Board of Trustees

Timothy Dattels is a former Senior Advisor to TPG Global, having previously served as Partner for TPG, Chairman of TPG Asia and a member of the firm's Executive Committee. In this role, he was based in San Francisco, Hong Kong and Singapore and led the firm's Asian investment operations. Prior to joining TPG in 2004, Tim served as a Partner and Managing Director of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

He received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts with Honors from the University of Western Ontario. He serves or has served on the Boards of Directors of Cushman & Wakefield, BlackBerry, Invest in Canada, Parkway Holdings, Primedia Inc., Shangri-La Asia Ltd., Sing Tao News Corporation Ltd., and SFJazz. Tim is currently Chairman of The Jackson Laboratory and the Chairman of Alpine Canada, the national governing body for para-alpine, ski cross and alpine high-performance ski racing in Canada. He has also been appointed by Prime Minister Trudeau to represent Canada on the APEC business council. In addition, he recently joined the Board of Sagard Holdings, a Montreal-based dynamic alternative asset manager.

Thomas C. Barry is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Zephyr Management, L.P., an investment management company which he founded in 1994. Prior to founding Zephyr, Mr. Barry was President and CEO of Rockefeller & Co., the investment management arm of the Rockefeller family, from 1983 to 1993. Previously, he was employed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. from 1969 to 1982, where among other responsibilities he was President of T. Rowe Price New Horizons Fund and Director of Research.

Mr. Barry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree from Yale University, where he majored in Latin American Studies. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Mr. Barry is currently a Director for the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a Trustee of the Hotchkiss School in Connecticut and the University School in Ohio. Mr. Barry also serves on the Yale University President’s Council on International Affairs and the Dean’s Council for Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Otis Webb Brawley, M.D., MACP, FASCO, FACE, is a medical oncologist and epidemiologist.  He serves as Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Oncology of the School of Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.  He is a member of the National Cancer Institute Board of Scientific Advisors.

From 2007 to 2018, Dr. Brawley was Chief Medical and Scientific Officer of the American Cancer Society. In that role, he oversaw the largest private cancer research funding program in the U.S. He previously served as a professor in the Emory University School of Medicine and the Rollins School of Public Health and as a tenured senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute.   

Among numerous awards, he received the Key to St. Bernard Parish for his work in the U.S. Public Health Service in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology, and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Brawley graduated from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine.

Joshua Broder serves as CEO of Tilson, headquartered in Portland, Maine. Under Josh’s leadership, Tilson has grown from less than 10 employees to over 550, earning a top spot on the Inc. 5000 list for the past ten years. Josh is also the founder of Tilson’s public utility affiliate, which develops, owns, and leases back 5G infrastructure including poles, towers, dark fiber and neutral host indoor and outdoor wireless networks nationwide. He cut his teeth in leadership as an Army Signal Officer on missions in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan designing, building and operating the communications network for US forces.

Josh holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College and is a graduate of AT&T’s Operation Hand Salute at JFK University with a certificate in entrepreneurial studies. He is currently serving a gubernatorial appointment as the co-chair of Maine’s economic recovery committee, and is on the boards of Versant Power, VETRO Fibermap, Kleinschmidt Associates, and Skowhegan Savings Bank. 

Carla E. Brodley, Ph.D. is the Dean of Khoury College of Computer Sciences and Executive Director of the Center for Inclusive Computing at Northeastern University. She also serves as a senior advisor to Northeastern’s President, Joseph Aoun. Prior to joining Northeastern, she was on the faculty of the Department of Computer Science and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Tufts University (2004-2014) and the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University (1994-2004)

A fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), Dr. Brodley’s interdisciplinary machine learning research led to advances not only in computer and information science, but in areas including remote sensing, neuroscience, digital libraries, astrophysics, content-based image retrieval of medical images, computational biology, chemistry, evidence-based medicine, and predictive medicine.

Brodley’s numerous leadership positions include serving as program co-chair of the International Conference on Machine Learning, co-chair of AAAI, and associate editor of the Journal of AI Research and the Journal of Machine Learning Research. She previously served on DARPA’s Defense Science Study Group, the board of the International Machine Learning Society, the AAAI Council, and DARPA’s Information Science and Technology Board. She is currently is a member of the Computing Research Association Board of Directors, the Mass Technology Leadership Council and the Mass Tech Collaborative Board of Directors.

She has a B.A. in Mathematics and Computer Science from McGill University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Internationally recognized human geneticist and demonstrated leader in academic, pharma and biotech research, Lon Cardon, Ph.D., FMedSci, joined The Jackson Laboratory as president and chief executive officer in November 2021.  Previously, he was chief scientific officer and chief scientific strategy officer at BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc., a rare disease biotechnology company, where he led a strategic repositioning from ultra-rare genetic diseases to broader genetic disorders between 2017 and 2021. Before his role at BioMarin, from 2008 to 2017 Cardon was senior vice president and head of genetics, quantitative sciences and alternative discovery/development at GlaxoSmithKline plc. In addition to division management responsibilities, he was chair of GSK’s Discovery Investment Board, overseeing research funding across all therapeutic areas.

Prior to this, Cardon spent the first half of his career as a senior academic. From 1998 to 2006 he was a faculty member at the University of Oxford, initially as head of bioinformatics and statistical genetics at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, and later as a Wellcome Trust principal fellow and professor of bioinformatics. From 2006 to 2008, he was a professor of biostatistics at the University of Washington and co-chair of the Herbold Bioinformatics Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

Cardon conducted his Ph.D. research at the Institute for Behavior Genetics at the University of Colorado Boulder and received his postdoctoral training in the department of mathematics at Stanford University.  His research groups were involved in many of the large international genetics initiatives that helped to create the present global genomics research infrastructure, including the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium which he co-founded and which yielded the first Genome-Wide Association Studies. His academic groups discovered dozens of genes for common and rare diseases and his industry groups advanced broad portfolios in large pharmaceutical and mid-size biotechnology companies, from exploratory research to phase I-III clinical trials.

Cardon has chaired and served on numerous public and private boards in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Europe and has authored more than 225 scientific publications and 15 books and chapters, mainly focused on genetics methodology, applications, and discoveries in rare and common diseases. He is an elected fellow of the United Kingdom’s Academy of Medical Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Nancy J. Cox, Ph.D. is the Director of the Vanderbilt Genetics Institute at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she is also Professor of Medicine, Director of the Division of Genetic Medicine, and the Mary Phillips Edmonds Gray Professor of Genetics.  Dr. Cox currently serves as chair of JAX’s Board of Scientific Counselors, the Laboratory’s external scientific advisory board.

Dr. Cox is a quantitative human geneticist with a long-standing research program in identifying and characterizing the genetic component of common human diseases. Her current research is focused on large-scale integration of genomics with other “-omics” data, as well as biobank and electronic medical records data. Specifically, Dr. Cox’s laboratory develops methods for analyzing genetic and genomic data and then applies those methods to the analysis of genome data on common diseases and translational phenotypes, such as pharmacogenomics traits, with a particular focus now on the integration of information on genome function with methods for the analysis of genome data.

Julie Hembrock Daum leads the North American Board Practice at executive search and leadership consulting firm Spencer Stuart, where she was a long-standing board member. She consults with corporate boards, working with companies of all sizes from the Fortune 10 to pre-IPO companies. She has conducted more than 1,000 board director assignments, recently recruiting outside directors for Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods, Amazon, Saudi Aramco, Nike, numerous IPOs and spin-off boards.

A recognized expert on governance topics, Ms. Daum has been selected as one of the 50 Most Influential People in Governance by NACD/Directorship Magazine every year since its inception. Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, she was the executive director of the corporate board resource at Catalyst, where she managed all board of directors' activities and worked with companies to identify qualified women for their boards. Ms. Daum began her career as a consultant with McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles.

Ms. Daum is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with an M.B.A. in corporate finance. She serves on the board of directors of Seacoast Bank and as a commissioner for the Women's Refugee Commission.

Steven B. Fink, J.D., serves as the Chief Executive Officer at Malibu Ventures. An investment professional, he has extensive experience building and managing technology companies. Mr. Fink has served on the boards of numerous publicly traded and privately held companies, including Nextera, Pillar Data Systems, Inc., Life Storage LLC, Leapfrog Enterprises Inc., and Nobel Learning Communities, Inc. He founded Knowledge Universe Inc. (now KinderCare Education) and serves as its founding partner and managing director.

Mr. Fink serves or has served on the Board of Trustees of Barnard College, Columbia University, the Herb Ritts Foundation Board, The Photographic Counsel of the Getty Museum, the American College of Physicians Foundation Board, the Board of the Smithsonian Institute Museum of American History, the UCLA Foundation Board, and the Board of Directors of City of Hope.

He holds a J.D., and an L.L.M. degree from the New York University and a B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., is the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics at Rockefeller University. He is a recipient of the 2010 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for his discovery of the hormone leptin and its role in regulating body weight. Dr. Friedman has received numerous other awards including the Gairdner Foundation International Award, the Passano Foundation Award, the Banting Lecture Award, and the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Distinguished Achievement in Metabolic Research. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

Dr. Friedman graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute magna cum laude and received his medical degree from Albany Medical College of Union University. After completing two residencies at Albany Medical Center Hospital, Dr. Friedman began his career at Rockefeller as a postgraduate fellow and associate physician. He received a Ph.D. under the mentorship of Professor James Darnell, Jr., M.D., and was appointed assistant professor. Dr. Friedman was then promoted to associate professor and named head of the laboratory of molecular genetics at Rockefeller. He was then promoted to professor and subsequently appointed as the Marilyn M. Simpson Professor. Dr. Friedman also serves as the Chairman of Bay City Capital’s Scientific Advisory Board.

Bertrand García-Moreno is Professor of Biophysics and Vice Dean for Natural Sciences at the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Trained as a physical chemist, the focus of his research is on mechanisms of energy transduction in proteins and on the role of pH as a cellular signal. He has been active in the development of computational methods to interpret protein function from structure, and more recently on the engineering of protein pH switches for therapeutic applications and on studies of the evolution of stability of proteins under extreme conditions. At Hopkins he also leads a long-term project to reimagine undergraduate education.

Dr. García-Moreno earned his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from Indiana University, Bloomington, where his doctoral research focused on the development of computational methods for structure-based analysis of biological macromolecules. He completed postdoctoral training in the Department of Biology at Johns Hopkins University and after two years in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis he returned to Hopkins to join the faculty.  He received his A. B. in biochemistry from Bowdoin College, where he currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees.

Melissa C. Guzy is the Founder and Managing Partner of Arbor Ventures and has more than 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur and venture investor.

Before Arbor Ventures, Melissa was a Managing Director and a member of the Investment Committee at VantagePoint Capital Partners, where she invested in early stage technology companies in Asia, Europe and Silicon Valley. In 2007, Melissa moved to Hong Kong to build VantagePoint’s investment practice in the region, establishing offices in Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. Her current board positions include EverCompliant, InCountry, Paidy and TrueAccord.

Melissa attended Wellesley College and earned a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Florida. She is the author of the paper “Venture Capital Returns and Public Market Performance.” She is the Co-Chair of the Hong Kong Venture Capital Association (“HKVCA”) Venture Committee, a member of the Board of Directors of the HKVCA and the Singapore Venture Capital Association, and a former member of the Hong Kong SFC on Innovation. Additionally, she was a guest lecturer on the venture capital industry at the University of Florida, Hong Kong University, Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Melissa is also a Hopkins Fellow and participated in the Women’s Leadership Program at Harvard University. She has been recognized as a Top 100 Influencer in Fintech (NxtBnk), AlwaysOn Fintech Power Player, as well as one of the Top 13 Women in Asia of Tech Influencers.

Eric Horvitz serves as Chief Scientific Officer at Microsoft, where he spearheads company-wide initiatives, navigating opportunities and challenges at the confluence of scientific frontiers, technology, and society, including strategic efforts in AI, medicine, and the biosciences.

Dr. Horvitz is known for his contributions to AI theory and practice, with a focus on principles and applications of AI amidst the complexities of the open world. His efforts and collaborations have led to fielded systems in healthcare, transportation, ecommerce, operating systems, and aerospace. Beyond his scientific work, Dr. Horvitz has pursued programs, organizations, and studies on ethics, values, and safety with applications and influences of AI. He established the One Hundred Year Study on AI at Stanford University and co-founded and serves as board chair of the Partnership on AI.  He served as a Congressionally appointed commissioner on the National Security Commission on AI, where he chaired the line of effort on ethical and trustworthy AI.

He currently serves on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and advisory boards of the Allen Institute for AI and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI. He has served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), as a board member on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, and on advisory committees for the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the Computing Community Consortium.

Dr. Horvitz has been awarded the Feigenbaum Prize and the Allen Newell Prize for his fundamental contributions to the science and practice of AI. He received the CHI Academy honor for his work at the intersection of AI and human-computer interaction. He is an elected fellow of the AAAI, the National Academy of Engineering, the Association of Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American College of Medical Informatics, and the American Philosophical Society.

Dr. Horvitz earned his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees at Stanford University. Before moving into the role of Chief Scientific Officer, he served as director of Microsoft Research, overseeing research labs in multiple locations around the world.

Robert King, Ph.D. is Senior Advisor at Keensight Capital, a European growth buyout investor with deep expertise in technology and healthcare. Keensight partners with the management teams of fast-growing and profitable companies providing capital, strategic guidance and operational support.

Previously, Robert was a Partner and Global Vice Chairman of the Investment Banking Division at Goldman Sachs. During his career at Goldman Sachs, he was also Senior Partner in the Global Healthcare Group, Co-Head of the Global Healthcare Group, and a member of the Financial Institutions and Global Finance Groups. Robert joined Goldman Sachs in 1988, and he was named Managing Director in 1997 and Partner in 2000.

Robert earned a BSE from Princeton University. He also holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, as well as an MBA, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

John is currently an Operating Partner for Beecken, Petty, O’Keefe and Company, a healthcare-focused investment firm. Previously, he was President and CEO of Amerigen Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., a generic pharmaceutical company and contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) based in the US and China.

Prior to Amerigen, John was CEO of Catalent Pharma Solutions, a leading provider of contract development, manufacturing, packaging and drug delivery technologies to pharmaceutical and biotechnology customers globally. John had been Group President of Pharmaceutical Technologies and Services at Cardinal Health, the predecessor company of Catalent. Previously, at Becton Dickinson (BD), John had two key roles. He was president of the Worldwide Diabetes Healthcare/Consumer Healthcare business and had joined BD as Vice President of BD Medical Systems Worldwide R&D.

John spent his early career at GE. At GE Medical Systems (now GE Healthcare), he was General Manager of Computed Tomography (CT) Engineering. He began his career at GE Aerospace in the satellite business, where he had roles in satellite design, flight and launch operations, program management and business leadership. John received a BS in mechanical engineering from Villanova University.

Ernestine Fu Mak is managing general partner of venture capital firm Brave Capital and co-founder of the investment syndicate MilVet Angels. Over the past decade, she has worked across the startup ecosystem, from negotiating mergers and acquisitions, to organizing SPVs for later-stage companies, to angel investing in and advising companies that have since been acquired, to advising banks on venture debt. Her investments have spanned emerging technologies ranging from autonomous vehicles and robotics to security and big data.

As a strong advocate for active participation in our democracy, she co-authored “Civic Work, Civic Lessons” with former Stanford Law School Dean Thomas Ehrlich to encourage civic engagement. She also co-authored “Renewed Energy” with IPCC major contributor John Weyant to guide government policy and investment strategies for a sustainable future. She has served as a board director and advisor to nonprofits such as Ad Council, California 100, and Presidio Institute.

She completed her BS, MS, MBA, PhD, and postdoc at Stanford University, where she teaches courses as a lecturer. She has been recognized on the inaugural Forbes 30 Under 30 list, Vanity Fair Next Establishment list, and Business Insider Silicon Valley 100 list.

Neal Milch is Executive Chairman of the Board of Laundrylux, a North American supplier of commercial laundry equipment, laundry business solutions, and marketing services.  He previously served as CEO of Laundrylux from 2007 until moving into the Executive Chairman role in 2018. Mr. Milch has also led several related businesses, including Pluslux LLC, a digital payments solution provider, which he founded. He served as the vice president of Global Marketing at Electrolux, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, before returning to Laundrylux in 2006. Mr. Milch is also a co-founder of Cbite, which focuses on thin film transistor (TFT) technology to enable organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panels.

Mr. Milch holds a J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, with a focus on intellectual property; a B.A. from Stanford University; and also attended the London School of Economics.

George Montgomery was most recently a Partner at Gurnet Point Capital, a healthcare investment fund, where he headed the firm’s San Francisco office until 2019. Prior to joining Gurnet Point, George was a co-founder of Coherus Biosciences, a late stage biotechnology company focused on biosimilars. After helping start the company in early 2011, he served as the CFO, a member of the Executive Committee and a member of the Product Development Steering Committee. Prior to Coherus, George had over 25 years of experience in investment banking and worked across most sectors of the health care industry, including pharma/biotech, medical devices and services/health care information technology. George served as a Managing Director at Cowen and later JPMorgan H&Q. Prior to Cowen, he served as a Vice President at CSFB.

Mr. Montgomery received his B.A. in Political Science from Yale University and his MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He currently serves on the Board at REDF, a California-based non-profit, and the Yale Cancer Center Advisory Board. George also serves on the Board of the Yale Crew Association and is the current Treasurer.

Frank Moss, Director of Humatics, Inc., and AirLifting, Inc., is an entrepreneur and veteran of the software and computer industries who has spent his career building companies and bringing innovative technologies to market. His interest in using technology to address pressing social issues—such as human health—and to improve quality of life led him to co-found a cancer drug discovery company, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and from there to the MIT Media Lab, where he served as director from 2006 – 2011 and where today he is Professor of the Practice and head of the New Media Medicine Group.

Dr. Moss began his career at IBM's scientific center in Haifa, Israel, where he also taught at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. He later held various research and management positions at IBM's Yorktown Heights (NY) Research Center, working on advanced development projects in the areas of networking and distributed computing. He went on to hold management positions at IBM, Apollo Computer, and Lotus Development Corporation, and was CEO and chairman of Tivoli Systems, which he took public in 1995 and merged with IBM a year later. He is a co-founder of many companies, including Stellar Computer, Bowstreet, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and his latest start-up venture, Bluefin Labs. He is also an enthusiastic advisor to other young companies that share his vision of vastly better living through technology.

A former trustee of Princeton University, Dr. Moss is currently a member of the Advisory Council for Princeton’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. In addition, he chaired the advisory council for the creation of the Systems Biology Department at Harvard Medical School, where he remains an advisor. He earned his undergraduate degree, a bachelor of science in engineering, from Princeton and holds a Ph.D. in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT.

Jenny Rooke, Ph.D., is the founder and managing director of Genoa Ventures, a San Francisco-based life sciences venture firm. For over a decade, Dr. Rooke has been deploying capital at the frontiers of life sciences innovation, with a penchant for technology-fueled solutions and category-defying opportunities. She got her start in venture investing at Fidelity Biosciences, a Cambridge-based healthcare venture capital firm. Dr. Rooke then brought her combination of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to the Gates Foundation, where she deployed and managed over $250M in funding in genetic engineering, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. She also played a key role in establishing the foundation’s investing function. 

In 2014, Dr. Rooke launched 5 Prime Ventures, investing in life sciences innovation. She founded Genoa Ventures in 2018, building on the 5 Prime Ventures track record, in order to scale a proven, differentiated investing strategy focused on early-stage life sciences companies innovating at the intersection of biology, technology and data science.

Dr. Rooke earned her Ph.D. in Genetics from Yale University, where she was a National Science Foundation Fellow. She received her B.S. in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in 1992.

Dr. Janet Rossant, a world-renowned expert in developmental biology, has served as the Gairdner Foundation’s President and Scientific Director since 2016. Widely known for her studies of the genes that control embryonic development in the mouse, Rossant has pioneered techniques for following cell fate and altering genes in embryos. Her current research focuses on stem cell development and cell differentiation in the developing embryo, important areas for the study of birth defects as well as regenerative medicine.

Dr. Rossant trained at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, United Kingdom and has been in Canada since 1977, first at Brock University and then at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute within Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, from 1985 to 2005. She served as Chief of Research at SickKids from 2005 to 2015 and retains a research lab there. Dr. Rossant has been recognized for her contributions to science with many awards, including the Ross G. Harrison Medal (lifetime achievement award) from the International Society of Developmental Biologists, the Killam Prize for Health Sciences, the March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology, the Conklin Medal from the Society for Developmental Biology, the 10th ISTT Prize from the International Society for Transgenic Technologies and the 2018 L’Oréal For Women in Science Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of both London and Canada, and an International member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

Dinakar Singh is the CEO and Founding Partner of Axon Capital, a leading global investment firm. The firm was founded by Mr. Singh in late 2004 in partnership with Texas Pacific Group. He was previously a Partner at Goldman Sachs, where he was co-head of the Principal Strategies Department. During his 14 years at Goldman Sachs, he served on a number of the firm’s key leadership committees, including the Securities Division Operating Committee, Risk Committee, Partnership Committee, and Asia Management Committee.

Mr. Singh serves as Chairman of the Board for the SMA Foundation, which he and his wife, Loren Eng, established in 2003 to accelerate the development of treatments for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), the leading genetic cause of death in young children.

Mr. Singh also serves on the Yale University Investment Committee, Trilateral Commission, and the Boards of the New York Public Library, Columbia University Medical Center, The Rockefeller University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Geoffrey W. Smith is the founder and Managing Partner of Digitalis Ventures, a venture capital firm that invests in fundamental new ideas in math and science to address complex health problems. He is also a co-founder and General Partner of Ascent Biomedical Ventures, a New York City-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage life sciences investments.

A member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Geoff is a Visiting Scholar at Rockefeller University and an adjunct faculty member at the RU Center for Clinical and Translational Science. Previously, he was the founding Director of the Mount Sinai Institute of Technology and a Professor in the Department of Population Health Science and Policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.  

Geoff received a B.A. (with honors) from Williams College and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Sandra (Sandy) Waite is Global Leader, Communications & Public Affairs at Johnson & Johnson. She leads global communication and public affairs strategy across the worldwide pharmaceuticals organization.

Sandy has more than two decades of experience and a broad knowledge of communications practices in the healthcare industry across health plans, pharmaceuticals, and vision care. Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, Sandy was the Chief Communications Officer at Guardian Life Insurance Company, where she was responsible for the development and execution of communications strategy for the company. In addition, she led a team of cross-functional communicators who drove all aspects of internal and external communications, including issues and crisis management, reputation and thought leadership, local and national media relations, corporate social responsibility, and meetings and events.

Previously, Sandy served as Vice President of CEO & Enterprise Communications at CVS Health where she led the team through the COVID-19 crisis.  She joined CVS Health through its merger with Aetna, where she was Vice President of Communications and strategic advisor to the President of Aetna.

Sandy spent her early career as an attorney practicing employment law. She received her B.A. in Philosophy from Spelman College and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

As Chief Executive Officer and President of the Church Pension Group (CPG), Mary Kate Wold leads a $13 billion financial services enterprise that provides retirement, health, life insurance, property and casualty insurance, and other products and services to the Episcopal Church. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Church Pension Fund, CPG’s governing body.

Mary Kate has served in a variety of leadership positions in the corporate, legal, and government sectors. Prior to joining CPG, she was a senior finance executive and principal corporate officer of Wyeth, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Previously, she was a partner and chaired the tax practice group of Shearman & Sterling, a leading global law firm. Earlier in her career, she served in the Office of Tax Policy of the United States Department of the Treasury.

Mary Kate chairs the board of the Church Benefits Association, a national association of faith-based benefits organizations, and she serves on the vestry of Trinity Church Wall Street and on its investment committee. She is a former director and Chair of a publicly traded medical device company. Her professional affiliations include membership in the Women’s Forum of New York and Women Corporate Directors.

Mary Kate spent her childhood in Bottineau, North Dakota, a small rural community on the Canadian border. She graduated from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota, summa cum laude with a B.A. in English and Theater, and was elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She later graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School.