2025 Corporate Salute (In-Person Tickets)

Join us for a provocative conversation on gender equity and diversity with innovative biotech leaders who are blazing trails in high-impact companies. We will explore the pathways, opportunities, and obstacles they face — and the vital importance of allies and advocates for their barrier-breaking success. Be in the room with us as we reveal the results of the 2024 Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers of the Top 100 Public Companies in Massachusetts and the winners of the Racial Equity & Ally Awards for Women in Business!

Keynote Speakers

Sophie is Chair and Co-Founder of Nandi Life Sciences, a US based biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics for rare diseases such as cancers and auto-immune diseases that disproportionately impact women and people of color. An attorney with a 20-year global executive career, Sophie has held senior corporate executive roles leading strategy, legal, and operations functions for complex, systemically important corporations in technology, retail, and investment banking: Baker McKenzie, the Virgin Group, Morgan Stanley and Meta. Sophie has served on several non-profit boards. She currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame and is Chair of Sentebale, which was founded by Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex, and HRH Prince Seeiso of Lesotho. Sentebale works with young people and their communities to create sustainable solutions that address issues of health, wealth inequity, and climate resilience in Southern Africa. Sophie is a recipient of many industry awards and has been featured in publications including The Financial Times, The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, Harper’s Bazaar, The Telegraph, Management Today, The Lawyer, Legal Week, HR Director and Brummell.  In 2021, Sophie was honored by HM Queen Elizabeth II and awarded an MBE for extraordinary services to diversity in business. Currently based in New York City, Sophie was born and raised in Zimbabwe and, through various merit-based scholarships, educated in Canada (St Mary’s College), the US (Lake Superior State University) and the UK (University of Oxford). She was a Rotary International Youth Exchange Student, a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar and is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow. 

Kate brings an impressive breadth of experience and leadership within the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as a substantial background in scaling high-growth organizations, strategic business development, portfolio strategy, investor relations, and commercial execution. Since April 2022, Kate has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Blueprint Medicines. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer from January 2019 to April 2022, and as Chief Business Officer from January 2016 to January 2019. Over this time, she was the founding chair of the portfolio management team, formed and executed business development strategy, drove global capital investment plans, and played a key role in capital market financings. In addition, she worked to drive the transformative growth of the company and support its evolution into a fully integrated business by developing and providing ongoing management of critical functions, including corporate development, corporate affairs, commercial strategy, international, technical operations, portfolio strategy and management, and information systems. Prior to joining Blueprint Medicines, Kate held leadership roles focused on building emerging, high-growth companies and advancing the development of innovative therapies in oncology and rare diseases as Vice President, Rare Diseases and Oncology Program Leadership at Idera Pharmaceuticals, Head of Commercial Development at Sarepta Therapeutics, Executive Director of Commercial Development at PTC Therapeutics, and roles in both corporate development and project management at Genzyme. She holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University with a double major in Molecular Biology/Biochemistry and Economics and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. Kate currently serves as chair of the board of directors at Fulcrum Therapeutics, as an independent director on the board of directors at Bicara Therapeutics, and as a member of the board of directors at Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).

A seasoned and respected governance expert, Rebecca has spent nearly 25 years advising CEOs, boards of directors and aspiring directors on best practices for director recruitment, board design / composition, shareholder engagement, as well as CEO search and CEO succession planning. Over the course of her career, Rebecca has advised over 2,000 companies across a wide range of industries and special situations, including IPOs, spins, activism defense and companies exiting bankruptcy. She has also worked with private equity firms, families and founders looking to evolve their governance models. Rebecca currently serves as Head of Director Advisory Services (“DAS”) at J.P. Morgan, based in New York. DAS was formed in 2016 as a center of excellence to advise and support corporate clients with their evolving board needs. Under her leadership, DAS has grown into a highly valued and differentiated platform that, to date, has worked with more than 1,600 public and private companies of various sizes, situations and geographies. In parallel, the group has assembled an impressive cross-section of board-ready talent, each of whom is referred by a J.P. Morgan banker and/or a director in the network. The group also regularly engages this community through a series of curated virtual and in-person events, as well as through its bi-weekly newsletter, which highlights thought-leadership relevant to the director community.

Prior to joining J.P. Morgan in 2018, Rebecca was a senior member of Spencer Stuart’s Board of Directors’ Practice, and earlier spent 10 years in the Board & CEO practice of Heidrick & Struggles where, over the course of her tenure, she supported two Vice Chairmen and Heads of the Practice. She began her career in the Chairman’s Office of Heidrick & Struggles where she conducted candidate and company research in support of Fortune 500 CEO and Board projects. A recipient of the National Association of Corporate Directors’ “Directorship 100”, which celebrates and recognizes the most influential directors and leaders in the corporate governance community, Rebecca is a noted and followed voice on governance trends and topics. A sought-after public speaker for both J.P. Morgan and external conferences, she has appeared across varied media platforms such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, Clubhouse and LinkedIn and as a guest on podcasts from Apple and Spotify. She also recently hosted multiple episodes of J.P. Morgan’s “Making Sense” podcast series.

Rebecca holds a B.A., with honors, from Colby College in Waterville, Maine. In addition to volunteering for several local charities and institutions, she serves as a Trustee of New Canaan Country School (CT) where she is Co-Chair of the Governance Committee. 

Rebecca is married and the proud mother to two young children.

Moderator

Susan Goldberg is President and CEO of GBH, the public media company in Boston that is the largest producer of multiplatform content for PBS and partner to NPR and PRX. Before assuming that role in 2022, she was Editor in Chief and Editorial Director of National Geographic, where she led the magazine to 11 National Magazine Awards, among other honors, over eight years. She was the Editor of The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, the Executive Editor of the San Jose Mercury News, and has held editorial positions at Bloomberg News, USA Today, the Detroit Free Press and the Seattle Post-intelligencer. She was among the leaders of reporting honored with the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for General News Reporting at the Mercury News, and has led work that was a finalist for the Pulitzer seven other times. A six-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize, Goldberg is board president of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and a board member of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Goldberg holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University. She is married to Geoff Etnire, a land use attorney; they have one grown son.