Jill DeSimone

Jill DeSimone brings more than 40 years of global business expertise in life sciences to Kinnate’s board. Most recently, she served as President of U.S. Oncology at Merck & Co., Inc., where she established the company’s oncology division, growing it from less than $500 million in annual revenue to $9 billion in just eight years. She led three key product launches and more than 45 indication launches, including Keytruda®. Prior to joining Merck, Ms. DeSimone was Senior Vice President of Global Women’s Health at Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd., where she built its first global business unit. Ms. DeSimone began her career at Bristol Meyers Squibb and held roles of increasing responsibility culminating as the Senior Vice President of U.S. Oncology, a role in which she helped launch the first FDA-approved CTLA-4 immune checkpoint inhibitor, Yervoy®.

Ms. DeSimone currently serves as a board member for Oncternal Therapeutics, a clinical-stage oncology company, Affini-T Therapeutics, an immune oncology cell therapy company, the Florida Cancer Specialists Foundation, a nonprofit organization that delivers non-medical aid for individuals undergoing treatment for cancer, and Praxis Precision Medicines, Inc., a clinical-stage company focused on development of therapies for the central nervous system.

She earned a B.S. in pharmacy from Northeastern University and completed a fellowship with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.