William Pao is a physician-scientist whose career has spanned academia, industry and biotech. Motivated by his father’s death from cancer when he was 13, he started his career as a thoracic oncologist, lab researcher and clinical investigator at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in New York and then Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he also served as the Division Chief of Haematology/Oncology. Previously Chief Development Officer for Pfizer, and prior to that, Head of the Roche Pharma Research & Early Development unit, he oversaw the discovery and development of portfolios of new molecular entities, many of which have been approved to treat a variety of diseases, from cancer to rare blood disorders. He has advised numerous professional associations, served on the editorial boards of prestigious medical research journals, and received multiple awards and recognitions. He is currently CEO and co-founder of a cancer biotechnology company.