Said Francis is Senior Vice President, Head of Business Development and Corporate Strategy of Moderna, Inc. He is responsible for leading the vision and execution of the company’s partnering strategy as well as the corporate strategic initiatives, including defining the framework of engagement with governments around Moderna’s COVID vaccine and successfully negotiating numerous critical collaborations and alliances. He 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 started his career at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Investment Banking group in New York City, where he advised pharma and medical device companies on corporate transactions.

He 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).