Contacts
Lead Organizers
Co-Chair
Michael Shellman
MBA 2007
Prior to pursuing his MBA at MIT Sloan, Michael worked as a public accountant with clients in the biotechnology, software, and financial services industries. As a CPA with PricewaterhouseCoopers, Michael led the financial statement audits of both public and private companies. He helped his biotechnology client evaluate the purchase price of a $1 billion dollar acquisition of a publicly held oncology business. Over the course of his career, Michael analyzed and quantified the accounting for equity financings totaling over $20 million for several startup technology companies. Michael received his BS in Accountancy with a minor in Finance from Providence College.
Co-Chair
Drew Dodson
MBA 2007
Drew Dodson is a second-year MBA student at MIT Sloan. Prior to MIT Sloan he worked as a consultant in the Atlanta offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, most recently in the areas of data management and information technology services. Drew is a former co-president of the MIT Sloan BioMedical Business club, and is interested in clinical informatics. Drew holds a BS in Business Administration and Accounting from Washington and Lee University.
Sponsorship Director
Rena Nassr Denoncourt
MBA 2007
Rena is a second-year MBA student at MIT Sloan and a former co-president of the MIT Sloan BioMedical Business Club. Prior to MIT Sloan, Rena spent three years as the Patent and Licensing Associate at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Earlier in her career, she was a Program Manager at the market research and pharmaceutical consulting firm, Decision Resources. Rena spent last summer as a Business Development intern in the Corporate Development group at Genzyme. In 2001, Rena graduated with a BS in Biology from MIT.
Panel Leads
Adam Weinstein
MBA 2008
Adam Weinstein has been involved in many aspects of health care technology for the last 8 years. Most recently, Adam was a software architect for Cardinal Health, a fortune 50 company. He led teams on products including browser-based analysis of medical inventory data, patient bedside devices, and an HL7 messaging platform. In addition, he led the development of web-based reporting for risk-adjusted medical outcomes. Adam graduated from Brandeis University in 2001 with a concentration in Computer Science and International Business, and is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer.
Leandro Vetcher
MBA 2008
Leandro is a biotechnologist from Argentina. His passion for biotechnology drove him to get involved in many different aspects of the industry such as helping start new companies, leading drug and business development projects, collaborating in the organization of bioindustry trade events, and analyzing policies and the socioeconomic impact of biotechnology in emerging countries. Leandro has earned degrees in biotechnology from Rosario National University in Argentina and from Columbia University in New York. Before endeavoring in his MIT Sloan MBA, Leandro was part of Kosan Biosciences in Hayward, CA for four years. In addition, he consulted with Argentine start-ups on business development challenges. Leandro won the 2004 Monsanto Award for Innovative Visions with the project “Agricultural Biotechnology and the Creation of a New Economic Space for Argentina”. Leandro is enjoying his MBA and MIT, and is looking forward to leading a new generation of biotechnology leaders
Brian Miller
MBA & SM 2009
Brian Miller is a first year student in the dual degree Harvard-MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program, which incorporates training from MIT Sloan School of Management, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology, and Harvard Medical School. Prior to entering the BEP, Brian worked for QUOSA, Inc. where he was solely responsible for the launch of QUOSA to the Asia Pacific market with business development, product development, and sales and marketing responsibilities. Prior to QUOSA, Brian worked at Eli Lilly and Company where he created a new role that focused on finding and sourcing innovative informatics technologies for the Drug Discovery division. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana with a double major in Chemistry and Business.
Hannah McClellan
MBA & MS 2008
Hannah is a first year fellow in MIT Sloan’s dual degree Leaders for Manufacturing program, where she is pursuing an MBA and a Masters in Systems Engineering. Prior to Sloan, Hannah spent four years as a consultant in the Life Sciences business group of PRTM, working with a variety of pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Her projects addressed management and operations challenges related to clinical trials, FDA submissions, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and supply chain logistics. Hannah’s interest in the health sector began at the University of Virginia, where she minored in Biomedical Engineering and completed her undergraduate Systems Engineering thesis project in conjunction with the UVA Hospital’s Department of Surgery. She is a member of MIT Sloan’s Biomedical Business Club, and a native of Knoxville, TN.
Sameer Sabir
MBA & SM 2009
Sameer is currently a first year student on the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program, consisting of an MBA from MIT Sloan and an SM from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology. Prior to business school, in 2003 Sameer founded Cinnabar Consulting, a UK-based corporate & business development consulting firm servicing Scandinavian life-sciences companies, primarily assisting them with generating business development opportunities in the US. Prior to that Sameer worked in Life Sciences Investment Banking with JP Morgan and then Commerzbank Securities. Sameer has a B.Sc. in Immunology from University College London (UCL).
Brian Newkirk
MBA & SM 2009
Brian is in his first of three years in the Harvard-MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program (BEP), a dual degree MBA/MS program at MIT Sloan and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, and is also an incoming co-president of the MIT Sloan BioMedical Business Club. Prior to enrolling in the BEP, Brian spent five years in the science and technology policy world of Washington, D.C., working first for the centrist Progressive Policy Institute and then for Congressman Jim Cooper in the U.S. House of Representatives. Among other accomplishments in Washington, Brian published reports critical of the Bush Administration's Project BioShield legislation and political interference at FDA and NIH, authored legislation to improve Medicare's treatment of diabetes, and helped to form and execute the Congressional strategy to increase funding for embryonic stem cell research. Brian is a Massachusetts native and earned his bachelor's at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, ME, where he studied Political Theory and Biochemistry.
Rehan Khan
SM 2007
Rehan Khan is a student in the 1 year Harvard MIT Biomedical Enterprise Program (SM 2007 candidate). Prior to joining the program, Rehan spent 11 years in the US, UK and Continental Europe (Germany, Holland, Switzerland and Sweden) in marketing, business development, strategic planning and operations/turnaround roles with Novartis Pharma AG, Johnson & Johnson Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals, Accenture and Venture Media LLP.
Rehan attended the MBA program at Drexel University on full scholarship and graduated with a BS from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. Rehan enjoys playing squash and has a passion for contemporary Indian art.
Lakshman Pernenkil
MBA 2008
Lakshman Pernenkil is a PhD candidate in the MIT Department of Chemical Engineering and a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His thesis work aimed at improving secondary pharmaceutical manufacturing processes and was supported by a consortium of eight pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, J&J and Novartis. He has published papers on pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical manufacturing operations.
Lakshman’s interests include entrepreneurship in the biomedical and biopharmaceutical sector. He is currently on the founding team of MAD Nanolayers, a layer-by-layer drug delivery technology company – that won the MIT $1K Business Idea Competition in the Tiny Technologies segment in 2006 – and Nenovis Technologies, a drug discovery solutions technology company.
Lakshman has Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology degrees in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in India.
Hosts and Volunteers
Members of the MIT Sloan BioMedical Business Club
The MIT Sloan BioMedical Business Club is a student-run organization that promotes leadership and involvement in the life science industries comprised of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare. We are a forum for ideas and actions linking students, scientists, and professionals from leading universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations.
Advisors
Ken MorseDirector, MIT Entrepreneurship Center |
Jose PachecoProgram Manager , MIT Entrepreneurship Center |
Ernst Berndt |
