Building Knowledge About Biotech at Yale SOM

As an MBA for Executives student at Yale SOM, I’ve been working to complement my 13 years of experience across the drug-development value chain with a new investing lens. Previously, I’ve worked in biotech strategy and site-level clinical research, gaining an end-to-end view of the drug development life cycle. To broaden that skill set at SOM, I’ve worked with the Yale Graduate Consulting Club on go-to-market strategy for a neuroscience startup and advised a medical device founder through Yale Ventures. To translate my growing interest in the financial side of pharmaceutical technologies into hands-on experience, I got involved with the Yale Biotech Club as director of venture capital, leading programming on venture capital, startup financing, and investment decision-making in life sciences.

This ecosystem has given me so much, helping me broaden my network and build connections within the Yale biotech ecosystem. To show my appreciation in my last quarter, I wanted to create an immersive experience for the whole community, so I launched the Bioinvestment & Venture Capital speaker series to demystify what biotech is and how to invest in it. So often, I hear that the biotech space feels like a “black box;” it can be difficult for newcomers to access the industry or understand how its different verticals are connected. Working alongside PhD student Ran Liu over the course of six months, I organized five practitioner-led events to give Yale affiliates—students, alumni, postdocs, and staff—first-hand exposure to practical insights from the industry. I wanted the series to illuminate topics including early-stage funding, regulatory policies, intellectual property, due diligence to exit strategies, and all the other steps from lab to market.

For each session, I recruited industry leaders who could give the audience a candid view into their specialty. A healthcare and life sciences investment banker from Jefferies provided an overview of the sector to level-set everyone; a former FDA commissioner discussed clinical development and regulatory strategy, the most time-consuming and sensitive component of biotech; a veteran Yale Ventures business development leader explored intellectual property strategy; a serial biotech venture capitalist from the local VC firm Connecticut Innovations explored due diligence and valuation for early-stage startups; and a Yale School of Medicine professor and biotech founder described the acquisition of his venture by a large pharmaceutical company. Speakers provided raw personal perspectives, showing attendees how their individual subspecialties fit into the drug development value chain.

The program was conceived to go beyond a standard venture capital overview, highlighting each component that drives a technology’s valuation and development. My co-directors and I invited speakers we were personally connected to, and met at pre-session meetings to ensure that each part of the series fit together. We wanted to create a culture of candor and inclusiveness, fostering connections across the Yale community.

As the organizer, I was responsible for managing all aspects of the event, including recruiting speakers, crafting communications strategies, and developing series content. I created an event poster, reached out to listservs to share our event details and registration, and personally marketed the event amongst my network. This was a massive endeavor—I definitely underestimated the logistics and coordination required! It was also stage-gated; I had to first find each speaker, ensure they would agree to participate, work with their schedules, then secure rooms and media services at SOM for each session.

The Bioinvestment & Venture Capital Series leveraged my biotech and drug development experience while applying leadership and investment concepts to a real initiative within SOM. I came out of the experience having deepened my understanding of venture creation and strategic decision-making and enriched my ability to give back to my community. Looking forward, I hope to grow the program into a “workshop university” with certifications of industry fluency that equip participants with biotech and investment skills and career pathways, strengthening Yale’s innovation ecosystem and community impact. This vision aligns with my long-term goals to build a career at the intersection of healthcare, venture creation, and investing by supporting founders, advancing innovative therapies, and creating spaces for learning and knowledge-sharing within the biotech community.