director of MIT’s Laboratory for Financial Engineering, and principal investigator at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research interests include innovative approaches to healthcare financing and new statistical methods for incorporating patient preferences into the drug approval process and predicting clinical trial outcomes. He is a board member of Roivant Sciences, a co-founder of and advisor to BridgeBio Pharma, and a member of the advisory boards of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the BrightEdge Impact Fund, and NCATS.
Manu Nair
Associate Chief Business Development Officer, Mayo Clinic, United States
Manu Nair is the Associate Chief Business Development Officer. Prior to this role, he served as Vice President of Technology Ventures for the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) in Oklahoma City. He was in charge of developing and commercializing OMRF’s technologies, establishing strategic industry collaborations, and managing the innovation fund dedicated to such development efforts. Appointed by the Governor of Oklahoma, he served as Vice Chair of the Oklahoma Science and Technology R&D Board. He currently serves on the boards of IBIS Therapeutics, Jupiter Bioventures, Nucleus Radiopharma, USA Healthcare Alliance and Volnay Therapeutics, and is a member of the External Advisory Committee for the NIH-funded SE XLerator Network Hub.
Michael Nally
Flagship Pioneering, CEO-Partner, Generate:Biomedicines. CEO, United States
Michael Nally joined Flagship in 2021 and serves as CEO-Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Generate:Biomedicines. Mike is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive, with significant experience leading global organizations. Before joining Generate:Biomedicines, Mike held several key leadership positions at Merck & Co., Inc. As Chief Marketing Officer, he was responsible for the Global Marketing and Brand Strategy of a diverse portfolio encompassing innovative medicines and vaccines, generating over $40 billion in revenue. His previous roles at Merck & Co. include serving as President of Global Vaccines and managing the company's operations in Sweden and the UK.
Mikael Ørum
Founder and Partner, Ventac Partners, Denmark
Mikael brings 40 years of executive and strategic leadership experience across the pharmaceutical, biotech, and finance sectors, including 25 years as CEO of therapeutic and diagnostic companies developing and commercializing products across multiple disease areas and global markets.
Andrew Plump MD, PhD
President, Research and Development, Takeda, United States
Andrew Plump, MD, PhD, is the President, Research & Development of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited and serves as a member of the company’s Board of Directors. Dr. Plump served as Senior Vice President, Research & Translational Medicine, Deputy to the President of R&D at Sanofi, based in Paris, France. Before Sanofi, he served as Vice President, Worldwide Cardiovascular (CV) Research Head at Merck, where he had direct responsibility for CV research, preclinical development and translational sciences. Dr. Plump received his MD from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), his PhD in cardiovascular genetics with Dr. Jan Breslow at Rockefeller University and his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Jay Roberts, MBA
Partner, Ventac Partners, United States
Jay Roberts, MBA, is President and Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Genetics, Inc., a leader in enabling precision medicine in oncology, where he previously served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance. Mr. Roberts also served as Chief Financial Officer for VirMedica, Inc.; as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer for InfoLogix, Inc., a publicly-traded healthcare-centric mobile software and solutions provider acquired by Stanley Healthcare with Mr. Roberts leading the transaction; and as Chairman of the Board of Directors for AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions Private Limited. He formerly held senior executive roles with MEDecision, Inc., HealthOnline, Inc., and the Center for Health Information.
Michael Rosenblatt, MD
Advisory Partner, Ascenta Capital, United States
Dr. Rosenblatt has held major leadership roles in academia and the biopharmaceutical industry. Currently, he is an Advisory Partner to Ascenta Capital and a Senior Advisor to Bain Capital Life Sciences and Flagship Pioneering. He was elected to and now serves on the Harvard Board of Overseers and currently serves in a variety of board and advisory roles.
Robert Tepper
Co-founder and Partner, Third Rock Ventures, United States
Bob Tepper is a co-founder and Partner of Third Rock Ventures and a distinguished physician-scientist with more than 30 years of experience building and operating leading research and development organizations in the biotech industry. Bob focuses on the formation, development, and scientific strategy of new Third Rock companies. He also assumes active leadership roles in portfolio companies.
Neil Thomas
Partner, Ventac Partners, Denmark
Dr. Neil Thomas joined Ventac Partners in March 2012 and has worked in the protection and commercial exploitation of academic and industrial intellectual property in the biotechnology sector since 1997, within both legal and business environments. Neil brings extensive experience in company formation, patent drafting, patent portfolio management, business development, licensing and technology exploitation.
Cynthia L. Verst, PHARMD, MS
President, R&D Solutions D&DI; 2023 President, IQVIA, United States
Dr. Verst is president, Design and Delivery Innovation, Research & Development Solutions at IQVIA. She is responsible for driving innovation and transformation throughout the trial lifecycle. Having previously served as president of both clinical operations and real world and late phase research for IQVIA, Dr. Verst brings a holistic and comprehensive view of clinical research, and champions the advanced use of real-world data, analytics and technology to advance therapies for patients. Recognized by Fierce Biotech as a top woman in biotech, and as a PharmaVoice 100 leader, she currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Association of Clinical Research Organizations and is the Chair of the DIA Board of Directors.
Paul Wotton
CEO and Founding Partner, RBL LLC, United States
Dr. Paul K. Wotton is the CEO and Founding Partner of RBL LLC, and Executive Director of the Rice Biotech Launch Pad. Prior to this he was CEO and President of Obsidian Therapeutics, a cell therapy company that he transitioned from a research organization to clinical stage (melanoma) within three years, in partnership with colleagues at MD Anderson. Paul received his Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Nottingham and a B. Pharm. (Hons) from University College London. He is an experienced CEO, Board Member and international executive. He has extensive experience in strategic growth management, financial transactions, M&A and product development.
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