John F. McDonald
Audit Committee, Strategic Committee
John F. McDonald has served as a director of Geron since September 2022.
Background
Since October 2018, Mr. McDonald has served as Corporate Vice President, Global Head of Business Development and Mergers and Acquisitions, for Novo Nordisk A/S, a global pharmaceutical company, where he leads business development, merger and acquisition activities, investment strategies and participates in the creation of research, early development and therapeutic pipeline diversification and augmentation strategies. From 2011 to 2018, Mr. McDonald was Vice President, Business Development, at Biogen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, where he led business development and negotiated numerous strategic alliances, licenses and acquisitions. From 2006 to 2011, Mr. McDonald served as Managing Director at MPM Capital LP, an investment firm, where he served as the primary business development and asset strategy resource for multiple portfolio companies.
Prior to 2006, Mr. McDonald held business development, corporate strategy and legal roles of increasing responsibility at various biopharmaceutical companies, including Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotechnology company (now a Takeda Oncology Company, a pharmaceutical company), Genzyme Corp., a biopharmaceutical company (now part of Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company) and Genentech, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company (now a member of the Roche Group, a pharmaceutical company). In those roles, Mr. McDonald developed relationships with numerous academic institutions, as well as biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies of all stages. Mr. McDonald holds a J.D. from the University of California College of the Law, San Francisco and an M.B.A. and B.S. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.