# Avak Kahvejian

> Avak Kahvejian is a biochemist, inventor and company founder who serves as President of Flagship Labs and General Partner at Flagship Pioneering. A founding CEO of Ring Therapeutics, he has helped establish more than ten companies since joining Flagship in 2011. Born in Beirut and raised in Montreal, he earned his B.Sc. and Ph.D. at McGill University, worked at Helicos BioSciences, and now chairs the International Institute of New England’s board while serving in advisory and governance roles connecting the United States, Canada and Armenia.

- **Role:** President of Flagship Labs and General Partner at Flagship Pioneering
- **Organizations:** Flagship Pioneering, Flagship Labs, Ring Therapeutics, Cellarity, Sail Biomedicines, Generate:Biomedicines, ProFound Therapeutics, Ampersand Biomedicines, Abiologics, Etiome, Rubius Therapeutics, Codiak BioSciences, Seres Therapeutics, Helicos BioSciences, International Institute of New England, Genome Canada, Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology, McGill University
- **From:** Beirut, Lebanon
- **Nationality:** Canadian American
- **Education:** B.Sc. in Biochemistry, McGill University, Ph.D. in Biochemistry; supervised by Nahum Sonenberg, McGill University
- **Known for:** Co-founded more than ten companies after joining Flagship in 2011., Helped develop and commercialize single-molecule sequencing technology at Helicos BioSciences., Received the 2022 Barry M. Portnoy Immigrant Entrepreneur Award for Life Science Business.

## Career timeline

- **2004** — Joined Helicos BioSciences; subsequently held roles in business development, product management, marketing and sales, including Vice President of Business Development.
- **2008** — Co-authored What would you do if you could sequence everything? in Nature Biotechnology.
- **2011** — Joined Flagship, focusing on internal innovation and venture creation.
- **2013-2017** — Served as founding President and CEO of Rubius Therapeutics, according to IINE’s biography.
- **2017** — Ring Therapeutics launched at Flagship; Kahvejian was part of its founding team and served as founding CEO.
- **2022** — Received the Barry M. Portnoy Immigrant Entrepreneur Award for Life Science Business.
- **2023** — Genome Canada announced his board appointment on October 12.
- **2024** — Spoke at UMass Boston’s Fall Convocation.
- **2026** — Current biographies list him as President of Flagship Labs and General Partner; co-hosted the opening episode of The Labs Report in June.

## Achievements

- Co-founded more than ten companies after joining Flagship in 2011.
- Helped develop and commercialize single-molecule sequencing technology at Helicos BioSciences.
- Received the 2022 Barry M. Portnoy Immigrant Entrepreneur Award for Life Science Business.
- Selected for the Dean’s Honour List at McGill, as documented in MIT’s 2016 speaker biography.

## Latest updates

- **2026-06** — Introduced The Labs Report podcast with co-host Justine Levin-Allerhand; its opening episode was published June 11.
- **2026-04** — Appeared as IINE board chair at the Golden Door Award gala, which the organization reported raised more than $1.7 million.

## Links

- Website: https://www.flagshippioneering.com/people/avak-kahvejian
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avakk
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/AvakK

---

Profile page: https://yespress.io/avak-kahvejian
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-13