14th Annual Goodwin Directors Forum

For more than two decades, surgeon, writer, and public health leader Atul Gawande has straddled the intersection of direct patient care and population-level impact, asking a fundamental question: How do we fix health care systems to deliver better care for every person everywhere? With his insistence that solutions must be simple, affordable, and scalable across diverse settings, Gawande is widely recognized for leading the development of system innovations that have improved care for hundreds of millions of patients globally. Through Ariadne Labs, the center he founded at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Gawande and his team have fostered a new discipline of health systems innovation to reduce suffering and save lives at large scale. Now, as the CEO of the Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase health organization, he is developing scalable solutions for health care delivery demonstrated to achieve better outcomes, more satisfaction, and greater cost efficiency with their population of more than one million employees and family members. At the heart of his work is a commitment to the highest principle of medicine: All people have lives of equal worth.

James Geraghty was appointed a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Board in July 2013. Currently an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Third Rock Ventures, Mr. Geraghty served as Senior VP, North America Strategy and Business Development at Sanofi, where he was a member of the Office of the CEO. Prior to joining Sanofi, he spent 20 years at Genzyme Corporation, where he helped introduce rare disease therapies around the world. His roles included Senior VP; President of Genzyme Europe, where he oversaw several new product launches; and General Manager of Genzyme’s cardiovascular business, where he guided the development of a recently approved antisense product. Mr. Geraghty also led strategic in-licensing transactions and divestitures. He was previously Chairman, President, and CEO of Genzyme Transgenics Corporation (now Revo Biologics), which he founded and took public. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Juniper Pharmaceuticals and as a trustee of the Joslin Diabetes Center. He holds a J.D. from the Yale Law School, a Master of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University.

Jeff Marrazzo has led the creation and growth of Spark Therapeutics from a research center within the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to a fully integrated, commercial gene therapy company that is challenging the inevitability of genetic disease by discovering, developing and delivering potential treatments in ways unimaginable – until now. He also serves on Spark’s board of directors. 

Under Jeff’s leadership, Spark has received regulatory approval for the first gene therapy for a genetic disease approved in both the U.S. and EU, launched the first gene in the United States, and has established human proof-of-concept of Spark’s gene therapy platform in both the retina and liver. In the five years since founding Spark, Jeff has secured more than $1 billion in capital and built an organization of more than 325 colleagues. For two years running, Spark has been named to the top 10 of MIT Technology Review’s “50 Smartest Companies”. It’s also been recognized as one of 2018’s most innovative companies in Biotech by Fast Company. 

During a career that has spanned the public and private sectors, Jeff has consistently championed the potential benefits of precision medicine and healthcare reform for patients. Prior to Spark, he helped build the first genetic testing benefit management and pharmacogenomics medicines company up to and through the acquisition of a majority of the company's shares by CVS Caremark. Previously, Jeff served as an advisor to former Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell, where he led reforms in the financing and delivery of healthcare.

Sara Martinez Tucker is the former chairman of The University of Texas System Board of Regents.  Tucker currently serves on the Boards of Directors of American Electric Power, Nationwide, Service Corporation, International, Sprint and Xerox. Tucker also serves on the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees.  She previously served as CEO of the National Math + Science Initiative, an organization focused on improving student performance in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). 

Prior to that, she served as the under secretary at the U.S. Department of Education.  She was nominated to that post, the nation's top higher education official, by President George W. Bush. Prior to joining the Department, Tucker worked for nine years as the CEO and president of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF), where she pursued an aggressive goal to double the rate of Hispanics earning college degrees.

Prior to joining HSF in 1997, Tucker spent 16 years at AT&T, becoming the first Latina to reach the company's executive level. In her last assignment at the company, she served as a regional vice president for AT&T's Global Business Communications Systems, where she led her division to its highest profit levels. She also served as vice president for Consumer Operations which served AT&T's 80 million consumers. Under her leadership, this group contributed to the division's receipt of the Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award.

Aaron von Staats is executive vice president, general counsel and secretary for PTC. In this position, Mr. von Staats is responsible for worldwide legal and compliance matters, including corporate governance, securities, compliance, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, technology licensing, litigation, employment, real estate and corporate subsidiary management.

Mr. von Staats was appointed PTC’s General Counsel in 2003 after joining the company in 1997. Prior to joining PTC Mr. von Staats practiced as an associate with the Boston law firm Palmer & Dodge LLP. He began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable Paul J. Liacos, Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. 

Mr. von Staats is a member of the Association of Corporate Counsel, the American Bar Association and the Boston Bar Association. He also serves as a board member of the not-for-profit organization City Year Boston and as a board member of the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston.

Mr. Cable is the chair of Goodwin’s Technology and Life Sciences M&A and Corporate Finance practice, and co-director of Goodwin’s Annual Directors Forum. He represents public and private companies involved in the life sciences and technology sector, as well as private equity and venture sources investing in such companies and investment banks serving such industries. Mr. Cable counsels boards of directors and management teams on corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and disclosure and securities law matters. In the course of his career, Mr. Cable has negotiated and executed over 300 M&A transactions. Mr. Cable also serves regularly as counsel to issuers in IPOs, follow-on offerings and convertible debt transactions, and acts regularly as counsel for the underwriters in such transactions.

Ms. Haddad is co-chair of the firm’s Public M+A/Corporate Governance practice, co-chair of Women@Goodwin and co-director of Goodwin’s Annual Directors Forum. Her practice focuses on mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, securities offerings, securities law compliance for public companies, and general corporate matters. Ms. Haddad has extensive experience in representing buyers and sellers in merger and acquisition transactions involving both public and private companies, especially in the life sciences and technology sectors. Ms. Haddad also advises public companies on a wide variety of corporate and securities matters, including offerings of equity and debt securities.

Steve Charkoudian is a partner in Goodwin’s Strategic Technology Transactions and Licensing practice, a practice that he co-founded and led for 15 years. Mr. Charkoudian is a member of the firm’s Technology Companies group. He concentrates on technology, data and intellectual property transactions, including technology and data transfers and licensing; collaboration, strategic alliance and joint development agreements; open source issues; and due diligence and other intellectual property issues in joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions and venture capital and private equity transactions. He is a regular contributor to Founders Workbench and frequently speaks to start-ups and early-stage companies about IP issues. Mr. Charkoudian also co-chairs the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and serves on its Partnership Committee.