Keynote Speakers
Jeff Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Dr. Leiden is a Senior Advisor for Clarus Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm he joined in 2006. In 2000, he joined Abbott Laboratories as President and Chief Operating Officer where he had responsibility for running Abbott's global pharmaceuticals business. While at Abbott, Dr. Leiden helped launch multiple breakthrough medicines, including Humira for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases and Kaletra for HIV infection, among others. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Abbott Laboratories from 2001 to 2006.
Dr. Leiden began his career in academia as a practicing cardiologist and molecular biologist. From 1987 to 2000, Dr. Leiden held several academic appointments, including roles as Chief of Cardiology at the University of Chicago and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital. During his academic career, Dr. Leiden was also involved in starting several biotechnology companies including Vical and Cardiogene.
Dr. Leiden held a number of board positions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including the role of non-executive Vice Chairman for Shire Pharmaceuticals plc. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Leiden received his M.D., Ph.D. and B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago.
David P. Meeker, M.D. President and Chief Executive Officer, Genzyme
In his career with Genzyme, Dr. Meeker has held key positions of increasing responsibility, most recently as Chief Operating Officer. In this role, he was responsible for Genzyme's commercial organization, overseeing its business units, country management organization, and global market access functions. As Chief Operating Officer, he played an important role in the integration with Sanofi.
Dr. Meeker joined Genzyme in 1994 as Medical Director to work on the Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy program. Subsequently, as Vice President, Medical Affairs, he was responsible for the development of therapeutic products, including treatments in the current rare disease portfolio. As President of the Global Rare Disease Business, he oversaw the global launches of Aldurazyme®, Fabrazyme®, and Myozyme®.
Prior to joining Genzyme, Dr. Meeker was the Director of the Pulmonary Critical Care Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic and an assistant professor of medicine at Ohio State University. He has authored more than 40 articles and multiple book chapters.
Dr. Meeker is a Board member of BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Organization. He is also a Board member of Prize4Life, an organization dedicated to accelerating the discovery of treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as well as a Board member of the California Institute of Healthcare (CHI), an independent organization devoted to researching and advocating policy to forward the interests of California's biomedical community.
Dr. Meeker received his M.D. from the University of Vermont Medical School. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and a Pulmonary/Critical Care fellowship at Boston University. He completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 2000.
Stephen H. Rusckowski, SM '84 President and Chief Executive Officer, Quest Diagnostics
Mr. Rusckowski joined Quest Diagnostics on May 1, 2012 and was most recently Chief Executive Officer of Philips Healthcare, the largest unit of Royal Philips Electronics. He was also a member of the Board of Management of Royal Philips Electronics and its Executive Committee.
During Mr. Rusckowski's tenure as CEO of Philips Healthcare, revenues increased from approximately 6 billion Euro in 2005 to approximately 9 billion Euro in 2011, accounting for approximately 39% of Philips consolidated revenues, from 21% when he became CEO. Philips Healthcare has 38,000 employees in more than 100 countries worldwide.
Prior to that role, Mr. Rusckowski was CEO of the Imaging Systems business group within the company. Before joining Philips, he led Hewlett-Packard/Agilent Technologies Healthcare Solutions Group as Senior Vice President and General Manager. He joined Philips when it acquired Agilent's Healthcare Solutions Group in 2001.
Mr. Rusckowski earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Master of Science degree in Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management.