CEO of Sean Parker cancer drug moonshot on leading race for cure

Karen Knudsen didn’t grow up in a scientifically centered home. She grew up in a military family. But at an early age, as a “naturally curious” kid, she got here to like the experience of discovery and gravitated toward math and science. That led Knudsen to assume she would sooner or later change into a medical doctor. But her profession went in one other scientific direction, starting with a stint as a summer research intern working within the lab on the National Cancer Institute through the AIDS epidemic of the Nineteen Eighties.

“There was a lot interest in trying to grasp retrovirus like HIV, and so I went to a lab that was actually using retrovirus as a option to study cancer,” she recalled in a recent interview with CNBC’s Julia Boorstin for the CNBC Changemakers Highlight series (Knudsen was named to the inaugural CNBC Changemakers list in 2024). “It got me very fascinated with that direct line. How does what I’m doing straight away within the laboratory have a chance to affect a life, and I got hooked, and I never looked back,” she said.

Knudsen’s experience as an oncology researcher at large health care systems, and seeing many mergers happening round her, led to the belief that it would help to know more in regards to the business of health care. She selected to pursue an MBA. “I’m unsure I’ll forget the look on my husband after I got here home sooner or later and said, ‘I will get my MBA’,” Knudsen recalled. “That was probably one among the more unexpected decisions.”

Ultimately, it led to Knudsen becoming the primary female CEO of the more-than-century-old American Cancer Society, though she says it’s much more necessary that she was the primary CEO for the organization to return from oncology research. Under Knudsen’s leadership, ACS’s revenue increased by over 30%.

Recently, Knudsen assumed the CEO post on the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy — created by Sean Parker, Facebook’s first president and the tech entrepreneur behind breakthrough ideas like Napster — where a brand new philanthropy-meets-venture-capital business model that aligns with Knudsen’s lifelong interest in discovery is being built.

The mission hasn’t modified: “Within the U.S., we have now 2.1 million Americans which can be going to get a brand new cancer diagnosis this yr, and unfortunately, 600,000 plus individuals who will die from one among the 200 diseases we call cancer,” she said.

While there was a 34% decline in cancer mortality since 1991, primarily attributed to earlier detection and preventative health practices, Knudsen’s latest role places her on the forefront of efforts to fund a brand new generation of breakthrough cancer drugs.

Knudsen spoke with CNBC’s Boorstin about how she reached this stage of her profession, and the teachings she has learned from a lifetime dedicated to experimentation. Listed below are some highlights from the complete video interview.

The scientific method and business pondering reinforce one another

As a scientist, Knudsen says, “You get very comfortable with hypothesis generation and testing,” and that’s in some ways much like a business executive attempting to determine what’s going to come next of their market, and the way to remain successful as conditions change.

Scientists get comfortable developing a set of success metrics that enable them to know quickly whether it is time to quit on a hypothesis or move ahead. Knudsen says that is a component of the “overlapping mindset between being a scientist and being a business person” which has helped her to succeed as she moved from research into executive leadership.

“It made the technique of developing a set of success metrics and making a business strategy that tells you when you could be onto something, or not, fairly easy,” she said. 

Be daring in identifying what you must and mustn’t be doing

As a researcher inside health systems who saw firsthand how a wave of consolidation could reshape entities and lift the query of how every one, process and practice might need to vary, Knudsen says you want to be able to discover not only what works but additionally what must go away.

Coming into the CEO post at ACS was “like coming right into a fresh merger that was in need of business transformation,” she said. “Finding opportunities and fixing what needs repairing is commonly the toughest a part of leadership,” she added. 

Knudsen took a tough have a look at a bureaucracy that over greater than a century had grown into 12 separate organizations, with 12 CEOs and 12 strategies, and he or she made significant changes to streamline the operation. It wasn’t all about rooting out the inefficiencies, though. “I used to be on the road 49 weeks of the yr for 4 years in a row, because you actually needed to be there to see what was so good in these various areas, and apply that to the remainder of the organization,” Knudsen said.

Her larger point is that a lifetime in research has made her a pacesetter who sees change as a relentless. “Because medicine is changing, science is changing, technology will change … It’s okay to rework and to always iterate,” she said.

Work with individuals who aren’t afraid to ‘fail fast,’ and fund them for those who can

Sean Parker comes out of the Silicon Valley “move fast and break things” world of success, and Knudsen says she had learned to be “just a little more confident at risk-taking” over time.

Working with Parker, who was the primary president of Facebook and co-founder of Napster, is the culmination of the risk-taking business side of her mindset.

“He’s unafraid of pondering otherwise,” Knudsen said, adding that he still embodies the concept that “if we’re failing, let’s fail fast.”

More specifically, she said Parker identified that lack of access to capital was a serious impediment to progress within the fight against cancer, and that was holding the danger takers back from doing what they do best.

“The entire philosophy of the Parker Institute is to, the 1st step, collect the perfect brains. Give them investment in funding to do the high risk, high gain, cutting-edge research, which could fail but could also dramatically transform cancer therapy,” she said.

Founded in 2016 by Parker to show all cancers into “curable diseases,” the institute supports clinical testing, startup formation and incubation, and drug commercialization. In all, PICI has supported the work of 1,000 researchers and helped to create a $4 billion enterprise capital portfolio that features 17 biotech corporations.

“I feel it’s because we have de-risked the science from the very starting,” Knudsen said. “We’re not waiting for somebody to pitch for us. So I’m feeling very bullish in regards to the ability to crank this wheel,” she said.

Create a ‘hot dial’ list of peers and mentors

Knudsen has had many mentors throughout her journey. One she cited was Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, who she says was a “fountain of data” to her. But as CEO of the American Cancer Society, she surrounded herself “with CEOs from all walks of life. I had a CEOs council that was hot dial,” Knudsen said. “There are some belongings you just actually need to discuss with other CEOs about.”

She also emphasized that girls pursuing success in all fields should expect to should fight even harder for female representation the upper they ascend up knowledgeable ladder. Statistically, that’s the case whether within the business or academic world. Greater than 50% of each MD and PhD programs are crammed with women, but only 12% change into full professors, department chairs or deans. Within the business world, 10% of ladies hold CEO positions in S&P 500 corporations; and roughly 12% in VC-backed corporations and 13% at health-care firms. 

But whether it is said to gender, the inherent risk of failure in scientific endeavors, or lack of access to capital, Knudsen’s consistent mission has helped her to beat any barriers.

“What I’ve at all times desired to do, whether it’s as a scientist, whether it’s as a health executive, the CEO of the American Cancer Society or now the Parker Institute, it’s to get innovation to people,” she said. “We’re at this moment in time where there’s a lot discovery that is happening, the pace of change is actually logarithmic, and yet, too many great ideas don’t ever make it off the laboratory floor.”

Watch the complete Changemakers Highlight video above for Knudsen’s insights on the sphere of drug discovery and the fight against cancer.