Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with more than 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science-based organizations. Alexis joined Third Rock Ventures in 2009 to focus on the formation, development and strategy of new companies. He has played key roles in launching and building several of Third Rock’s portfolio companies. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its chief executive officer and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ. He has raised billions in financing and business development deals, and has authored numerous scientific papers and patents. Trained in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard where he was a Howard Hughes Predoctoral Fellow, Alexis was honored as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Technology Review Innovator of the Year. He was also chosen as the New England Entrepreneur of the Year in Life Sciences and was honored as a Presidential Scholar. Alexis’ undergraduate degree in chemistry is from the University of Chicago, and he did his graduate work in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Schreiber at Harvard University. Alexis is a trustee of the Boston Museum of Science, is a co-founder and former chairman of FORMA Therapeutics, and serves on the board of the National Venture Capital Association. Alexis' first job was selling peanuts at Wisconsin Badger football games at age 14.

Melissa Bradford Klug is chief business officer at Keryx and is responsible for business development, corporate strategy and alliance management. She joined Keryx in January 2017 bringing to the company more than 17 years of strategic planning, licensing and business development expertise in the life sciences industry. Prior to Keryx, Ms. Bradford Klug was at AMAG Pharmaceuticals, from 2014 to 2016, where she served as senior vice president of business development and strategy and executed multiple transformational acquisitions that led to AMAG’s portfolio expansion into maternal and women’s health. Prior to AMAG, she spent approximately 10 years at Mallinckrodt where she was vice president, business development and licensing. During her tenure at Mallinckrodt, she completed several transformational acquisitions and divestitures and was instrumental in the spinout of Mallinckrodt from Covidien. Earlier in her career, she held leadership roles with Baxter International and Eli Lilly and Company. Ms. Bradford Klug received an M.B.A. in Finance from DePaul University and a B.S. in chemistry from Maryville University. Melissa currently serves on the MassBio Board of Directors.

Liz brings over 23 years industry experience and over the past 18 years has focused her work on business development at large pharmaceutical companies. She is currently the Head of the Merck Boston Innovation Hub, the European Innovation Hub, and the Discovery Transactions team which are Business Development & Licensing teams focused on early-stage therapeutics (prior to human proof-of-concept) as well as accessing innovative research and technologies through collaboration, licensing, or M&A in the academic, pharma, and biotech community. During her time at Merck, in addition to leading her team through multiple important deals, she has led transactions including the acquisition of Themis Bioscience and the collaboration with Astex and Taiho Pharmaceuticals, among others. Previous to Merck, she spent nine years at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) in the Strategic Alliances department. During her time at NIBR, her roles included search and evaluation activities as well as leading the negotiation of licensing, collaboration, and M&A transactions including Novartis’ acquisition of CoStim Pharmaceuticals and licensing deals with Servier, Peptidream, among others.

David Schechner is a Managing Director and part of Baird’s Pharmaceutical Services and Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals Groups. Prior to joining Baird, David was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs, Head of Corporate Finance at Needham & Company and Global Head of Life Sciences at Canaccord Genuity. David has represented large pharmaceutical and telecommunications companies in M&A transactions including NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, LIN Broadcasting, Wyeth, Warner Lambert and Pharmacia. Over the past eight years, David has completed over 95 M&A and equity transactions. David received a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Praveen Tipirneni, MD, MBA is Chief Executive Officer of Morphic Therapeutic Inc. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Global Strategy at Cubist Pharmaceuticals, a position in which he served from 2002 until the company’s acquisition by Merck in 2015. In his time at Cubist, he was a member of the clinical group working on the Cubicin NDA (skin and skin structure infections) and sNDA (Staph. Bacteremia and Endocarditis) teams. He was head of business development since January 2006. Prior to joining Cubist, Dr. Tipirneni worked at Sun Microsystems in corporate strategy, Covad Communications in Corporate Strategy, and Deltagen in business development. He also served time as a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Dr. Tipirneni received a bachelor’s degree from MIT in mechanical engineering and an M. D. from McGill University. After completing his post-graduate residency in Internal Medicine at University of Illinois, Chicago, he received his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business in healthcare finance.