Vanessa Almendro Navarro, PhD, MBA

Vanessa Almendro Navarro, Ph.D., M.B.A., is the chief commercialization officer at City of Hope®, where she leads enterprise-wide efforts to translate research breakthroughs into impactful patient solutions. A seasoned life sciences executive, she operates at the intersection of innovation, artificial intelligence-enabled research, development and commercialization. Her expertise spans innovation strategy, venture origination, IP strategy, translational development, partnerships and business development and capability building in diagnostics and therapeutics. She also serves on the boards of the Brain Tumor Investment Fund and MIT Sandbox and is a member of the ARM CEO Advisory Council, the Termeer Institute and the Harvard Initiative for mRNA Medicine. Prior to joining City of Hope, she was vice president and head of science and technology innovation at Danaher Corporation, where she led innovation strategies and modernized operating models across a global portfolio of operating companies. She launched and scaled the Danaher Beacon program in collaboration with leading academic partners, launched the Danaher Nexus intrapreneurship program, established the Danaher Antibody Capability Center and created the Danaher Summits to accelerate domain knowledge exchange. Earlier in her career, Dr. Almendro Navarro co-founded and led the Brain Tumor Investment Fund and held senior leadership roles, including head of strategy and external innovation at Eisai and head of strategy and operations at Repertoire Immune Medicines, in addition to scientific and commercial positions at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in her career, she was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Barcelona, Spain, and an Executive M.B.A. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.