Naji Gehchan: Welcome to SpreadLove in Organizations, the healthcare leadership podcast where we explore leadership with purpose.
Naji Gehchan: Welcome to SpreadLove in Organizations, the healthcare leadership podcast where we explore leadership with purpose. This is a special episode, the first of a series in partnership with Biosciences Lebanese International Network – BioLink. This New York-based non-profit is on a mission to build a global community of professionals in biosciences of Lebanese origin, like me, and it turns out, there’s quite a few of us. Most interestingly, it has set a bold vision, which is to catalyze a life sciences ecosystem in Lebanon by working with local talent and academic centers, with the support of the Lebanese diaspora community. This is an ambitious goal, but BioLink.org’s founders Dr. Francois Nader and Khalil Barrage are some of the most accomplished people in the industry, and if anyone can pull it off, they can. I’m thrilled to have them with me today! Francois is a pharma veteran who sits on the board of several biopharma companies. He is chairman of GEn1E Lifesciences, and a board director of Moderna and Ring Therapeutics, as as a senior advisor to Blackstone Life Sciences. Francois became known within the industry, when he took the helm of NPS Pharma in 2006. The company was then on the verge of insolvency. Francois turned it around and sold it less than a decade later for more than $5 billion to Shire. Khalil is a managing director at The Invus Group, a New York-based global investment firm. He established the Public Equity Group which invests in emerging innovative biotech companies, and co-manages private biotech investments, making Invus one of the most active investors in biotech, according to PitchBook. Khalil also sits on the board of several biotech companies, including ElevateBio, Sensorion, Onxeo, Protagenic Therapeutics, and Orthobond. Great to have you Francois and Khalil! I’d love first to hear more about your personal storis, how did you end up in the healthcare world and being incredible leaders in biotech?
Francois Nader: , I can, , I can start. , first and foremost, thank you for in, , inviting us to be here, , today. , really a pleasure and thank you for your many contributions to, , , biopharma, but also to our community. My story is not, , very different from many of the Lebanese in the diaspora. , born and raised in Lebanon.
Went to the, , French, , faculty, St. Joseph, and then because of the Civil War, , we left Lebanon back in the early eighties. , and very quickly from, . Clinical medicine to, , r and d and commercial. , and my first mandate was in France. I, , was involved with the pastor vaccine, which is the vaccine business of the Pastor Institute.
And, . Quickly became the head of international there. it was a terrific experience. Very different from being a clinical physician. , we then moved to, , to Montreal, , for family reasons. , and then from Montreal, I, , I moved to, , Kansas City, , where I joined. The executive team of Mary Merl Dell back then, , north America, in the capacity of head of medical Affairs and, , global head economics and outcomes research and, , many, many mergers.
Later we became eventists. And, , at that point I decided to switch career one more time and joined a venture capital firm, care capital in, , Princeton, New Jersey for a couple of years. And, , from then went to lead, , NPS Pharma, which was a very interesting journey in the rare disease. , that, , took us, , from a company that was in challenged to say the least, , to having, , two products approved globally, , in the rare disease space, , with no other treatments approved for either or.
And then, , my phone rang and, , shatter. Made us an offer that we could not refuse, and we, and the company was acquired back in 2015. Since then, , I, , I really divide my time between, , serving on board and I was lucky enough to have, , eight exits in the last eight years. , successive and successful exit.
But the other part of my life, , is to give back, to give back to Lebanon through, , either direct activities from our, , family foundation, justso Foundation, or through organizations like A TFL. And I serve also on the board of, , of LAU. , along this journey, I met my, , friend. And partner in crime, Halil.
And, , the idea of Biolink was born. And I would say the rest is history. Naji Gehchan: Thank you much, , FOWA for sharing your inspiring story. , what about you, Halil? And then we’ll go into Biolink story.
Khalil Barrage: , , thank you very much Najee, for having us, and, , it’s a real pleasure, , to be on your podcast and, , thank you for all your contributions to, to our industry and to our community as .
, I’m, I, I, I’m, I was born in, , Lebanon and I, . Graduated in, , 1987 from a UB. , and, , in 1987, , the situation was really, . , bad in Lebanon and I had no choice but, , to leave the country. I came to New York and I started, , I was offered my first job, , with the Ian group where I started my investment career.
And that’s where I learned the trait of investing. And in 2003. , I wanted to have more of an entrepreneurial career and I left to join the Invis group where, , I joined to set up it’s, , as a partner to set up its public equity activity. And that was, , the. As, as we all know though, in 2003 was the end of the sequencing of the human genome and the beginning of the, , biotech revolution and the burst of precision medicine and all this innovation that we’re seeing.
And, , Invis is a, , we’re managing the asset of a European family office, we have the luxury of having permanent capital and investing for the long term. And that’s where my, , journey started and investing in biotech. , , we, , today we’re one of the largest investors in this space. I also co-manage our private investment activity, which started in 2014 when we saw a lot of this innovation.
That, , we’re seeing in, in the biotech space. , , and we felt like we needed to, to be, , exposed to this innovation. And actually, Moderna was our first investment, , in 2014. . , the rest is history. , I met Francois, actually, , my partner in crime, , through one of the investments that we had. He was the chair of Acceleron, , which was a very successful exit.
We were one of the largest investors in Acceleron. And, , and that’s how we met. And, , and this whole journey started and, , subsequently the idea of Biolink was born. And, , we’re very excited to be part of it, both of us. Naji Gehchan: Thanks, , Jil for sharing your journey. And it’s, , as we discussed also several times, it’s these journeys of, , resilience of grit and really built on purpose.
, I know both of you are in this industry, not by coincidence, but really to, . To bring innovations for patients, , as we all do in in the biotech field. you both mentioned Biolink and how it started and the idea that came to mind. tell us a little bit more, how did you come up with this idea, , and how all this journey started?
Francois Nader: There is a certain synchronicity and, , I cannot say it coincidence, I could say that it was meant to be. , as unfortunately we all recall, , the port explosion, which, , which triggered, , quite a bit of, , pain and suffering in Lebanon at the same time. , it also triggered a lot of goodwill, , from the diaspora.
Trying to do, to use every mean, , to help and give back. And this is where, , Halil and I, through our different channels, , were committed to help Lebanon, , through providing medicines and medical supplies and equipments that were badly needed. And, , we went. On, , a journey to look for donors. And, , it, it became very clear that, , many of the, , donors, , that were, , willing to help, , came from Lebanese origin.
, which, , is not surprising in a way, but what was surprising, the more we were looking, the more we find. People like Halil and I, , who are in the life science industry and willing to help. And one thing leading to another, , Halil and I were just talking, and I vividly remember is Sunday morning where we were on the phone and brainstorming and the idea came up as to.
It came up as a question, is there an organization that could really coalesce, , all these Lebanese talents in the life science industry? And quickly we came to the conclusion that such an organization, interestingly enough, does not exist. And then we came up with the idea, why don’t we create one.
And, , I started dabbling with names and the name Biosciences, , Lebanese International Network was born. And the idea of creating Biolink, , which is Bioscience Lebanese International Network, , , was also. It was one of those, as I said, serendipity, but also synchronicity because J and I had the same idea at the same time and we were talking to each other. it did not take long for us to say, , let’s do it. And, , we, , then incorporated, , , the organization as 5 0 1 C3 in, in New York, and we started building it. , and we can talk, , more about, , our strategy in building it and, , our objectives, but to, and I will pass on the, the microphone to Halil, but really we had one immediate, .
Objective and one dream. The immediate objective was certainly to, and this is why we called it network, is to identify and put, , all these colleagues. , together, , find a way where we can create a community of, , executives, , from, , Lebanese descent who either work in or with the life science industry. that was the immediate goal. But hail and I had a, a vision, a dream, , which, which was, and is how can we create a life science ecosystem in Lebanon? That was frankly the give back, contribute back to our country that drove most everything we did. And il, you take it from here. Khalil Barraje: , it’s really, . It’s exactly how Francois described it.
It was, , we knew we had, we were aligned when, , when I invested in, , in Acceleron, I knew, , we had, , I, I always bet on, on great management teams and great boards, the first thing I do is I look who’s the board and, . When I saw Francois and his track record and, , and , there was a lot of, , meeting of the minds even in that investment.
And it’s exactly how he described it. When, when, , the explosion happened, , we were both trying to see how we can send some, , much needed medicine to Lebanon and through that, , discovery. We found that there is an incredible network of, , of Lebanese, , executive in the industry. And, , and it wasn’t surprising in hindsight because, , we have great academic institutions in Lebanon, like a UB and USG and where Francois graduated, I graduated from A-U-B-L-A-U.
. , , and because of the war, , this talent basically is not, didn’t have the opportunity to stay locally and work locally, and they immigrated. we, in, in parallel, I was also on the board of, , life at that point, and I was in charge of the nurture, , , , vertical basically that, , provide scholarships, , to, , Lebanese students, , in Lebanon and abroad.
And. I was always very uncomfortable, , that all the scholarships were going to, to business majors, and we saw what happened in the, , banking industry and, and I pushed very hard to broaden the scholarship to to other industries because I was always of the belief that. Lebanon of tomorrow is gonna, or the economy of the Lebanon of tomorrow is gonna be different from what happened in the past.
, when Francois and I started talking about Biolink, we both had this same idea that first, what if we put this network together? And, , and create a sense of, , community and, , and in the future, hopefully one day we can use this, , network to help, , catalyze, or we use the word, put the blueprint of a, , life science economy.
In Lebanon, , given we know what’s happening in Lebanon today, , all the institutions are pretty much, , the government has ran out of resources and, and , , there was a lot of corruption and. A lot of help will be needed. And our thought was, what if we can put this, , , , this network together, working in partnership with the academic institution to potentially one day, , , create help, , and, and create.
, , new sectors or new industries in on our beloved Lebanon. And, , if the, if the situation is, is, , conducive to having, , creating jobs, , and, and, and if there is peace one day, , then there wouldn’t be a need for this talent to immigrate and stay local. And that’s how Biolink was born.
And, , and it’s incredible how much we find, , appeal, , to this proposition. Like you Naji, who, , you were, we were grateful and really honored to have you part of this organization and, . As it appealed to you, this proposition. we’re finding it, it is appealing to a lot of, , our, , our community who is in this industry.
Naji Gehchan: Thank you both and , the honor is all mine. And as you said, it’s , those encounters, the common values and unfortunately it started with an event, , just for the listeners who don’t know, but the Beirut explosions you both talked about was the third. Biggest explosion in the world, , non-nuclear, , that unfortunately, , accounted for several deaths in, in Lebanon and more than 7,000 wounded.
, from there you had this vision, you had this dream. , you started encountering several, , like us in this industry from Lebanese origins. , tell us a little bit more about how many do you estimate we are, , and how are you making sure that you’re convincing them to join this, , this noble purpose?
We have.
Francois Nader: , that’s the million dollar question about how many, , we are. , what I can tell you though is the more you look, the more you find it, it has been an amazing journey, , because, , , with, , with folks with a name that sounds Lebanese, it’s easy because you can detect that they could possibly be from, from Lebanon, but.
Many of our colleagues have, have, , different last names that are don’t sound Lebanese or, , through, , marriage or, , Americanization of, of their last name. , you cannot trace them, but yet. , they’re there and I cannot tell you how many precisely, but what I can tell you is, , the strategy we adopted was to first and foremost.
Once we incorporated the Biolink was to, , , recruit, attract a top-notch, , board. And, , we were very gratified by, , how, how quickly and, , we were able to build the board, but also very gratified. By the amazing talent, , that we were able to attract. Actually, it’s not Hal, it is the concept of Biolink and answering probably your second question.
It, it’s pretty also very interesting that, , when we talk about Biolink. , , far I can, I can say with no exception, people listen and are very interested and, , the, the board is playing, , the role of magnet, if you will. , because remember, it’s a network and, , we want to ensure that, , our, , our membership, .
Is, , is working together. also it’s very important, especially in the context of Lebanon, to remind your listeners that, , biolink is apolitical. , and secular. , , we are, and it’s by membership only and by invitation only. it’s, it’s a very selective, , approach, , by design. , but yet we’re open to, , it’s a global organization.
We have now a, , a, , chapter in, , in Boston, chapter in New York, chapter in the Bay Area, and I will be heading to London in, . In April, , to hopefully inaugurate a London chapter. And, , we start having, , members in Lebanon. We have board members, , from Lebanon, Bernard, and Mui. And, , recently Dr.
Kamal Bader joined us as our first member in Lebanon. , , the organization is expanding and, . It’s attracting various, various backgrounds. All of them share the lay same love for Lebanon and, , their contribution, , to the life science industry. Naji Gehchan: What has been your biggest surprise, Jil, as you started to expand the network and build, , the objectives?
Khalil Barrage: I think our biggest surprise was the, . The breadth of this, , the network and, and, , , the, the how, how, , like Francois said, the more we looked. The more we find it’s, it’s, it’s incredible. Like, and then the highest places, , in our industry, this, like we, we, we suspected, but , there are a lot of Lebanese organizations like Lab Net and other, other organizations.
, and there is of course also, , a lot of medical associations because there are a lot of doctors. . That are, that graduated from those, , top tier academic institutions. And we honestly, we, we thought that there’s are a lot of us out there, but we didn’t realize how many are, are there, , and the quality, not just like quantity in terms of like in the, in the highest, , positions and really in the leadership of a lot of, because we focused, we wanted, , we wanted to be, .
Differentiated from, , from, , other organization. We were focused on executives in the industry. that, that was, , that continued to surprise us. And, , , the other, the other surprise I think is even. , , the members that we’re attracting that are not actually, that were not born in Lebanon .
, that have, , that are from Lebanese descent, how committed they are and how excited to be part of this organization. , there is really an energy that. Francois and I are, , , we’re thrilled to see it. , but, , , no matter, , how far you are, , there is this connectivity back to the, to the, to the, to the, to to the home country, which has been really, .
Incredibly rewarding to both of us. , which gives us, , the, the, it’s not easy to build an organization like that, ? And Francois has been an incredible chair. Not surprising. , is, , one thing, , for sure is both of us will not go into anything if we don’t wanna. See, we we’re not gonna see through, , , to its success.
But, , it takes a lot of work to get that. And, , and, , I’m, I’m really, , thrilled to be francois’s partner in this endeavor, but it’s incredible the amount of, , excitement we sense in the community for this. Organization, which keeps us going really.
Naji Gehchan: I can certainly attest to that. I, I saw, I feel the energy and I’m, , really grateful you both founded this. I’m excited for what’s ahead for Biolink as, , as it keeps growing and bringing. The impact of a network, , and also this longer term vision of, , life sciences ecosystem, , in, in our home country.
, I, I’m gonna now move to a section that is different where I’m gonna give you a word and I would love your first reaction to it. , the first word is leadership. And I’ll start with you, Francois.
Francois Nader: Outcome.
Khalil Barrage: Vision. Naji Gehchan: Vision, great. The second one is Lebanon
Francois Nader: Opportunities.
Khalil Barrage: , very dear to my heart.
Naji Gehchan: What about Biolink Khalil Barraje: Dream?
I would say Dream Naji Gehchan: two. And the last one is spread love in organizations.
Francois Nader: We need it most. We need it today more than ever.
Khalil Barrage: It is an essential recipe for success.
Naji Gehchan: Any final word of wisdom for healthcare leaders around the world?
Francois Nader: , I, , certainly don’t. Want to give any lesson to anyone because, , leaders, , across, , different verticals and different, different domains are, are doing absolutely amazing things. Probably what I learned the hard way is, , two things. One is, , leaders, , probably show most leadership. During a crisis, , this is where, , your teams, your stakeholders, look at you and, , and expect you to lead. my probably comment or suggestion is, please lead, especially if you don’t have a clue where you’re going, which happens. But, , they, . Everyone around you expect you to lead. Corollary to this is, , in my opinion, the single most important, , attribute of a leader is personal credibility. , whatever you do, , make sure you do not, , lose that.
It’s very difficult to build. It takes time. It’s, it can be lost in a nanosecond. , and that is what, , makes the difference between terrific leaders and leaders.
Khalil Barrage: Look, I, , I couldn’t agree, , more with Francois. , I would add also, look, this is a tough business. . , , , you need to have grit and, , and really in any situation you get in or any opportunity you have to be there for the long term, ? Because what we do is not easy. , biology is difficult, .
, always surround yourself. Make sure that all the stakeholders are the right stakeholders, whether it’s the board, whether it’s the investors, , and, , and your reputation is everything, right? Because you’re the example to the rest of your organization. And, , that’s a, . Prerequisites as Francois was actually, , and continues to be a leader and a a, , an operator and he has a very long list of success.
I’m an investor, , and I. Those are the, the qualities and those are the characteristic I look for when I, when I invest. And that’s why I invested in Acceleron when, when he was the chair and another, , colleague of ours on the board, Habib Daley, who was also, , , the, the CEO who Francois recruited to Acceleron, but.
That’s the first thing I look for, right? Like integrity, honesty, and track record of, of success. , , and God knows, . How many ups and downs accelerant went through before the, , , before the, the, the ultimate, , success, which was one of the biggest exits in biotech that I’ve ever had in my portfolio.
, , yeah, it’s, it’s a long-term game and there are no shortcuts. There’s one thing you can bet on in this industry, like. It’s easy to have shortcuts, right? Because, , it’s, there’s a lot of excitements and you can cut the corners in decisions, but everything will come back to bite you. , , doing it the right way, , surrounding yourself with the right people, the right capital.
, that enable long-term success is really a, a, a prerequisite.
Naji Gehchan: , thank you both. These are incredible words of wisdom for all of us leading in, , the biotech world. , it’s been really a pleasure and honor to have you both with me today. Thanks again for joining me.
Francois Nader: Thank you very much for inviting us, Naji, and, , great job with your podcast and, , the influence.
You’re having a great positive influence you’re having. thank you for that.
Khalil Barrage: Thank you Naji, and , good luck with your new role, , Kyverna, and, , we’re all rooting for you. Naji Gehchan: Thank you tha thanks again both of you. Thanks for listening to the show. More episodes in partnership with biolink.org can be found on our respective websites.
Make sure to subscribe to spread love io.com or whatever you listen to your podcasts. Let’s inspire, change together and make a positive impact in healthcare. One story at a time.
Naji Gehchan: Thanks for listening to the show! For more episodes, make sure to subscribe to Spreadloveio.com or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Let’s inspire change together and make a positive impact in healthcare, one story at a time.
Follow us on LinkedIn and connect with us on spreadloveio.com. We’re eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Most importantly, spread love in your organizations and spread the word around you to inspire others and amplify this movement, our world so desperately needs