John F. McDonald
Audit Committee, Strategic Committee
John F. McDonald has served as a director of Geron since September 2022.
Background
Currently, Mr. McDonald serves as Corporate Vice President, Global R&D Business Development, for Novo Nordisk A/S, where he leads R&D business development 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., 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, 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 at Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc., (now a Takeda Oncology Company), Genzyme Corp (now part of Sanofi) and Genentech, Inc., (now a member of the Roche Group). 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 University of California Hastings College of the Law and an M.B.A. and B.S. from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.