biopharma-executive
(6)
Eric Gornstein
Eric Gornstein is the Chief Executive Officer of Pearl Diagnostics, a Johns Hopkins spinout in Baltimore that makes MycoMEIA, the first FDA-cleared urine test for invasive aspergillosis. A biopharma commercialization veteran with more than 25 years leading product launches, partnering and deal-making across therapeutic areas, he joined Pearl in late 2025 to take the company from FDA clearance to the market and into Europe. Earlier he helped launch Radius Health's first product, Tymlos, and worked in business development and cell therapy partnerships at companies including bit.bio and Talaris Therapeutics.
Joanne Smith-Farrell
Joanne Smith-Farrell is the President and CEO of Be Biopharma, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company building a new class of medicines from engineered B cells - the body's own protein factories. A physicist by training who moved into drug development, she has spent more than 25 years leading teams tackling cancer and rare diseases, most notably building bluebird bio's 400-person oncology cell therapy business behind the CAR-T therapy Abecma. Since taking the helm at Be Bio in early 2021, she has steered the company through more than $350 million in funding as it works to turn B cells into durable, in vivo sources of therapeutic proteins.
Briggs Morrison
Briggs Morrison is a medical oncologist turned biopharma leader who runs Crossbow Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts company building TCR-mimetic antibody drugs that aim T-cells at cancer targets once thought unreachable. Before Crossbow he ran late-stage R&D at the scale of an industry giant, serving as Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Global Medicines Development at AstraZeneca, and holding senior development roles at Pfizer and Merck across three decades. His fingerprints are on blockbuster cancer medicines including TAGRISSO and LYNPARZA. Today he splits his identity between operator and investor: CEO of Crossbow, Entrepreneur Partner at MPM BioImpact, and a fixture on biotech boards including chair of Arvinas.
Andrea Ashford-Hicks
Andrea Ashford-Hicks is the CEO of Cayuga Biotech, an early-stage platform biotechnology company developing biomimetic polyphosphate therapies for severe bleeding. She joined in 2022 after two decades in biopharma, including leading the FDA approval and commercial launch of RETHYMIC at Enzyvant Therapeutics and progressive roles at Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Agenus, EMD Serono and Schering-Plough. She holds dual degrees in biology and finance from the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton School.
Ilise Lombardo
Ilise Lombardo is the CEO of Noema Pharma, a Basel-based clinical-stage biotech advancing treatments for central nervous system disorders. A Yale-trained psychiatrist with a Cambridge M.Phil and a Brown degree, she spent two decades in clinical practice and academia before co-founding Arvelle Therapeutics, which sold to Angelini Pharma for roughly $1 billion in 2021. She now steers Noema's pipeline of Phase 2 programs targeting Tourette syndrome, trigeminal neuralgia, tuberous sclerosis seizures and menopause-related CNS symptoms.
Zhen Su
Zhen Su is the CEO of Marengo Therapeutics, a Cambridge biotech reprogramming T cells to wake up the immune system against cancer. A physician-scientist with nearly three decades in oncology, he ran a billion-dollar global cancer franchise at Merck KGaA, helped deliver eight regulatory approvals as CMO of EMD Serono, and now steers Marengo's STAR platform into the clinic on the back of a $2.8B Ipsen partnership.