Origin Story: Why I Started SAGE

Since 2007, I’ve been working alongside biotech leaders and their teams, helping them bridge the gap between strategy, planning, and execution. I began in R&D and Medical Affairs within established biopharma, but everything shifted when I was asked to design and build the Medical Affairs function for an emerging biotech in 2011. I was hooked.

The pace was faster. The challenges were more complex. Less bureaucracy. The people were smart and deeply committed to bringing life-changing therapies to patients. But they were largely science focused - the unmet need was how to build a drug development company that could transition to a viable commercial business. That’s when my passion for mastering the biotech journey really began — and I’ve since realized it’s a journey no one ever truly “masters.” It’s a constant process of learning, adapting, and connecting the dots.

Originally I focused on late-stage biotechs preparing for launch, I noticed familiar patterns:

• A commercialization model that wasn’t fully formed, tested, or aligned among stakeholders.

• An underestimation of what it means to treat launch readiness as an enterprise-wide transformation, not just a commercial milestone.

• Early decisions on talent, systems, processes, and vendors made in isolation, without considering their downstream impact.

At the same time, I watched companies bring in large consulting firms or specialized vendors. They got deliverables — a launch plan, a forecast, a market research deck, a system, services, etc. — but the pieces didn’t connect. The big picture was still missing.

So I asked: Who’s helping leaders actually plot the biotech journey? Who’s organizing the complexity across functions so science can succeed in the real world? How could we harness what we’ve learned and put it to work for emerging biotech leaders?