Dawn Bell

Board Director, CEO, Global Pharma Exec

Dr. Dawn Bell has been starting and scaling life-science businesses from academic spinouts to Top 5 Pharma for the past 20 years, most recently at Novartis (NYSE: NVS). Her career spans buy and sell-side BD&L, portfolio strategy, R&D, and commercialization in both private and public companies (NYSE: NVS; NASDAQ: MDCO). She has raised venture capital, led global teams of 100+ people and managed budgets/P&L of more than $50M. She is a board director, start-up thought leader, and advisor for life-science companies, research institutes, CEOs, founders, and innovation accelerators in the US, Canada, and Europe. She currently serves on the boards of New York BIO and The Metabolomics Innovation Center (TMIC). She is also a strategic advisor to the CEO’s of Type 6 Therapeutics, se[rna] therapeutics, and Panakeia AI.

A 10-year veteran of Novartis, she held leadership roles in global drug development, medical affairs, and portfolio strategy. She delivered Entresto ($4B) approval 18 months ahead of schedule as global GM, securing FDA Break-Through and Fast-Track status. As VP, Clinical Development and Medical Affairs and member of the Executive Team for Novartis Canada, she led launch preparation for 8 medicines across 5 therapeutic areas in 4 years, including building the teams that launched the first two gene therapies approved in Canada (Zolgensma and Luxturna). She later held key roles in portfolio strategy where she worked with leadership on portfolio transformation and M&A/BD&L strategy and integration. Prior to Novartis, she was founding CEO of an Emory University spinout where she raised a seed round of venture capital. Prior to that she was GM of a commercial-stage rare disease company where she led BD&L and successful out licensing of the lead product, and before that she was an early commercial leader at The Medicines Company (NASDAQ: MDCO) contributing to market cap growth from $400M to >$2B within 3 years.

She earned her PharmD from the University of Florida, where she also completed a fellowship in cardiovascular pharmacogenomics. Before joining the industry, she spent 10 years at the bedside as a research clinical pharmacist and was a tenured associate professor of Pharmacy Practice at West Virginia University. In 2022, she was selected Alumnus of the Year for the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in recognition of her outstanding career achievements.