Noubar Afeyan

Dr. Noubar Afeyan is the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering, a company that creates bio-platform 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 33-year career. He is co-founder and chairman of the board of Moderna, the pioneering messenger RNA vaccine company addressing the global COVID-19 pandemic, and serves on the boards of several private and public companies.

Dr. Afeyan has been a Lecturer at Harvard Business School and Senior Lecturer at MIT where he taught technology-entrepreneurship and innovation for more than two decades. He received a Technology Pioneer award from the World Economic Forum (WEF), was awarded the National Order of Merit from his native Lebanon. A passionate advocate of the contributions of immigrants to economic and scientific progress, Dr. Afeyan received the Appeal of Conscience Award in 2020, the Great Immigrant honor from the Carnegie Corporation in 2016, and the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.