Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Flagship Pioneering

Dr. Noubar Afeyan is founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that creates bioplatform companies to transform human health and sustainability. An entrepreneur and biochemical engineer, Dr. Afeyan holds more than 100 patents and has co-founded more than 70 life science and technology startups during his 35-year career. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA company addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic through life-saving vaccines, and chairs the boards of several private and public companies.

Noubar entered biotechnology during its emergence as an academic field and industry, completing his doctoral work in biochemical engineering at MIT in 1987. He was a senior lecturer at MIT’s Sloan School of Management from 2000 to 2016, a lecturer at Harvard Business School until 2020, and he currently serves as a member of the MIT Corporation. He teaches and speaks around the world on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic development to biological engineering, new medicines, and renewable energy. In 2022, Noubar was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Afeyan has received multiple awards for his passionate advocacy of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress. He is the co-founder of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity and a number of other philanthropic projects focused on Armenia.