SynBioBeta 2026 Speaker

Sue Siegel

Align & Illumina

Board Director

Sue Siegel is a seasoned board director, former CEO, and venture capitalist with a rare blend of governance expertise, commercial acumen, operational prowess, and innovation leadership across life sciences, healthcare, and technology. For more than 25 years, she has helped boards anticipate disruption, strengthen oversight, and unlock long-term value.

She currently serves on the boards of Align Technology, Illumina, and KFF (formerly Kaiser Family Foundation), and is Chairman of the Board of The Engine, built by MIT. Over her career, she has served on more than 20 public, private, and nonprofit boards with extensive Audit, Compensation, Nominating & Governance, Technology, Investment, and Special Committee experienceโ€”including multiple chair roles. Recognized on the NACD Directorship 100 in 2023 and 2024, she is widely regarded as an inspirational, pragmatic, and forward-thinking leader who blends strategic foresight with disciplined governance.

Her executive career includes serving as Chief Innovation Officer at GE, CEO of GE Ventures & Licensing, and CEO of Healthymagination, advancing investments and partnerships at the intersection of healthcare and technology. Previously, she was a General Partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, leading life sciences and precision health investments, and President & Board Director of Affymetrix, where she led the company from a pre-revenue startup to a multi-billion-dollar, NASDAQ-listed global genomics leaderโ€”helping shape the fieldโ€™s early growth and address emerging bioethical issues.

In public service, Sue has served on President Obamaโ€™s Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group, catalyzing the All of Us research program; was a founding board member of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; and acted as a White House Fellows selection judge under multiple administrations. She also co-chairs Stanford Medicineโ€™s Board of Fellows and serves on the Innovation Growth Board of Mass General Brigham.

Her leadership has been recognized by Fortuneโ€™s โ€œ34 Leaders Who Are Changing Health Care,โ€the Silicon Valley Business Journalโ€™s โ€œ100 Most Influential Women in Silicon Valley,โ€ Fierce Biotechโ€™s โ€œTop 10 Women in Medical Devices,โ€ and the Global Corporate Venture Lifetime Achievement Award. An Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow, she is featured in the bestselling book Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and serves on the faculty of MIT Sloan School of Management.

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Reagan

Jarvis

Anocca AB

CEO, Co-founder

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Alex

Rives

CZI Biohub

Head of Science

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Karenโ€ฏ

Akinsanya

Schrodinger

President, R&D โ€“ Therapeutics

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Christopher

Arendt

Takeda

CSO, Head of Research

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Stef

van Grieken

Cradle

CEO

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Michael

Koeris

DARPA

Director, BTO

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Jennifer

Dionne

Pumpkinseed

CEO

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Daniyal

Hussain

GSK

Exec. Dir., Tech BD

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Cynthia

Hong

Novartis

Dir., Search & Evaluation

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Sarah Lynn

Tao

CSL Behring

Sr. Dir., S&E; Ig TA & Tech Lead

Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure
Blue watercolor illustration of a folded protein structure

SynBioBeta 2027 May 3-6, San Jose, California