Said Francis is Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development and Corporate Strategy of Moderna, Inc. Mr. Francis is responsible for development of and execution on the company’s partnering strategy as well as the corporate strategic initiatives. Mr. Francis joined Moderna in 2013 as a Director of Corporate Development, focused on establishing an ecosystem around Moderna’s mRNA platform and expanding the company’s technology portfolio by leading collaborations, licensing transactions, and acquisitions.

Prior to joining Moderna, Mr. Francis was a Senior Manager of mergers and acquisitions at Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland, where he drove the successful execution of multiple transactions for various business units (e.g. Novartis Pharma, Sandoz, Novartis Molecular Diagnostics). He began his career at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Investment Banking group in New York, where he advised pharma and medical device companies on corporate transactions including Merck’s $41Bn+ acquisition of Schering-Plough.

Mr. Francis has deep experience in corporate strategy, growth strategy, business development and corporate governance, and has worked extensively with executive leadership teams both in public and private companies.

Mr. Francis holds an S.B. and M.Eng. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS).