MIT Sloan BioInnovations Conference
February 22, 2013
Boston Marriott Cambridge Hotel
Kendall Square, Cambridge MA

Organizers

Yufen Shi, Co-Chair

Yufen is a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan. Prior to Sloan, Yufen worked as a business development associate at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, where she focused on commercialization strategies for cancer vaccine and personalized diagnostic tools. Before Broad, Yufen worked as an associate product manager and associate sales consultant at Synthes, where she conducted primary market research to guide innovative medical device design. She also evaluated the business potential of multiple spinal implant technologies. Over the summer, Yufen supported the long range planning group at Vertex Pharmaceutical.

Yufen received her B.S. from Georgia Tech (with highest honor) and M.S. in from Stanford University. Yufen is interested in building products that can improve the world.

Erik Tautkus, Co-Chair

Erik Tautkus is a second-year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to Sloan, Erik worked at Cornerstone Research, an economic consulting firm. His work focused on analyzing the economic and financial issues in anti-trust and intellectual property corporate litigation. Erik worked on pharmaceutical cases involving patent infringement, off-label marketing and efficacy misrepresentation. He completed his MBA internship at Biogen Idec in global commercial market analytics. Erik graduated from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario with an Honors in Business Administration.

Rotem Abeles, Logistics / Panel Contributor, Therapeutics

Rotem Abeles is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to MIT, Rotem served for 9 years at the Israeli Defense Intelligence, in a variety of positions in research, operations and strategic planning.

He holds a BSc in Biology and an MA in the Cognitive Study of Language from Tel Aviv University, Israel. As an undergrad, Rotem led a 3-person research team to investigate the molecular mechanism behind neural tube defects, and developed a unique computer algorithm for sequence alignment and statistical analysis of antibody clones library. As a graduate student, he focused on psycholinguistics.

Anthony Chiu, Co-Director, Logistics

Anthony Chiu is a 3rd year PhD student in the Sharp Lab at the Koch Institute of Cancer Research. He is currently investigating noncoding RNAs and how they are produced. Previously, he worked with transposon technologies for generating induced pluripotent stem cells and pancreatic beta cells at the University of Toronto. He is also very interested in the process of taking discoveries made in labs to help improve the lives of patients.

Tiana Veldwisch, Co-Director, Logistics

Tiana is a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Before Sloan, she was fixing healthcare as a Product Innovation Manager at athenahealth, inc. Her passion is bringing science and technology from the lab to the market where it can make an impact on people's lives, and she is focusing her MBA on Entrepreneurship & Innovation as well as healthcare. She earned her B.S. in Engineering at Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering in 2008.

Roshni Kapadia, Co-Director, Marketing

Roshni Kapadia is a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, she worked on economic analysis for healthcare litigation as a Senior Analyst at the consulting firm Greylock McKinnon Associates. Roshni brings five years of experience examining marketing, sales, and launch strategies for blockbuster drugs and defining markets for new therapeutic classes. She is also familiar with FDA approval and regulatory processes and has worked with diverse healthcare data sources. Roshni earned her B.A. in economics from Wellesley College in 2006.

Nicholas Sze, Co-Director, Marketing

Nick is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan where he is focusing on strategy, marketing, and healthcare. He is a member of the Management Consulting Club and the Healthcare Club. At Sloan, he is director of Marketing for the Sloan BioInnovations Conference and is participating in the Enterprise Management track. Prior to Sloan, Nick worked at Accenture as an IT Consultant in the Healthcare industry. He worked on the delivery of large systems implementations for a health insurance client and a pharmacy client. Nick holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences (IEMS) as well as a B.A. in Economics from Northwestern University.

Robbie Tucker, Co-Director, Marketing

Robbie Tucker is a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously he was working for Biomet Inc. as an orthopedic medical device sales representative, with a focus in Biologics and Spine Hardware. Robbie holds a Bachelors of Science in Physiological Science from UCLA. Outside of MIT Sloan, Robbie is passionate about UCLA sports and California wine.

Kathleen Stetson, Panel Lead, Healthcare IT

Kathleen is a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to Sloan, Kathleen advised architects in the design of commercial and civic buildings as an acoustic consultant at the worldwide engineering firm Arup in New York City. She is now focusing her passion for science and creativity on entrepreneurship and innovation in healthcare. Kathleen holds an M.S. in Architectural Sciences from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.M. in vocal performance from New England Conservatory of Music, and a B.A. in music from Harvard.

Cinthya Avalos, Panel Contributor, Healthcare IT

Cinthya Avalos is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan School of Management. Before joining MIT, Cinthya worked in Dow Chemical as an Account Manager for the Dow Water and Process Solutions business unit. Prior to holding the account manager position, Cinthya was the Technical Support and Development specialist for the Dow Water and Process Solutions business. At the beginning of her career, in 2006, she worked as a Process Engineer in the Rohm and Haas emulsion plant at Tlaxcala, Mexico and later at Queretaro, Mexico.

Shweta Sharma, Panel Lead, Therapeutics

Shweta Sharma is a 1st year MBA candidate at MIT Sloan. She brings 8 years of R&D experience from Medtronic and Goodrich investigating micro-sensors for healthcare and aerospace, where she also focused on competitive intelligence and investment opportunity diligence. Most recently she co-founded a regional initiative - Nanovox that functioned at the intersection of public, private and academic sectors to commercialize nanotechnology in the Midwest. She holds a B.S. ('01) and M.S. ('04) in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. Her interests lie in early stage healthcare investments and healthcare policy.

Jan Ma, Panel Lead, Startups

Jan is a Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Fellow at MIT, where she is pursuing an MBA and Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering. Prior to Sloan, Jan worked at Procter and Gamble as a product development engineer managing both current business initiatives and white space market expansion projects for the Beauty and Household Care Global Business Units. Jan has previous professional experiences in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing. Jan earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering from Cornell University.

Dominic McDonald, Panel Contributor, Startups

Dominic McDonald is a first year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to Sloan, Dominic was an Associate Analyst at Summer Street Research Partners, a sell-side equity research firm that focuses solely on the healthcare sector. At Summer Street Dominic followed the biotechnology and medical device industries. Prior to Summer Street, Dominic completed several different research projects at MIT, including characterizing microRNAs in cancer cell lines. Dominic received a Bachelor of Science from MIT in Chemical- Biological Engineering.

Spenta Kutar, Panel Lead, Pricing

Spenta Kutar is a first-year MBA student at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to attending MIT Sloan, Spenta spent three years working as a strategy consultant at Trinity Partners, and was involved in projects ranging from licensing and acquisition, to corporate strategy, and in-line brand forecasting for clients in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Spenta graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. (honors) in history, and a secondary field in economics.

William Kang, Panel Contributor, Pricing

William Kang is a first year MIT Sloan MBA student focused on using analytics to find inefficiencies and innovate strategy in the medical device, poker, and web industries. Prior to Sloan, William worked in medical devices on new product development from clinical development to manufacturing. He loves to create value and make sense out of uncertainty. William is currently an active member of the Healthcare; Entertainment, Media, and Sports; and Consulting Clubs.