Executive Profiles

Rafaat Rahmani, president and founder of Lifescience Dynamics, grew up in abject poverty, but such hardships—and a later violent brush with racism—would ultimately end up fueling a determined and entrepreneurial path in the life sciences.

Dr. Wagner discusses her work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute.

The Calliditas Therapeutics CEO discusses her transition from a banker/investor to CEO of a pharma company.

Jan van de Winkel, PhD, president and CEO of Genmab, the longtime innovation engine in antibody drug development, discusses its vision for adding a new business identity: commercial driver.

The Merck executive discusses how a personal tragedy has shaped her career and approach to promoting healthy choices.

Ken Keller, CEO of Daiichi Sankyo’s US business, reflects on the trials, triumphs, and lessons learned in steering the transformation of a legacy cardiovascular company into a global leader in oncology—advancing a vision for a reimagined future in cancer treatment.

Craig Tooman, CEO of Silence Therapeutics, on steering through the rough biotech funding and investment waters post-pandemic—and how a retooled organizational approach has the company in a stronger position today in the growing field of gene silencing through siRNA drugs.

From Big Pharma to biotech—and a globe-spanning journey along the way—Yvonne Greenstreet, this year’s Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Woman of the Year, is right where she wants to be: leading efforts to advance “bold ideas” in RNAi therapeutics into life-changing gains for patients.

Damien Bailly, president of established markets at Astellas, discusses why partnerships and collaborations are a critical organizational—and wider ecosystem—imperative in ensuring that patients have access to the medicines they need.

Paige Bingham has focused her career on improving clinical research operations and logistics, and not just ways to ease the burden for investigators and teams running the trials—but also for the patients involved in them.

Harpreet Gill, vice president of real-world solutions - project management at ICON, discussesthe progress and challenges in advancing data-driven tools and approaches in decentralized clinical trials, where ongoing education remains paramount.

Lisa Conte, founder, president, and CEO of Jaguar Health, discusses how a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro would vault her to her true career calling—and spark a decades-long quest to accelerate breakthroughs in plant-based pharmaceuticals and supportive care.

Morton discusses his transition from working as a urologist to the C-suite.

Stephen Rivera, vice president, global technical accounting advisory services and policy, Johnson & Johnson, capitalizes on his lively personality—and a courageous career journey—to bring people together to shape the future of biopharma.

Lisa LeCointe-Cephas, SVP, chief ethics and compliance officer and office of general counsel, human health, Merck, uses her unique style of leadership—stop, drop, and roll—while elevating voices that need to be heard.

From public defender to spearheading the adoption of innovative drugs, Wendy Short Bartie, senior VP and general manager for the hematology and cell therapy division at Bristol Myers Squibb, has remained a steadfast patient advocate—working to fulfill unmet medical needs and bring treatments to as many people as possible.

COMPASS Pathways’ CEO, Kabir Nath, has a clear vision for psychedelics—and is leading the way with the company’s focus on psilocybin and efforts to separate the science from the hype.

Jag Dosanjh, president of US neuroscience and eye care for AbbVie and HBA’s 2023 honorable mentor of the year, shares what leadership qualities are most important in today’s “people industry”—and the impact more voices can make in stakeholder communication and messaging.

Ahead of ASCO and BIO, Michael Bailey CEO of AVEO Oncology, discusses the company becoming an LG Chem subsidiary and the future for drug development in the combined entity.

How the pivot to corporate development became a natural fit for the once-destined scientist. (The story of Natasha A. Hernday, chief business officer of Seagen and a 2023 Emerging Pharma Leader.)

Driving commercial growth and patient access and empowerment in women’s health. (The story of Simon Holland, vice president, women's health commercial lead, for Organon and a 2023 Emerging Pharma Leader.)

The recipe for cross-functional collaboration in drug development. (The story of Justin To, chief operating officer, skeletal dysplasias and gene therapy, for Bridge Bio and a 2023 Emerging Pharma Leader.)

Chronicling one leader’s call to duty in dermatology. (The story of Frank Watanabe, president and CEO of Arcutis Biotherapeutics and a 2023 Emerging Pharma Leader.)

Scientist-turned-entrepreneur steers efforts to transform approaches in tissue regeneration. (The story of Hanadie Yousef, PhD, co-founder and CEO of Juvena Therapeutics and a 2023 Emerging Pharma Leader.)

Christi Shaw, this year’s Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Woman of the Year, stays true to her beliefs—and life mission—of helping others.

Co-Founder and CEO John Oyler discusses the business decisions BeiGene makes to grow its pipeline and address drug pricing and access.

Chronicling Davidek Herron’s career crossover from playing professional basketball to leading Roche’s digital transformation and scale-up efforts—and the team lessons learned along the way.

Starting out with limited pharma business knowledge, how the lessons learned and realizations made helped to forge a destined—and globe-spanning—leadership path for Christophe Bourdon, where today, as CEO of LEO Pharma, he is tasked with steering the longtime company’s return to profitability.

Pharm Exec details the career of Rajesh K. Rajpal, MD, the chief medical officer and global head of clinical and medical affairs at J&J Vision.

Natalie Bickford, chief people officer at Sanofi, reveals how she approaches the employee experience, which ultimately influences employee retention, and discusses the importance of a corporate DE&I strategy in those efforts.