about us
“The greatest need we have today in the human cancer problem, except for a universal cure, is a method for detecting cancer before there are any clinical signs or symptoms.”
Sidney Farber, M.D.
Father of modern chemotherapy
November 1962
Our logo reflects our bold ambition to fundamentally change cancer care, for everyone.
pioneering the
detection of early
cancer
Harbinger Health is pioneering the detection of early cancer and enabling foundationally new approaches to cancer screening, diagnosis and management. Incubated within Flagship Pioneering for three years before launching in 2021, Harbinger combines advances in artificial intelligence with proprietary insights into the biology of the beginnings of cancer to identify cancer before it is visible or symptomatic with the aim of developing a low-cost, multi-cancer blood test.
A harbinger is a “forerunner, that which precedes and gives notice of the coming of another.” We not only are working to identify the harbinger – the biological programs present in the earliest forms of cancer – but seek to be the harbinger, to be the forerunner which will usher in the future of healthcare.
At Harbinger, we intend to lead in shaping this future – creating a proactive paradigm so that people can live cancer-free for longer, adding years to life and life to years. We envision a future where, instead of keeping cancer from spreading, it could be kept from forming, making a cancer diagnosis a routine health problem to be addressed rather than a life-altering event to be feared with profound implications for people, healthcare systems and societies.
Our answer to the problem of late cancer detection and unacceptable patient prognoses starts with our proprietary solutions for the future of cancer pre-emption. Beginning with blood-based tests, we will enable cancer detection before it is visible. By identifying biological programs rooted in cancer’s origins, we can enable identification of early stage and pre-disease. Through this new pathway for cancer diagnosis and early therapeutic interventions, Harbinger Health has the potential to fundamentally change cancer care, for everyone.
our leadership team
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Stephen Hahn, M.D.
Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., is CEO-Partner of Flagship Pioneering and Chief Executive Officer of Harbinger Health. Steve joined Flagship in June 2021 as Chief Medical Officer of its Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative, which is creating a new field that aims to protect, maintain, or improve people’s health before they get sick. Steve will continue as a strategic advisor to the Initiative.
Steve brings two decades of distinguished leadership in healthcare strategy, oncology medical practice, and translational/clinical research to this role. He served as the 24th U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner from 2019 to 2021 overseeing both COVID and non-COVID regulatory affairs, including therapeutics and vaccine development, devices, diagnostics, and clinical trials.
Prior to his FDA appointment, Steve served as chief medical executive at the world-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Prior to his role as chief medical executive, he served as deputy president and chief operating officer where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nation’s top cancer center, which included leading more than 21,000 employees and overseeing a $5.2 billion operating budget. Steve was elevated to the chief operating officer role after serving as division head, department chair, and professor of Radiation Oncology. Prior to his executive leadership roles at MD Anderson, Dr. Hahn was the leader of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Steve focused his translational research efforts on the evaluation of the tumor microenvironment, signal transduction pathways involved in tumor response to therapies and proton therapy. He has authored more than 220 peer-reviewed original research articles and has experience in medical product development.
Steve earned his M.D. from Temple University and received his B.A. in Biology from Rice University. He was an internal medicine resident at the University of California San Francisco before completing a fellowship and residency at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Commercial Officer
Dymeka Harrison
Dymeka Harrison, M.B.A., serves as Chief Commercial Officer at Harbinger Health. She has an extensive background in the diagnostics industry, bringing over 30 years of experience to her role. Dymeka directs the Company’s global, clinical and commercial strategy and partnerships, as well as the introduction of cancer detection products and findings. Prior to joining Harbinger, Dymeka served as Chief Commercial Officer for Foundation Medicine where she played a critical part in diversifying the markets in which the company operated, implementing successful growth strategies and increasing brand recognition.
Throughout her career, Dymeka managed and restructured sales teams across her professional portfolio while initiating promotions in regional and global markets. She was at the forefront of optimizing payer engagement as well as driving top line sales and margins. Dymeka has managed multi-million- and billion-dollar initiatives while leading the charge from ideation, innovation, value creation and branding. Her knowledge in science and medicine stems from over 14 years at Abbott Diagnostics. From her tenure at Abbott, QIAGEN and Thermo Fisher Scientific, she became well rounded in specialties and areas such as hematology, life sciences, infectious disease and molecular diagnostics.
Dymeka holds an M.B.A. from Georgia State University and a B.S. in Manufacturing and Engineering from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
Chief Commercial Officer
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
Vince Lozada
Vince Lozada serves as Chief Financial Officer at Harbinger Health where he oversees all financial matters and helps lead the effort to build and scale operations including the clinical lab.
Vince brings almost 20 years of investment banking experience to his role at Harbinger. He most recently served as Managing Director, Healthcare Investment Banking at RBC Capital Markets, where he advised biotechnology companies on mergers, acquisitions, partnerships, and financings, including initial public offerings, common stock offerings, convertible debt offerings and high yield debt offerings. Prior to joining RBC Capital Markets in 2016, Vince spent nine years at Credit Suisse in roles of increasing responsibility within the Healthcare and Technology Mergers & Acquisitions organizations. Earlier in his career, Vince was a member of the Technology Investment Banking team at BofA Securities. He has completed more than 70 strategic and financing transactions valued at approximately $75 billion over the course of his 20 years in the industry. Vince holds an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and a B.S. in Finance from Rutgers. He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charter holder.
Chief Financial Officer
CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER
May Orfali, M.D., M.B.A.
May Orfali, M.D., M.B.A., serves as Chief Medical Officer at Harbinger Health. She has a deep and extensive background in clinical drug development and regulatory strategy that spans over two decades in multiple therapeutic areas, with a focus on rare diseases, cell and gene therapy, CAR-T, oncology, hematology, infectious disease, and women’s health.
Dr. Orfali most recently was Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Sigilon Therapeutics- an encapsulated allogenic cell therapy company where she led clinical, regulatory and patient advocacy functions, as well as President of Rare Disease & Oncology Consulting, LLC. She previously was Chief Medical Officer at CANbridge Life Sciences, where she led clinical development and medical affairs, focusing on progressing phase 1 and phase II oncology assets in glioblastoma multiforme and esophageal cancer, filing an NDA for neratinib in China in adjuvant and metastatic breast cancer therapy.
Prior to that, she served in leadership roles of increasing responsibility at Pfizer, including as Executive Director, Global Product Development, where she was responsible for patient-focused drug development across multiple rare disease assets in hematology, sickle cell disease, hemophilia, endocrinology, gene therapy and TTR-amyloidosis. Prior to that role, Dr. Orfali was Pfizer’s Senior Director and Global Medical Lead/Medicines Development Group, Specialty Care Business Unit, where she spearheaded its rare disease drug development strategy, including gene therapy; oversaw global drug development in TTR-amyloidosis; and was Global Medical Lead for hematology, specifically in hemophilia A and B, across North America, Europe and Asia.
Dr. Orfali holds a medical degree from the University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq, and a Pharmaceutical Master of Business Administration from Cambridge University, Cambridge, England. She completed her Fellowship in Pediatric Oncology/Hematology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children’s Hospital, Boston, MA and practiced medicine and conducted clinical research in medical oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Research Institute.
Chief Medical Officer
CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER
Gisela Paulsen
Gisela Paulsen is Chief Operating Officer at Harbinger Health. She is a global leader in the life sciences industry, with extensive experience scaling life science companies and leading operations, strategy, product development and commercialization.
In her previous role as the President & Chief Operating Officer of Oncocyte, a precision diagnostics company operating in the U.S. and Germany, she oversaw Commercial; CLIA Lab Operations; portfolio and program management; quality; regulatory; procurement and supply chain; people and culture; legal; information technology; facilities; and supported the CEO Office. She was focused on all operational aspects to scale and ready the company to launch a six-product portfolio to accelerate and maximize value creation. Prior to her role at Oncocyte, Gisela served as General Manager of the Precision Oncology business unit (legacy Genomic Health) for the $1B+ cancer screening and diagnostic test leader Exact Sciences. Previously, she was Senior Vice President & Global Head of Product Development and Clinical Operations at Genentech. Gisela is a former Entrepreneur In Residence for DigitalDX, an impact VC fund focused on early-stage diagnostic and artificial intelligence (AI) companies. She also currently serves as a board director for Delphi Diagnostics, a startup focused on breast cancer survival.
Gisela is the Vice Chair of the Healthcare Businesswomen Association and former Director of CuriOdyssey. She has chaired nominating, strategy, and digital transformation committees. She served as a Genentech Foundation board director and was the former co-chair for Genentech Women Professionals. In 2019, she was named one of the 100 Most Inspiring People in the Life-Sciences Industry by PharmaVOICE.
Gisela holds a Master of Science in Pharmaceutics and Drug Delivery, and a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy, from Uppsala University, Sweden.
Chief Operating Officer
Chief Innovation Officer
Tony Shuber
Anthony (Tony) Shuber serves as Chief Innovation Officer at Harbinger Health. He is a scientific leader in the life sciences industry with over 25 years of experience in Diagnostics and Applied Genomics, and is the co-founder of several companies, including EXACT Science Corporation and Predictive Biosciences. Tony was most recently President and CTO of Genetics Research, LLC and Stitch Bio.
A prolific inventor, visionary and problem solver, Tony is the holder of over 100 issued and pending patents and has numerous publications in such prestigious journals as The New England Journal of Medicine. Mr. Shuber is the inventor behind well-known innovations in molecular diagnostics that are standard of practice tests today including ColoGuard, a test for early identification of colorectal cancer. Tony also holds advisory and Board of Director positions and is well known in the venture capital community. He earned his undergraduate (BS in Biology) and graduate (MS in Molecular and Developmental Biology) degrees from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Chief Innovation Officer
HEAD OF DATA SCIENCE AND STRATEGY
Kieran Chacko, Ph.D.
Kieran Chacko, Ph.D. serves as Head of Strategy for Harbinger Health and is a Principal at Flagship Pioneering, where he works as part of a venture creation team to create and grow breakthrough biotechnology companies.
A member of the founding team of Harbinger, Kieran is responsible for driving all aspects of company operations, strategy, and growth. He leads fundraising, business development, and computational science research to uncover novel biological insights that underpin the origins of cancer as the foundation for new diagnostics and therapeutics.
Prior to joining Flagship and completing his graduate studies, Kieran worked in the Corporate and Investment Bank at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co in New York City. He was part of teams across the markets and securities business serving the firm’s large corporate financial institution and emerging market clients.
Kieran holds a doctorate in Computational Biology from the Icahn Institute for Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City.
Head of Data Science and Strategy
SVP, HEAD OF HUMAN RESOURCES
Leila Gjika
Leila Gjika serves as the SVP, Head of Human Resources for Harbinger Health, and leads the organization in implementing human resources best practices, initiatives, and driving the strategic direction and expertise for the full scope of the people function, structure, policies, and culture of Harbinger Health.
Leila has shaped and driven all aspects of human resources throughout her over 20-year career, providing thought-partner leadership regarding coaching, employee relations, diversity-equity-inclusion, total rewards, talent acquisition, engagement, culture, organizational design, change, performance management, successful communication campaigns, and learning and development within the life sciences industry.
Prior to joining Harbinger, Leila championed a culture of high performance and led teams in aligning human resources goals directly relating to the corporate values for Ultivue, a global innovative late-stage biotechnology organization that provides researchers and scientists with multiplex biomarker assays for tissue phenotyping and digital pathology. Prior to that, Leila was the site Head of Human Resources for Munters, a global environmental organization and Dutch Ophthalmic Research Center, a global ophthalmic medical device multi-location manufacturing facility. Earlier in her career, Leila was the founder of a successful human resources consulting business driving human resources in healthcare specialty providers, legal practices, defense manufacturing facilities, and businesses within the biotechnology industries.
Leila earned her Bachelor of Science (BS) in Business Administration with a concentration in Management and Organizational Leadership from Southern New Hampshire University and is a SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) Senior Certified Professional in Human Resources.
SVP, Head of Human Resources
SVP, CLINICAL OPERATIONS
Eric Haltom
Eric serves as Senior Vice President, Clinical Operations at Harbinger Health. Eric has over 30 years of Clinical Development Operations experience in multiple therapeutic areas, including CNS, oncology, and rare diseases. He has managed all phases of global drug development with extensive international experience.
Eric started his career at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and subsequently in clinical operations roles at Biogen and Genetics Institute. Over the past 15 years, Eric has been built and lead Clinical Development Operations teams at Acceleron Pharma, Shire, Deciphera and Zenas Bipharma. Over that period, he has managed multiple functions within Clinical Development Operations including clinical operations, data management, clinical supply and medical writing. He has been a member of executive leadership teams, setting corporate goals, organizational development, governance processes, long term strategy, strategic partnerships and budgeting.
Eric holds a degree in Business Administration from Saint Anselm College.
SVP Clinical Operations
SVP, CLIA LAB DIRECTOR
Feras Hantash, M,S., Ph.D.
Feras Hantash, M.S., Ph.D., serves as the CLIA lab director at Harbinger Health, overseeing diagnostic test development and validations, clinical laboratory operations, and implementation of the quality management system to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements.
With more than 20 years of experience in molecular diagnostics, Feras held the position of SVP of Molecular Oncology at Sema4, where he later served as CLIA Laboratory Director for the Molecular Oncology Lab. He led a team of molecular geneticists and molecular pathologists in building and implementing molecular oncology test portfolio, overseeing clinical test operations, as well as collaborations on pharmaceutical studies. He also served as adjunct associate professor in the Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, participating in the fellowship training programs. Prior to this, he served as Senior Scientific Director in the Hematology/Oncology department at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute where he led the development of molecular diagnostics for solid tumors and hematological malignancies and co-led the clinical operations of the department, deploying tests both nationally and internationally. He also served there as a principal scientist in development of molecular diagnostic tests for molecular genetics.
Throughout his career, Feras has authored multiple publications on molecular diagnostics and phenotypic markers and holds several national and international patents in the field.
Feras earned his M.S. degree from the University of New Hampshire and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He completed his clinical molecular genetics fellowship training at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is board-certified in Clinical Molecular Genetics by the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics.
SVP, CLIA Lab Director
SVP, PORTFOLIO STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS
David Lambe
Dave joined Harbinger Health in early 2023 and serves as SVP, Portfolio Strategy and Operations.
Dave brings over 20 years of experience working in pharma and biotech with various roles in Finance, Portfolio, Strategy and Operations. Immediately prior to joining Harbinger Health, Dave worked for Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 6 years until it was acquired by AstraZeneca in 2021 and spent another 2 years post-acquisition in the Alexion Business Unit. His most recent role at Alexion was Executive Director, Business Operations supporting the office of the CEO. In addition to this role, during his time at Alexion he held various positions within the R&D Portfolio Operations team and served as Chief of Staff to the Head of R&D. Prior to Alexion, Dave spent 15 years at Pfizer where he held a number of positions within the R&D Finance team managing annual budgets of in excess of $1b+ before joining the R&D Portfolio Operations team where responsibilities included goal setting, resource allocation, budgeting, operations and reporting.
Dave holds degrees in Business Management & Finance from Providence College and obtained his MBA from the University of Connecticut.
SVP, Portfolio Strategy and Operations
our scientific co-founders
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD & CO-FOUNDER
Prof. Alexander Meissner, Ph.D.
Dr. Meissner is Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and currently the Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. He is heading the Department of Genome Regulation and remains a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University. Before his move to the Max Planck Institute he was a tenured Professor at Harvard University and Senior Associate Member of the Broad Institute where he co-directed the Epigenomics Program.
Dr. Meissner obtained his undergraduate training in biotechnology from the Technical University in Berlin, Germany and completed is PhD and postdoctoral training at the Whitehead Institute (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in Cambridge, USA. He is the recipient of a Weizmann Institute of Science, Karyn Kupcinet fellowship, a Boehringer Ingelheim PhD fellowship, a Pew Biomedical Scholarship and was named a New York Stem Cell Foundation, Robertson Investigator as well as elected as a Member to the European Molecular Biology Organization.
Dr. Meissner laboratory uses genomic tools to study developmental and disease biology with a particular focus on epigenetic regulation. Dr. Meissner and his colleagues have pioneered next generation sequencing technologies to study the epigenome in mammalian development and disease.
Scientific Advisory Board & Co-Founder
SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR, CO-FOUNDER
Prof. Franziska Michor, Ph.D.
Franziska Michor, Ph.D. serves as a Scientific Advisor at Harbinger Health and is a Professor of Computational Biology in the Department of Data Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University.
Dr. Michor obtained her undergraduate training in mathematics and molecular biology from the University of Vienna, Austria, and her PhD from the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. Afterwards, she was awarded a fellowship from the Harvard Society of Fellows. From 2007 until 2010, she was an Assistant Professor in the Computational Biology Program at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Michor is the director of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Center for Cancer Evolution and co-directs the Cancer Immunological Data Commons. She has been the recipient of the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize of the Society for the Study of Evolution, the Alice Hamilton Award, the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science, the 36th Annual AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cancer Research, and others.
Dr. Michor’s laboratory investigates the evolutionary dynamics of cancer initiation, progression, response to therapy, and emergence of resistance.
Scientific Advisory Board & Co-Founder
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD & CO-FOUNDER
Prof. Zachary Smith, Ph.D.
Dr. Smith is an Assistant Professor at the Yale Stem Cell Center, Department of Genetics, and Yale Cancer Center.
Dr. Smith received his B.S. in Biology from M.I.T. in 2008 and joined Dr. Alex Meissner’s new lab at Harvard University’s Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology shortly thereafter. During his time there, Zack published research on direct reprogramming of somatic cells to pluripotency, including early cellular and epigenetic dynamics, and applied emerging genome-scale technologies to study DNA methylation in precious samples. He continued applying cutting edge technologies to study the cellular and epigenetic dynamics that accompany critical windows of animal development from fertilization through the formation of the initial body plan. Zack received his Ph.D. in 2019 and joined the Yale Stem Cell Center and Department of Genetics as an Assistant Professor in September, 2020. He has been the recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the Chen Innovator Award, a Mathers Foundation Fellowship, and the Kingsley Fellowship.
Scientific Advisory Board & Co-Founder
our board of directors
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Flagship Pioneering
Doug Cole, M.D.
Doug Cole joined Flagship Pioneering in 2001. He focuses on life science.
At Flagship, Doug has co-founded Ensemble Therapeutics, Foghorn Therapeutics(NASDAQ: FHTX), Inzen Therapeutics, Moderna(NASDAQ: MRNA), Permeon Biologics, Sigilon Therapeutics, (NASDAQ: SGTX), and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS). He has led investments in Agios Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: AGIO), Alvine Pharmaceuticals, Avedro(NASDAQ: AVDR, acquired by Glaukos), CombinatoRx (NASDAQ: ZLCS), Concert Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CNCE), Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Editas(NASDAQ: EDIT), Quanterix Corporation(NASDAQ: QTRX), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT, acquired by Celgene), Seventh Sense Biosystems, Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: TTPH), and Torque.
He currently serves on the board of directors of Denali Therapeutics, Foghorn Therapeutics, KSQ Therapeutics, Harbinger Health, Inzen Therapeutics, Repertoire Immune Medicines, Sana Biotechnology (NASDAQ: SANA), and Sigilon Therapeutics. He formerly served on the board of directors of Avedro, AVEO Oncology (NASDAQ: AVEO), CombinatoRx, Concert Pharmaceuticals, CGI, Moderna, Morphotek (acquired by Eisai Pharmaceuticals), Receptos, Resolvyx, Selecta(NASDAQ: SELB), Seventh Sense, Taris (acquired by JNJ), and Tetraphase.
Before joining Flagship, Doug was instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School and assistant in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital; medical director at Cytotherapeutics, in Providence, Rhode Island; and program executive at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc., in Cambridge, Mass.
He holds an A.B. magna cum laude with high distinction in English from Dartmouth College, where he was a senior fellow and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. He obtained post-graduate training in medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and in neurology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Mass.
Doug is a member of the scientific advisory board and the board of directors of the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Flagship Pioneering
CHAIRMAN, PRE-EMPTIVE MEDICINE & HEALTH SECURITY, FLAGSHIP PIONEERING
Lord Ara Darzi, M.D.
The Right Honourable Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham OM KBE FRS holds the Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery at Imperial College London, the Royal Marsden Hospital and the Institute of Cancer Research. He is Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and Chair of Imperial College Health Partners. Professor Darzi is an Honorary Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College Hospital NHS Trust.
Research led by Professor Darzi is directed towards achieving best surgical practice through innovation in surgery and enhancing patient safety and the quality of healthcare. His contribution within these research fields has been outstanding, publishing over 800 peer-reviewed research papers to date. In recognition of his achievements in the research and development of surgical technologies, Professor Darzi has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering; a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and in 2013 was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
He was knighted for his services in medicine and surgery in 2002. In 2007, he was introduced to the United Kingdom’s House of Lords as Professor the Lord Darzi of Denham and appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health. Upon relinquishing this role within central government in 2009, Professor Darzi sat as the United Kingdom’s Global Ambassador for Health and Life Sciences until March 2013. During this appointment and beyond Professor Darzi has developed his status as a leading voice in the field of global health policy and innovation. Professor Darzi was appointed a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council in June 2009 and in January 2016 he was introduced to the Order of Merit, the highest civilian honour in the United Kingdom, for exceptionally meritorious service towards the advancement of medicine.
Chairman, Pre-emptive Medicine & Health Security, Flagship Pioneering
Co-Founder and CEO, Montai Therapeutics & CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering
Margo Georgiadis
Margo Georgiadis is a CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder and CEO of Montai Therapeutics. In these roles, Margo brings extensive expertise in technological innovation and high-performance business transformation and leverages her artificial intelligence and machine learning experience to advance biotech innovation. Working with Flagship CEO and Founder Noubar Afeyan and Lord Ara Darzi, she plays an instrumental role in Flagship’s efforts to scale its Preemptive Medicine & Health Initiative and develop new companies aimed at deterring or delaying the onset of disease, improve health outcomes for consumers, corporations, and countries.
Margo is an experienced CEO and company builder who has dedicated her career to transforming products and services with data and technology to empower consumers to live better lives, and to deliver outsized growth and returns for investors. Most recently, she served as an Endurance Partner at venture catalyst firm General Catalyst, where she focused on building next-generation healthcare platforms that improve clinical outcomes while making healthcare more consumer-centric, accessible and affordable. Previously, she served as President and CEO of Ancestry where she brought together content, science, and technology to transform Ancestry into the undisputed global leader in family history and consumer genomics. Under her leadership, the company scaled to over 3.6M subscribers, doubled its genomics network to over 20M customers and delivered over $1B in subscription revenue with record setting profitability and cash flow.
Margo also spent nine years at Google as President of Americas and Vice President of Global Operations, leading the hyper scaling of Google’s commercial operations and advertising sales across all digital solutions including search, mobile, video, shopping, local and commerce, and platforms. Her other operating roles include serving as the CEO of Mattel, Inc., the COO of Groupon, EVP of US Card Services and CMO at Discover Financial Services, and as a partner at McKinsey and Company.
Beyond her operating roles, Margo is an experienced investor at the intersection of health and technology and has helped to scale multiple successful platform companies as an Endurance Partner at General Catalyst and a Managing Partner at Synetro Group.
Margo has received multiple awards for her business and community leadership including the Forbes “Excellence Award in Innovation,” Chicago Innovation’s “Visionary Award,” the Eastman Medal from the University of Rochester, Executive of the Year in Utah, and was named to Crain’s “Most Powerful Women in Business” and Fortune’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” lists.
Margo serves on multiple Boards including McDonald’s, Applovin, Ro, Handshake, the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy and People’s Health Clinic. She earned a BA in Economics from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Co-Founder and CEO, Montai Therapeutics & CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Stephen Hahn, M.D.
Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., is CEO-Partner of Flagship Pioneering and Chief Executive Officer of Harbinger Health. Steve joined Flagship in June 2021 as Chief Medical Officer of its Preemptive Health and Medicine Initiative, which is creating a new field that aims to protect, maintain, or improve people’s health before they get sick. Steve will continue as a strategic advisor to the Initiative.
Steve brings two decades of distinguished leadership in healthcare strategy, oncology medical practice, and translational/clinical research to this role. He served as the 24th U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner from 2019 to 2021 overseeing both COVID and non-COVID regulatory affairs, including therapeutics and vaccine development, devices, diagnostics, and clinical trials.
Prior to his FDA appointment, Steve served as chief medical executive at the world-renowned MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Prior to his role as chief medical executive, he served as deputy president and chief operating officer where he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the nation’s top cancer center, which included leading more than 21,000 employees and overseeing a $5.2 billion operating budget. Steve was elevated to the chief operating officer role after serving as division head, department chair, and professor of Radiation Oncology. Prior to his executive leadership roles at MD Anderson, Dr. Hahn was the leader of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Steve focused his translational research efforts on the evaluation of the tumor microenvironment, signal transduction pathways involved in tumor response to therapies and proton therapy. He has authored more than 220 peer-reviewed original research articles and has experience in medical product development.
Steve earned his M.D. from Temple University and received his B.A. in Biology from Rice University. He was an internal medicine resident at the University of California San Francisco before completing a fellowship and residency at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
CEO, Harbinger Health & CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering
Michael Nally, M.B.A.
Michael Nally joined Flagship in 2021 and serves as CEO-Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Generate Biomedicines. Mike is an accomplished pharmaceutical executive, with significant experience leading global organizations.
Prior to joining Flagship, Mike spent nearly 18 years at Merck, where he was most recently Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of its Human Health division. In this role, he led the company’s global marketing strategy, commercialization model, and long-term growth strategy across its product portfolio. Mike previously served as President of Merck’s Global Vaccines division where he and his team increased the reach and public health impact of its portfolio of pediatric, adolescent, and adult vaccines resulting in significant business growth. He also led Merck’s business in Sweden and the UK, and developed innovative, customer-centered approaches that improved business results and accelerated patient access to the company’s medicines and vaccines. Additionally, he held a variety of senior positions at Merck in commercial operations, business development, and investor relations.
Mike holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School, a degree in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics, and a B.A. in Economics from Middlebury College.
CEO, Generate Biomedicines & CEO-Partner, Flagship Pioneering
Stephen H. Rusckowski
Steve Rusckowski retired as Chairman of the Board of Quest Diagnostics on March 31, 2023.
He served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Quest Diagnostics from May 2012 through October 2022, and during that time focused on transforming the company, based on its compelling vision of “Empowering better health with diagnostic insights.” Under Steve’s leadership, the company refocused on its core diagnostic information services business, sold non- core assets, delivered disciplined deployment, including share repurchases and acquisitions, and simplified its organizational structure to better serve customers by removing complexity, speeding decision making and empowering employees. He was elected Chairman of the Board in December 2016.
Prior to joining Quest Diagnostics, Steve was CEO of Philips Healthcare, which became the largest unit of Royal Philips Electronics under his leadership. He joined Philips in 2001 when it acquired the Healthcare Solutions Group, he was leading at Hewlett-Packard/Agilent Technologies.
Steve was a member of the Board of Directors of the American Clinical Laboratory Association and served as its Chairman from 2014 to 2017. He is also an Emeritus Director of Project Hope, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization.
He currently serves on the boards of Baxter International, Tenet, Qiagen and Harbinger Health. Steve is also on the board of executives of MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Vice Chairman of Board of Trustees of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and board member of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
Steve earned a Master of Science degree in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Retired Chairman, CEO and President, Quest Diagnostics
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
Mark Stevenson, M.B.A.
Mark Stevenson is an experienced life sciences and diagnostics business leader with over 30 years’ experience commercializing innovations globally.
Mark served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at Thermo Fisher Scientific, a company with over $40B in sales and a world leader in serving science through, leading its life science solutions, analytical instruments, specialty diagnostics and laboratory products businesses. He joined Thermo Fisher as Executive Vice President and President of Life Sciences Solutions through the acquisition of Life Technologies. He has also previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Life Technologies, and President and Chief Operating Officer of Applied Biosystems prior to its merger with Invitrogen Corporation.
He currently serves on the board of Ingersoll Rand Inc. (NYSE: IR), The Binding Site and the Personalized Medicine Coalition.
Mark holds an M.B.A. from Henley Management School in the U.K., a degree in chemistry from Reading University, U.K.
Former EVP & COO, Thermo Fisher Scientific
our advisors
Michele Andrasik, Ph.D.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Director, Social & Behavioral Sciences, Community Engagement
Operation Warp Speed
Sumithra Mandrekar, Ph.D.
Mayo Clinic
Lead faculty statistician for lung cancer research
John Mendlein, Ph.D.
Flagship Pioneering
Executive Partner
Scott Kopetz, M.D., Ph.D., FACP
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Professor, Department of Gastrointestinal Medical Oncology
Funda Meric-Bernstam, M.D.
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Chair Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
Richard P. Shannon, M.D.
Duke University Health System
Chief Quality Officer
Board member, Kaiser Foundation
Robert A. Weinberg, Ph.D.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Daniel K. Ludwig Professor for Cancer Research