Time to market has never been as critical as with the search for the COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna Therapeutics (MRNA), who in December 2018, led the largest biotech IPO in history, is in that race against the clock, deploying a novel technology, messenger RNA. Messenger RNA is also the technology of the company’s platform approach to the development of treatments for potentially 20 diseases and in theory applicable to many more. Being the CEO of a life sciences company working on a technology that has not previously led to an approved vaccine or drug, requires an extra dose of "boldness, curiosity, and collaboration", in the words of Stéphane Bancel. Where is Moderna in the race to market the vaccine? How could the vaccine be distributed? How did his own education as an engineer and an MBA prepare him for this challenge? How does Stéphane Bancel explain the science behind their products? How does the company empower its people and build a culture?

Stéphane Bancel has served as Chief Executive Officer of Moderna Therapeutics since October 2011 and as a member of Moderna’s board of directors since March 2011. Before joining the Company, he served for five years as Chief Executive Officer of the French diagnostics company bioMérieux SA. From July 2000 to March 2006, Stéphane Bancel served in various roles at Eli Lilly and Company, including as Managing Director, Belgium and as Executive Director, Global Manufacturing Strategy and Supply Chain. Prior to Lilly, he served as Asia-Pacific Sales and Marketing Director for bioMérieux. 

Stéphane Bancel currently serves on the board of directors of Qiagen N.V. and previously served on the board of directors of BG Medicine, Inc. and Syros Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SYRS). He is currently a Venture Partner at Flagship Pioneering and a trustee of the Museum of Science in Boston. Stéphane Bancel holds a Master of Engineering degree from École Centrale Paris (ECP), a Master of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Minnesota, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

In this episode:

In this episode, Denise Silber, host of HAE Invites, interviews the CEO of Moderna Therapeutics (MRNA), one of the most strategic and observed life science companies of the COVID-19 crisis. In December 2018, Moderna became the largest biotech IPO in history. Now in 2020, they are called upon to do what has never been done before, to accelerate the development of a vaccine for a new disease. Join Denise as she speaks with Stéphane Bancel, the founding Chief Executive Officer of this Cambridge, Massachusetts research-based firm, whose pioneering messenger RNA (mRNA) technology platform, includes a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate. How do you manage a company working on such a visible challenge at such a complex time? An engineer and a Harvard MBA, with 25 years in pharma and life sciences, Stéphane Bancel provides HAE Invites podcast series with fascinating insights into the development of the vaccine, the future of drug discovery, lessons learned in leadership, management, and entrepreneurship in a context of high uncertainty, and his Harvard connection.

Join Denise and Stéphane Bancel, the founding CEO of this Cambridge, MA research-based firm, whose pioneering messenger RNA tech platform, includes a leading COVID-19 vaccine candidate. An engineer and a Harvard MBA, with 25 years in pharma and life sciences, Stéphane Bancel provides HAE Invites with fascinating insights into the development of the vaccine, the future of drug discovery, and lessons in leadership, management, and entrepreneurship in a context of high uncertainty and his Harvard connection.

Netflix, The Dollar Shave Club, Amazon Prime—these are just some of the businesses that come to mind when we think about subscriptions. But there's more to it than just a monthly fee. More and more companies are using technology to shift from a customer to a membership model. One that deepens their understanding of customer needs while at the same time building loyalty—and improving revenue and cash flow. Here to discuss these trends, and her latest book, is Robbie Kellman Baxter.

Robbie is the founder of Peninsula Strategies LLC, a management consulting firm, as well as the author of the bestselling The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue.  Her new book “The Forever Transaction: How to Build a Subscription Model So Compelling, Your Customers Will Never Want to Leave” was released in April of this year. She coined the popular business term “Membership Economy", which is now being used by organizations and journalists around the country and beyond.  

Her clients have included large organizations like Netflix, the Wall Street Journal, and Microsoft, as well as dozens of smaller venture-backed companies. Over the course of her career, Robbie has worked in or consulted to clients in more than twenty industries. Before starting Peninsula Strategies in 2001, Robbie served as a New York City Urban Fellow, a consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton, and a Silicon Valley product marketer.  Robbie has been quoted or interviewed by dozens of media outlets, including CNN, NBC, and NPR. As a public speaker, Robbie has presented to thousands of people in corporations, associations, and universities. She has an AB from Harvard College and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. 

In this episode:

In this episode of HAE Invites, host Philip Guarino interviews Robbie Kellman Baxter, Harvard alumnus and consultant with Peninsula Strategies, discuss her new book, The Forever Transaction. We are familiar with subscription-based services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, our local gym. But Robbie argues that a membership-based approach can be far more widely adopted by business, improving engagement, cashflow and profitability. Yet shifting from a purely transactional relationship requires organizational buy-in and commitment.

Jill Johnson is the Co-founder/CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL). Most recently, Jill conceived and launched the Women of Color Connecting initiative to change the way we think about building the capacity of Women of Color entrepreneurs for the grow-scale-exit trajectory. She is also spearheading The Making of Black Angels movement to drive diversity and inclusion within the angel investing sector. She has over 30 years of experience as a business strategist. She is a small business champion with extensive experience in program development, business plan writing, and pitch coaching.

In her capacity as CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership, Ms. Johnson is responsible for the strategic direction of the organization and capacity building. She is especially focused on creating earned revenue opportunities and strategic partnerships. She has led the organization in successfully winning contracts with the New Jersey Department of Labor, the Newark Urban Enterprise Zone, Rutgers Center for Urban Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, and Greater Newark LISC to provide entrepreneurial training and support services. 

Ms. Johnson is a member of the National Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (NCEI) Entrepreneurship Council and the Excelsior Growth Fund Advisory Board. In the past, she served on the Red Tape Commission created by New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and was an appointee of Mayor Cory Booker to the Board of Trustees of the Newark Public Library. She was also a co-chair of the South Orange Main Street Economic Development Committee. 

Ms. Johnson has a B.A. in economics from Harvard University and is married with four amazing sons.

In this episode:

Jill Johnson is the daughter of entrepreneurial parents who devoted their energy to running a successful small business, but, as people of color, lacked  access to the networks that lead to capital.  Jill’s perspectives changed when she went to Harvard and on to Goldman Sachs and began to see the networks in action. Skills alone were insufficient without the right contacts. As co-founder and CEO of the Institute for Entrepreneurial Leadership (IFEL), Jill fosters environments that connect minority and women small business owners with the investors and opportunities that were not previously accessible to them.

Emmanuel Arnaud is the CEO of HomeExchange and president of French Tech Boston. HomeExchange is the largest home exchange network in the world, uniting a global network of people to exchange homes without any money changing hands. He is a graduate of the French Business School, HEC Paris, and the Harvard Kennedy School, and co-author of France's first textbook on sustainable development in 2005. He is the recipient of the Echo Touristique Person of the Year 2017 trophy for innovation and is a frequent keynote speaker and panelist.

In this episode:

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? What if you could stay in any house in over 150 countries for a fraction of the cost, would that change how you view traveling? You just need to become a part of a growing number of travelers that exchange their homes. Tune in to this week's episode of HAE Invites with host Denise Silver as she interviews Emmanuel Arnaud, CEO of HomeExchange. 

Emmanuel Arnaud has always had a love for traveling and inviting guests, often mere strangers, into his home while growing up. His passion for a community of travelers took fruition in 2011 when he started Guest to Guest, his dream further expanded when he partnered with Charles-Edouard Girard, and together they acquired HomeExchange in 2015. While building his company hasn't always been an easy job for Emmanuel, Arnaud has made his companies on kindness and resilience.

Nicolas Mialhe is the co-founder of The Future Society, a nonprofit think tank which helps advance the global governance of AI in 2014. Nicolas also co-founded the AI Initiative in 2015, as well as the CitX Initiative and the Science, Law and Society Initiative in 2016. He is one of the foremost experts in artificial intelligence and he has over 15 years of professional experience building partnerships at the intersection of industry, academia, innovation, government, and civil society across Europe, America, Africa, and Asia.

Nicolas is the co-Convener of the Global Governance of AI Roundtable (GGAR) organized yearly during the World Government Summit in Dubai, as well as a member of the AI Group of experts at OECD (AIGO), of the World Bank’s Digital Economy for All Initiative (DE4ALL), and of the Global Council on Extended Intelligence (MIT Media Lab).

Nicolas holds a Master in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School, a Master in Defense, Geostrategy & Industrial Dynamics from Panthéon-Assas University, and a Bachelor of Arts in European Affairs and International Relations from Sciences Po Strasbourg

In this episode:

What is your definition of AI and what role does it play in today’s society? Nicolas Mialhe is a leading expert in artificial intelligence and he says that AI actually has the capacity to supersede government systems and social systems, making it necessary for us to revisit our social contract.

AI has become an intrinsic part of globalization and as it develops and gets enhanced further with each new technological advancement and algorithm that humans put in place, it starts to beg the question of who decides what AI can, and to what extent it will effect change.

Join Philip Guarino in this episode of HAE Invites as he speaks with the co-founder of The Future Society, Nicolas Mialhe, about the growing impact of AI in today’s society and where it’s headed in the future. They also talk about what The Future Society, the work that they do and how it can impact the world of AI, and our own. Stay tuned.

Denise Silber, a digital health pioneer and opinion leader, is the founder of Basil Strategies consultancy, of Doctors 2.0 & You conferences, and a new venture in Virtual Reality, VRforHealth. A multi-cultural American in Paris, Denise’s contributions to the development of digital health globally led her to receive France’s highest civil award, the Legion of Honor. A graduate of Smith College and a Harvard MBA, Denise is also a keynote speaker and author, and vice president of Harvard Club of France.

An interim executive and growth consultant to technology firms, Philip Guarino has over 25 years experience as an executive and entrepreneur, having worked in over 50 countries and traveled to more than 120.  Philip is the Chair of HAE’s Paris Chapter. Fluent in five languages, he is a graduate of Harvard College and holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

In this episode…

In this pilot episode of HAE Invites, Denise Silber and Philip Guarino talk about the experiences that have colored their vision of entrepreneurship and the world, what HAE and entrepreneurship means to them and what they look for in guests. Stay tuned.

Maurice Gopikian is the Founder and President of Harvard Angels France, and he is also the owner and President of MG Ventures which specializes in fundraising and mergers and acquisitions. He also has a leadership role in The Alchemists, Advanced Retail, and other programs that seek to help companies grow and market their services. In 2008, Maurice founded the French Harvard Business School Alumni Angels Association and co-founded HBS Alumni Angel Intel's Global, and it's 15 chapters worldwide. He has helped over 300 Startups acquire equity and presented as a keynote speaker at several Harvard Business conferences over the last decade.

In this episode:

When you think of asking for an investment for your company or idea, where do you go? The future of doing great business lies with connecting to investors that see and understand your vision. Maurice Gopikian, Founder and President of Harvard Angels France, is intent on helping startups find quality investors and connect growing businesses to opportunities where they can learn the fundamentals of marketing, scaling, and networking to build their company efficiently. 

 

In this episode of HAE Invites, Philip Guarino interviews Maurice Gopikian, investor, serial entrepreneur, and founder and president of Harvard Angels France about how he helps startups connect with the right investor and what it takes to be a part of their Angel network. He also discusses why it's important to create connections that can help you change or start a new career and the things that founders need to consider when approaching a potential investor for his company. Stay tuned. 

Dr. Nasrin Hafezparast is the co-founder and CTO at Outcomes Based Healthcare in London. OBH is a mission-driven health tech company supporting health system measurement of outcomes. They work to improve the health care system, provide sustainable data, with a long term people-centered outlook. Dr. Hafezparast is an entrepreneur and a firm believer in having a health care system that works to benefit the whole human rather than just their parts. She was selected by Management Today as one of 35 Women Under 35, and she is also part of the 20 Women in Data and Tech: The Female lead and Women in Data.

In this episode:

What role does data play in patient care? How does it improve the treatment plan that’s offered to patients and how effective will those be in treating certain diseases? According to Dr. Nasrin Hafezparast, having a data system for patients and how they reacted to certain treatments is the key to improving the healthcare system. And this is what her company, Outcomes Based Healthcare intends to do as it works with the NHS to improve the healthcare system in the UK.

Join Denise Silber in this episode of HAE Invites as she speaks with Dr. Nasrin Hafezparast, co-founder and CTO of Outcomes Based Healthcare, about how her company is improving the lives of 56 million people in the UK. Tune in as she talks about how they analyze their data and why they aren’t considered as an AI healthcare company, why they zeroed in on the “hire slow, fire fast” approach for the team members they work with, and OBH’s plans to improve healthcare systems in other countries.

Sunny Tara is the Chairman and CEO of CareCognitics, a digital health company which is on a mission to improve quality of care through data science. He is a serial entrepreneur, technologist, and investor. Sunny has an impressive track record of Strategy, Business Development, Innovation and Execution in the Healthcare, Casino Entertainment, Retail and Gaming verticals. 

Sunny holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from University of Kentucky at Lexington, and a Master’s degree (Summa Cum Laude) in Computer Science from the University of Memphis. Just two years ago, he attended Harvard Business School for the Advanced Management Program.

In this episode:

“Can we take a loyalty-based approach or relationship-based approach that allows physicians to extend the care outside their four walls and connect with patients while they are in the comforts of their own homes?” This is the question that Sunny Tara asked himself in the process of creating CareCognitics, the innovative digital platform that drives improved health outcomes for patients using the same techniques and technology used in the casino, retail, and hospitality industries.

In this episode of HAE Invites, Denise Silber speaks with fellow Harvard alumnus Sunny Tara about how he came up with the idea of applying the things he learned from working in the casino industry to the healthcare industry. They discuss why he sought to improve the healthcare industry, the challenges he faced in the process of establishing CareCognitics, and the program structure and revenue model he imposed that makes healthcare a lot more beneficial for both the physician and the patient. Stay tuned.