Alexis Borisy, Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Alexis Borisy is a successful biotechnology entrepreneur with 20 years of experience building and operating innovative science based organizations. Alexis joined Third Rock Ventures in 2009 as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence and was named Partner in 2010. Alexis focuses on the formation, development and strategy of new companies, including Warp Drive Bio for which he serves as CEO. Prior to joining Third Rock Ventures, Alexis founded CombinatoRx in 2000, serving as its CEO, and bringing the company public on the NASDAQ in an IPO. He has raised $750 million 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 MIT 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's 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 serves on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, is an Overseer at the Boston Museum of Science, and is the Chairman of Forma Therapeutics.

Dr. Lon Cardon, Senior Vice President, GlaxoSmithKline
Dr. Lon Cardon joined GlaxoSmithKline as Senior Vice President in 2008, first leading the Genetics department and then constructing a Quantitative Sciences division, combining genetics with GSK’s statistics, epidemiology and clinical pharmacology departments to advance targeted therapies and innovation in clinical trials. In 2012 he was appointed head of a new Alternative Discovery and Development unit, a pan-therapeutic division focused on non-traditional approaches for drug discovery and development. The unit takes on new diseases for GSK, such as ophthalmology and rare diseases, new modalities including gene therapy, stem cells and oligonocleotide approaches, and new partnership models, including academic collaborations, biotechnology interfaces and cross-pharma initiatives. Prior to joining GSK, Lon led Statistical Genetics at the biotechnology company Sequana Therapeutics until 1997 and then was a senior academic in the UK and USA, as Professor of Bioinformatics at the University of Oxford until 2006 and then as Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Washington and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He has led multinational genetic studies across an array of human diseases, including type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, ankylosing spondylitis, reading disability and Huntington’s Disease. Dr. Cardon received his PhD training from the Institute for Behavioral Genetics at the University of Colorado and conducted his postdoctoral research in the Department of Mathematics at Stanford University. He has received a number of scientific awards, including election to the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences in 2005. He has authored more than 200 scientific publications and 15 books and chapters.

David Mott, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates; former CEO, MedImmune
David M. Mott joined NEA in September 2008 as a General Partner focused on biopharmaceutical investments. Prior to joining NEA, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of MedImmune, subsidiary of AstraZeneca Plc, and Executive Vice President of AstraZeneca. Dave joined MedImmune in 1992 and served in roles of increasing responsibility including Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, President and Chief Executive Officer as the company grew from a venture-backed startup (founded in 1988) into one of the top five biotechnology companies in the world. Ultimately, he initiated and executed the sale of MedImmune to AstraZeneca in June 2007 for $15.6 billion. In 2002, Dave founded MedImmune Ventures and chaired its investment committee through his departure from MedImmune. At the time of his departure in July 2008, MedImmune had annual revenues in excess of $1.5 billion, annual R&D in excess of $650 million and approximately 3,000 employees.
Prior to joining MedImmune, Dave was a Vice President in the Health Care Investment Banking Group at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co. Inc. At Smith Barney, his activities included public and private equity and debt financings as well as merger and acquisition work for biotechnology, healthcare services, and medical product and device companies.
Dave is currently Chairman of Mersana, 3-V Biosciences, TESARO, and Zyngenia and is a director of Ardelyx, Epizyme, Omthera, and Prosensa. He also serves on the Governing Board of St. Albans School.

John Reynders, Vice President of R&D Information, AstraZeneca
John Reynders is responsible for Information and Informatics capabilities across AstraZeneca’s global R&D organization - enabling discovery, translational, clinical, and regulatory functions. John is accountable for accelerating R&D productivity through strategic application of information and informatics across the pipeline.
Previously, John served as Vice President, Pharmaceutical R&D at Johnson & Johnson, with dual responsibilities of Global Head of Integrative Neuroscience and Biomarkers and Global Head of the Informatics Center of Excellence. As Global Head of Integrative Neuroscience and Biomarkers, he was responsible for the integration of biomarker, informatics, and diagnostic capabilities, strategy and application across the Neuroscience Therapeutic Area. As Global Head of the Informatics Center of Excellence, John had global responsibility for Informatics capabilities across pharma R&D, ensuring the delivery of scientific, clinical, and health-outcomes data from multiple sources to help scientists and clinicians gain key insights, and improve productivity and critical decision-making across pharma R&D programs. He was also a key leader in the creation of the Companion Diagnostic Center of Excellence and served on the governance bodies of the J&J Corporate Office of Science and Technology and the Pharmaceutical Research Council.

Ryan McBride, Executive Editor, FierceBiotech
Ryan McBride is an award-winning journalist who writes about the life sciences industry. Prior to joining FierceMarkets, he was a freelance journalist and served as a correspondent at Xconomy for more than two years. His stories have appeared in The Boston Globe, the Boston Business Journal, The Motley Fool, and many other publications. In recent years, he has also given guest lectures to graduate students at Boston University’s Center for Science & Medical Journalism. Earlier in his career, he held staff reporter positions at Mass High Tech, Providence Business News, and The Westerly Sun. Ryan enjoys spending time with his family and exploring mountains and beaches in New England.