Latest news with #CNBCChangemakersSpotlight
CNBC
3 days ago
- Health
- CNBC
CEO of Sean Parker's breakthrough cancer drug institute on leading new race for cure
Karen Knudsen did not grow up in a scientifically centered home. She grew up in a military family. But at an early age, as a "naturally curious" kid, she came to love the experience of discovery and gravitated toward math and science. That led Knudsen to assume she would one day become a medical doctor. But her career went in another scientific direction, starting with a stint as a summer research intern working in the lab at the National Cancer Institute during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. "There was so much interest in trying to understand retrovirus like HIV, and so I went to a lab that was actually using retrovirus as a way to study cancer," she recalled in a recent interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight series (Knudsen was named to the inaugural CNBC Changemakers list in 2024). "It got me very interested in that direct line. How does what I'm doing right now in the laboratory have an opportunity to impact a life, and I got hooked, and I never looked back," she said. Knudsen's experience as an oncology researcher at large health care systems, and seeing many mergers taking place around her, led to the realization that it might help to know more about the business of health care. She chose to pursue an MBA. "I'm not sure I'll forget the look on my husband when I came home one day and said, 'I'm going to get my MBA'," Knudsen recalled. "That was probably one of the more unexpected decisions." Ultimately, it led to Knudsen becoming the first female CEO of the more-than-century-old American Cancer Society, though she says it's even more important that she was the first CEO for the organization to come from oncology research. Under Knudsen's leadership, ACS's revenue increased by over 30%. Recently, Knudsen assumed the CEO post at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy — created by Sean Parker, Facebook's first president and the tech entrepreneur behind breakthrough ideas like Napster — where a new philanthropy-meets-venture-capital business model that aligns with Knudsen's lifelong interest in discovery is being built. The mission hasn't changed: "In the U.S., we have 2.1 million Americans that are going to get a new cancer diagnosis this year, and unfortunately, 600,000 plus people who will die from one of the 200 diseases we call cancer," she said. While there has been a 34% decline in cancer mortality since 1991, primarily attributed to earlier detection and preventative health practices, Knudsen's new role places her at the forefront of efforts to fund a new generation of breakthrough cancer drugs. Knudsen spoke with CNBC's Boorstin about how she reached this stage of her career, and the lessons she has learned from a lifetime devoted to experimentation. Here are some highlights from the full video interview. As a scientist, Knudsen says, "You get very comfortable with hypothesis generation and testing," and that is in some ways similar to a business executive trying to figure out what is going to come next in their market, and how to remain successful as conditions change. Scientists get comfortable developing a set of success metrics that enable them to know quickly whether it's time to quit on a hypothesis or move ahead. Knudsen says that is part of the "overlapping mindset between being a scientist and being a business person" which has helped her to succeed as she moved from research into executive leadership. "It made the process of developing a set of success metrics and creating a business strategy that tells you when you may be onto something, or not, fairly easy," she said. As a researcher within health systems who saw firsthand how a wave of consolidation could reshape entities and raise the question of how every person, process and practice might need to change, Knudsen says you need to be ready to identify not only what works but also what needs to go away. Coming into the CEO post at ACS was "like coming into a fresh merger that was in need of business transformation," she said. "Finding opportunities and fixing what needs repairing is often the hardest part of leadership," she added. Knudsen took a hard look at a bureaucracy that over more than a century had grown into 12 separate organizations, with 12 CEOs and 12 strategies, and she made significant changes to streamline the operation. It wasn't all about rooting out the inefficiencies, though. "I was on the road 49 weeks of the year for four years in a row, because you really needed to be there to see what was so good in these various areas, and apply that to the rest of the organization," Knudsen said. Her larger point is that a lifetime in research has made her a leader who sees change as a constant. "Because medicine is changing, science is changing, technology will change ... It's okay to transform and to constantly iterate," she said. Sean Parker comes out of the Silicon Valley "move fast and break things" world of success, and Knudsen says she had learned to be "a little more confident at risk-taking" over the years. Working with Parker, who was the first president of Facebook and co-founder of Napster, is the culmination of the risk-taking business side of her mindset. "He's unafraid of thinking differently," Knudsen said, adding that he still embodies the idea that "if we're failing, let's fail fast." More specifically, she said Parker identified that lack of access to capital was a major impediment to progress in the fight against cancer, and that was holding the risk takers back from doing what they do best. "The whole philosophy of the Parker Institute is to, step one, collect the best brains. Give them investment in funding to do the high risk, high gain, cutting-edge research, which could fail but could also dramatically transform cancer therapy," she said. Founded in 2016 by Parker to turn all cancers into "curable diseases," the institute supports clinical testing, startup formation and incubation, and drug commercialization. In all, PICI has supported the work of 1,000 researchers and helped to create a $4 billion venture capital portfolio that includes 17 biotech companies. "I think it's because we've de-risked the science from the very beginning," Knudsen said. "We're not waiting for someone to pitch for us. So I'm feeling very bullish about the ability to crank this wheel," she said. Knudsen has had many mentors throughout her journey. One she cited was Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, who she says was a "fountain of knowledge" to her. But as CEO of the American Cancer Society, she surrounded herself "with CEOs from all walks of life. I had a CEOs council that was hot dial," Knudsen said. "There are some things you just really need to talk to other CEOs about." She also emphasized that women pursuing success should expect to have to fight even harder for female representation the higher they ascend up a professional ladder. Statistically, that is the case whether in the business or academic world. More than 50% of both MD and PhD programs are filled with women, but only 12% become full professors, department chairs or deans. In the business world, 10% of women hold CEO positions in S&P 500 companies; and approximately 12% in VC-backed companies and 13% at health-care firms. The hurdles, whether it is related to gender, the inherent risk of failure in scientific endeavors, or lack of access to capital, are barriers that Knudsen's mission has helped her to overcome. "What I've always wanted to do, whether it's as a scientist, whether it's as a health executive, the CEO of the American Cancer Society or now the Parker Institute, it's to get innovation to people," she said. "We're at this moment in time where there is so much discovery that's happening, the pace of change is truly logarithmic, and yet, too many great ideas don't ever make it off the laboratory floor."
CNBC
05-06-2025
- Health
- CNBC
How twin sister triathletes doubled down on sports success to raise health-startup millions from investors
During their last year of completing work for doctoral degrees in physiology, twin sisters Michal Mor and Merav Mor started to compete in Ironman triathlon races. The demand for peak fitness led them to the realize the importance of understanding personal metabolism, and the lack of data being collected on it through devices accessible to consumers. That's how their health tech startup Lumen's first prototype was created. Initially, the sisters had no plans to turn it into a business. In the earliest days of the hand-held device iteration — which measures metabolic data points in a single breath, in under a minute — the test subjects were close to home. "We used to take it to dinner on Fridays with our family, and we would ask our sister, 'Can you come here for a sec? Just sit and breathe into the device,'" Merav recalled in a recent interview with CNBC's Julia Boorstin for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight series. Both were named to the 2025 CNBC Changemakers list. The Mor sisters realized they had something much bigger in their hands when they made their father, who has diabetes, try the device, and the results were eye-opening. A big initial success on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo gave the sisters the push they needed to see an even bigger business opportunity, which to date has raised $77 million from investors. It wasn't a lifelong plan for the twins to become triathletes, physiology PhDs, or startup founders, but Lumen has now collected over 65 million breaths to date from more than 350,000 individuals. The Morav sisters have learned a lot about persistence, conflict and leadership along the way. The Mor sisters say being athletes helped them learn persistence in their journey as entrepreneurs, even when things get challenging. "You have to be able to wake up at 4 a.m., even when it's tough, even when it's cold, you have to do it," said Michal. "You're able to enjoy the pain, it's a part of the journey." From relentlessly working on developing a sensor for three years to getting credibility in the scientific world, they say resilience is as important as any factor in reaching success. Before Lumen, there were one million data measurements on metabolic activity. Now there are 75 million, Michal said. Being persistent was a trait the sisters hadn't mastered early in their attempts at success. In fact, when they were rejected from their original dream of attending medical school, they didn't know their next step. Michal says she felt like giving up, but their mother helped to push them to figure out a new path. "She opened our eyes to different things that we also might be passionate about," added Merav. "And she was right. We completely fell in love with research." Eventually, they were accepted to a medical school, "but we said 'nah, nah, it's too little, too late,'" recalled Merav. As close as the twins are, their relationship is not immune to conflict. When they do disagree, they say the key is to make sure the argument remains healthy and the discussion is solution-oriented. Among the habits their mother instilled was the commandment that you never go to sleep with unresolved issues. "It's like a snowball, and if you don't resolve that, it's very hard to fill the gap," said Michal. She also forced the sisters to resist digging in their heels. Even at a young age, when Michal and Merav would fight, their mother pushed them to understand the other's perspective. "'Why do you think she feels like that? Why do you think she reacted like that?'" Michal recalls her mother asking. "She still does that sometimes." Michal says that while both sisters are pursuing the same goal, even described them as being "egoless" in the relationship, they are different in terms of strengths and weaknesses. They described their relationship as being a "Yin and Yang." Both sisters have a background in cardiology from their PhD work, but in the initial stages of building Lumen, Merav focused on the molecular mechanism behind irregular heart rhythm, and Michal focused more on the clinical aspect of irregular heart rhythm. Now, Merav leads their research, and Michal leads product development. Building trust with each other is the foundation on which they build, creating what they say is a comfortable space for challenges including the inevitable disagreements, but still know that they will remain tied to the pursuit of the same goals. And that "psychological safety" as they called it, is an aspect of working relationship they have strived to bring to their company culture and employees. The Mor sisters believe that a company can only be successful if its employees work as a unit towards a common goal. Placing a high priority on work-life balance is critical, they say, especially for a company where more than 50% of Lumen leadership positions are occupied by women, and more than 50% of the total workforce is women. "The fact that we're moms also enables other women in the company," said Merav. As part of their approach to achieve a proper work-life balance, essential meetings don't take place after certain work hours, allowing employees to go back home and have more time to unwind with their families. "Having time with your family, it's something that fills you," said Michal. Their success as sisters, the lessons they learned from their mother, and those initial Lumen device tests at the family dinner table, inform their approach to leadership and Lumen's mission today. "Friends might come and go, things can come and go, but eventually the core family, that is something you should really, really embrace," said Merav. "You're having a bad day? Take a deep breath, you can fix it."
