An Open Letter to the BioPharma Community:

Now that its 2017, we are choosing to write this letter to provide recommendations for best practices to establish
gender diversity as a priority for the biopharma industry.
Last years open letter to the industry sparked a dialogue that led to changes in some company practices, new
training programs, regional gender diversity initiatives and much more. But we believe this is just the start of the
work to be done.
Below is the culmination of recent recommendations collected from industry executives for guiding principles and a
top 10 list of best practices that we believe will continue the momentum of 2016 into 2017 and beyond.
Guiding Principles for Gender Diversity as a Priority for the BioPharma Industry:
We, as community leaders, commit to driving diversity and inclusion in the biopharma industry.
Diversity is good for the business performance of our industry. Research proves that diversity leads to:
Better decision making
Increased productivity and financial performance
Enhanced engagement, recruitment and retention of talent
To ensure that the biopharma industry thrives and is sustainable, we, as community leaders, see it as our
responsibility to drive diversity as a top priority.
Unconscious biases are ubiquitous and difficult to pinpoint and address. Still, we need to make a conscious
commitment to eradicate unconscious biases in recruitment, performance evaluation, promotion and
decision making in order to improve gender diversity.
While we recognize that there are many forms of diversity needed to ensure the future of our industry, there
are clear best practices that can be implemented now to increase gender diversity.
Top Ten Best Practices for Increasing Gender Diversity in the BioPharma Industry:
1.

We as executives and board members declare gender diversity as a priority, as a key value and ethos. We
commit to living it visibly at all of our companies and organizations.

2.

We will create opportunities for open dialogue on enhancing gender diversity and ensuring an inclusive
environment, both within our organizations and across the industry.

3.

We recognize the importance of formal sponsorship programs to ensure diversity in our executive
leadership pipeline and commit to building these programs in our companies.

4.

We also recognize that it is important to provide formal mentorship programs to encourage women to
engage with executives, both inside and outside of our organization. We commit to building these programs
in our companies.

5.

We will ask our board members to be active sponsors of women who are board ready to pursue board
appointments. We will endorse and sponsor our high potential female talent to take part in training
programs to become boardroom ready.

6.

We will measure and track promotion of female talent to senior management positions.

7.

We will seek out and celebrate positive role models within our organizations.

8.

We will review our hiring processes and train our hiring managers on diversity and inclusion as a priority.

9.

We agree with the importance of setting concrete hiring goals to achieve gender parity and inclusion at each
level of our organizations and to measure and report regularly on our progress towards goals.

10. We will support the work of our trade organizations, like MassBio, on industry-wide efforts to improve
gender diversity at the macro level.
We, as community leaders, have the responsibility to ensure our biopharma industry can continue to grow and
thrive. We need to take a holistic view on the next generation of leaders to prepare for the future. We believe that
diversity and inclusion will deliver better results for our industry and society. We have the opportunity and the
responsibility to lead by example, setting the tone and pace for the biopharma industry.
We invite you to join us, to sign this open letter, and to work to implement these practices to ensure the continued
success of our industry.
Robert K. Coughlin
President & CEO
MassBio

Cissy Young
Partner
Russell Reynolds

Abbie Celniker
Partner, Third Rock Ventures
Interim CEO, Goldfinch Bio

Jodie Morrison
CEO and President
Tokai Pharmaceuticals

Steve Woit
Director
BioPharma Executive Council

Susan Windham-Bannister
President & CEO
BioMedical Growth Strategies

Sarah MacDonald
Executive Vice President
MassBio

David Meeker
EVP, General Manager
Sanofi Genzyme

David Lawrence Lucchino

Co-founder, President and CEO
Frequency Therapeutics

Michael J. Pellini
Chairman
Foundation Medicine

Kate Bingham
Managing Partner
SV Life Sciences

Phillip Sharp
Institute Professor
MIT

Terry McGuire
Founding Partner
Polaris Partners

Ann Stanesa
President
Ten Bridge Communications

Mike OHara
Partner
Deloitte

Lisa Olson
Vice President, Immunology Research & ABC Site Head
AbbVie

Christoph Westphal
CEO
Flex Pharma

Edward Kaye
President, CEO, and Chief Medical Officer
Sarepta Therapeutics

Annalisa Jenkins
CEO
Dimension Therapeutics

Ivana Magovcevic-Liebisch
SVP, Head of Corporate Development
Teva Pharmaceuticals

Steve Kafka
President
Foundation Medicine

Suzanne Bruhn
Director
Pliant Therapeutics & Raptor Pharmaceutical

Travis McCready
President & CEO
Massachusetts Life Sciences Center

Robert Urban
Global Head
Johnson & Johnson Innovation

William McDermott
Partner
McDermott, Quilty & Miller LLP

Scott Gillis
President
Pericor Science, Inc.

Chris Garabedian
Chairman
Xontogeny LLC

Michael D. Ehlers
EVP, Research & Development
Biogen

Christopher de Souza
Director
Broadview Ventures

Geoff Cox
Principal
Beacon St Advisors

Geoff MacKay
President & CEO
AvroBio

Lawrence S. Wittenberg
Senior Partner
Goodwin Procter LLP

James Hoyes
Executive Partner
RxC International

Kumar Srinivasan
VP, Scientific Partnering & Alliances, IMED Biotech Unit
AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals

Robert Gottlieb
Principal
RMG Associates

Kathleen W. Tregoning
SVP, Corporate Affairs
Biogen

Melissa Bradford Klug

Chief Business Officer
Keryx

Mark R. Bamforth
President and CEO
Brammer Bio

Antony Loebel
Executive Vice President & Chief Medical Officer
Sunovion Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Robert Ward
CEO
Radius Health

Alice Pomponio
Vice President, Corporate Affairs
Radius Health

Tina Caporale
Managing Director, Audit
Deloitte

Rick Russell
President & CEO
Stallergenes Greer Inc.

Andrea F. Rabney
President and Chief Executive Officer
Argot Partners

Marina Bozilenko
Managing Director
William Blair

Christopher T. Walsh
Professor
Harvard Medical School

Mark Perrin
CEO & Chairman
InVIvo Therapeutics Corporation

Marian Nakada
VP, Venture Investments
Johnson & Johnson Innovation

Eileen Coveney
Managing Director
L.E.K. Consulting

Mike Rice
Founding Partner
LifeSci Advisors

Arthur Hiller
CEO
Antyllus Therapeutics

Adam Gridley
CEO
Histogenics

Nancy Lurker
President & CEO
pSivida

Bob Carpenter
Director
Hydra Biosciences

Bob Linke
President & CEO
Embera NeuroTherapeutics

Alexis Wallace
CEO
Thrombolytic Science

Ailis Tweed-Kent
CEO
Cocoon Biotech

Deniz Kural
CEO
Seven Bridges Genomics

Patrice Milos
CEO
Medley Genomics

Praveen Tipirneni
CEO
Morphic Therapeutic

Jonathan Lewis
CEO
Samus Therpeutics

Paula Soteropoulos
CEO
Akcea Therapeutics

David Moller
VP, BD, Emerging Technology & Innovation
Eli Lilly & Company

Philippe Lopes-Fernandes
SVP, Head of Global Licensing & Business Development
Merck KGaA/Merck Serono

Ed Mascioli
CEO
Karos Pharmaceuticals

Jennifer Wheler
Senior Medical Director
Novartis

Bram Goorden
VP Global Head
Nestle Health Science

Sheila DeWitt
President & CEO
DeuteRx

Doug Kahn
Chairman and CEO
TetraGenetics

Alexis Wallace
CEO
Thrombolytic Science

Laurie Halloran
CEO
Halloran Consulting Group

Lisa McKerracher
CEO
BioAxone BioSciences

Jim Jensen
CEO
CytoSite Biopharma

Michael Schopperle
CEO
CureMeta

Carolyn Green
Director, Strategic Investments
Pfizer

Leslie Williams
CEO
ImmusanT

Deborah Dunsire
Principal
Southern Cross Biotech Consulting

Rosanna Kapeller
Chief Scientific Officer
Nimbus Therapeutics

Patrick Tricoli
CEO
Nanobiotix

Art Krieg
CEO
Checkmate Pharmaceuticals

Bruce Rychlik
Managing Partner
Park Square Executive Search

Anne Deconinck
Executive Director
MIT Koch Institute

Erik Lundh
Managing Partner
Park Square Executive Search

Guy Villax
CEO
Hovione

Tara Schutz
Vice President
Morgan Stanley

Mary Thistle
COO
Dimension Therapeutics

John Mendlein
CEO
ATyr

Kathy Bowdish
Head and VP Global R&D
Sanofi Sunrise

Kathy Williams
Head of Life Sciences
Sunstein, LLP

Jody Rose
Executive Director
New England Venture Capital Association

Chandra Ramanathan
VP and Head East Coast Innovation Center
Bayer, U.S.

Ron Renaud
CEO
RaNa Therapeutics

Vin Milano
CEO
Idera Pharmaceuticals

Joanna Horobin
SVP, Chief Medical Officer
Idera Pharmaceuticals

Marianne De Backer
VP, Johnson & Johnson Innovation
Janssen Business Development

Cat Oyler
VP Strategy and External Innovation
Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Research and Development

Sue Dillon
Global Therapeutic Area Head, Immunology
Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals

Marion Dorsch
Chief Scientific Officer
Blueprint Medicines

William Newell
CEO
Sutro Biopharma

Jay Luly
CEO
Enanta Pharmaceuticals

Steve Tregay
CEO
FORMA Therapeutics

Lynn Seeley
CEO
Myovant Sciences

Vivek Ramaswamy
CEO
Roivant Sciences and Axovant Sciences

Alvin Shih
CEO
Enzyvant Sciences

Wendye Robbins
CEO
Blade Therapeutics

Arielle Jackson
Portfolio Director
Boston Biotech Conferences

Elizabeth Franzmann
Chief Scientific Officer
Vigilant Biosciences

John Tagliamonte
Advisor Board Member
WntRx Pharmaceuticals

Filipe Gaspar
VP R&D
Hovione

Jeff Marrazzo
CEO
Spark Therapeutics

John Furey
COO
Spark Therapeutics

Lisa Dalton
Head of Human Resources
Spark Therapeutics

Bonnie Fendrock
CEO
Cyta Therapeutics

Ana Maiques
CEO
Neuroelectrics

Glen Giovannetti
Global Biotechnology Leader
EY

Javier Barrientos
Senior Director, Global Diversity and Inclusion
Biogen