Rene Russo

Dr. Russo is an accomplished biotechnology CEO with 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D and executive leadership roles of increasing responsibility from early clinical research through successful commercialization. She is currently Director of X4 Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: XFOR) following its completed merger with Arsanis, Inc (NASDAQ: ASNS), where she served as President and Chief Executive Officer. As CEO of Arsanis, Dr. Russo raised two private financing rounds and completed Arsanis’ successful IPO, raising more than $130M in under 18 months. Prior to Arsanis, she spent 12 years building key medical functions at Cubist Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: CBST), culminating in a $9.6B acquisition of the company by Merck in 2012. At Cubist, she contributed to the successful launch and commercialization of daptomycin (reaching over $1B in sales annually worldwide) and held various positions of increasing responsibility. Dr. Russo played a key role in Cubist’s successful integration of two public companies, Optimer Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: OPTR) and Trius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: TSRX). Dr. Russo has held several positions in R&D at Bristol-Myers Squibb (NASDAQ: BMY), contributing to the successful registration and commercialization of multiple products including atazanavir and entecavir. She serves as a director for Life Science Cares, a rapidly growing nonprofit organization leveraging the collective impact of the Boston life sciences industry to address the cycle of poverty in the Boston area.