Chris Leo (Past Speaker)

CHRISTOPHER LEO, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, joined Back Bay at its inception in 2010.  Chris’s focus areas include business unit/product/market strategies and diligence support across large pharma, biotech and specialty pharma clients.  In addition, he has significant expertise at the interface of the industry and academic community around strategies for advancing innovative technology.   Chris joined Back Bay from Genzyme, where he led strategic & competitive planning projects for the company’s $2 billion Rare Genetic Disease and $500 million Biosurgery business units. Chris supported both the brand teams on commercial issues related to strategic marketing and competitive positioning, as well as the R&D organization on the assessment of new market opportunities.  Prior to Genzyme, Chris was a Director with Leerink Swann’s Strategic Advisory group, a Principal in Wood Mackenzie’s life science consulting practice, and the Director of the Belfer Cancer Genomics Center at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.  Dr. Leo completed his doctorate in Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School followed by a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, and earned his undergraduate degree at the College of the Holy Cross.