The vision that drives Sean Nolan’s work: building companies that develop therapies to improve the lives of patients and families suffering with rare and life-threatening diseases.
Sean’s lifelong career in pharma led him from an entry level sales job at Abbott Laboratories to the C-suite of some of Chicago’s most memorable biotech successes. After thirteen years at Abbott, Sean took his first leap into the startup world with Ovation, a company focused on severe disease states with high unmet clinical need. Sean went on to lead three more biotech companies with similar missions, taking the most recent one public and helping facilitate three acquisitions to some of the largest multinational pharmaceutical companies in the world.
Most recently, as CEO of gene therapy pioneer AveXis, Sean helped shatter the record for Chicago-area biotech acquisitions — three times over — when he facilitated the sale to Swiss pharma giant Novartis for just shy of $9 billion. In his time as AveXis CEO, Sean grew the team to more than 400 people, took the company public and quintupled its stock value.
What’s next for Sean? Join us at MATTER for the next event in our Tales from the Trenches™ series to find out. Sean will share his perspective on Chicago’s life sciences community, reflect on his successes and failures, and provide a glimpse into what’s next. The Tales from the Trenches™ series is hosted in partnership with Jumpstart Ventures and Paragon Biosciences.
Agenda:
5:30–6:00: Networking
6:00–7:00: Program (livestream available)
About Sean
Sean Nolan served as President and Chief Executive officer and as a member of the Board of Directors of AveXis, Inc., from June 2015 to May 2018 when the company was acquired by Novartis. AveXis Inc. was a clinical-stage gene therapy company, dedicated to developing, manufacturing and commercializing novel treatments for patients suffering from rare and life-threatening neurological genetic diseases.
Prior to Joining AveXis, Sean was the chief business officer of InterMune, Inc., a biotechnology company later acquired by Roche Holding Ltd for $8.7B. While at InterMune, he led multiple functions across the organization, including North American commercial operations, global marketing, corporate and business development and global manufacturing and supply chain. Sean was also responsible for planning and executing the U.S. launch of InterMune’s treatment for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a rare and fatal lung disease with no other approved treatments. Sean served as chief commercial officer at Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc. from August 2011 to December 2012, where he led the market strategy development and commercial planning for Reata Pharmaceuticals’ first in-class product pipeline. From September 2004 to November 2010, Sean worked at Ovation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a company focused on orphan neurology diseases. He held numerous management positions during that period, including president of Lundbeck Inc., the U.S. affiliate. Ovation Pharmaceuticals was acquired by H. Lundbeck A/S in March 2009.
Sean holds a B.A. in biology from John Carroll University. He currently serves on the board of directors of Aquinox Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and is Chairman of the Board of Encoded Therapeutics.