CEO of Sean Parker's breakthrough cancer drug institute on leading new race for cure

Karen Knudsen did not turn up successful a scientifically centered home. She grew up successful a subject family. But astatine an aboriginal age, arsenic a "naturally curious" kid, she came to emotion the acquisition of find and gravitated toward mathematics and science. That led Knudsen to presume she would 1 time go a aesculapian doctor. But her vocation went successful different technological direction, starting with a stint arsenic a summertime probe intern moving successful the laboratory astatine the National Cancer Institute during the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s.

"There was truthful overmuch involvement successful trying to recognize retrovirus similar HIV, and truthful I went to a laboratory that was really utilizing retrovirus arsenic a mode to survey cancer," she recalled successful a caller interrogation with CNBC's Julia Boorstin for the CNBC Changemakers Spotlight bid (Knudsen was named to the inaugural CNBC Changemakers list successful 2024). "It got maine precise funny successful that nonstop line. How does what I'm doing close present successful the laboratory person an accidental to interaction a life, and I got hooked, and I ne'er looked back," she said.

Knudsen's acquisition arsenic an oncology researcher astatine ample wellness attraction systems, and seeing galore mergers taking spot astir her, led to the realization that it mightiness assistance to cognize much astir the concern of wellness care. She chose to prosecute an MBA. "I'm not definite I'll hide the look connected my hubby erstwhile I came location 1 time and said, 'I'm going to get my MBA'," Knudsen recalled. "That was astir apt 1 of the much unexpected decisions."

Ultimately, it led to Knudsen becoming the archetypal pistillate CEO of the more-than-century-old American Cancer Society, though she says it's adjacent much important that she was the archetypal CEO for the enactment to travel from oncology research. Under Knudsen's leadership, ACS's gross accrued by implicit 30%.

Recently, Knudsen assumed the CEO station astatine the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy — created by Sean Parker, Facebook's archetypal president and the tech entrepreneur down breakthrough ideas similar Napster — wherever a caller philanthropy-meets-venture-capital concern exemplary that aligns with Knudsen's lifelong involvement successful find is being built.

The ngo hasn't changed: "In the U.S., we person 2.1 cardinal Americans that are going to get a caller crab diagnosis this year, and unfortunately, 600,000 positive radical who volition dice from 1 of the 200 diseases we telephone cancer," she said.

While determination has been a 34% diminution successful crab mortality since 1991, chiefly attributed to earlier detection and preventative wellness practices, Knudsen's caller relation places her astatine the forefront of efforts to money a caller procreation of breakthrough crab drugs.

Knudsen spoke with CNBC's Boorstin astir however she reached this signifier of her career, and the lessons she has learned from a beingness devoted to experimentation. Here are immoderate highlights from the afloat video interview.

The technological method and concern reasoning reenforce each other

As a scientist, Knudsen says, "You get precise comfy with proposal procreation and testing," and that is successful immoderate ways akin to a concern enforcement trying to fig retired what is going to travel adjacent successful their market, and however to stay palmy arsenic conditions change.

Scientists get comfy processing a acceptable of occurrence metrics that alteration them to cognize rapidly whether it's clip to discontinue connected a proposal oregon determination ahead. Knudsen says that is portion of the "overlapping mindset betwixt being a idiosyncratic and being a concern person" which has helped her to win arsenic she moved from probe into enforcement leadership.

"It made the process of processing a acceptable of occurrence metrics and creating a concern strategy that tells you erstwhile you whitethorn beryllium onto something, oregon not, reasonably easy," she said. 

Be bold successful identifying what you should and should not beryllium doing

As a researcher wrong wellness systems who saw firsthand however a question of consolidation could reshape entities and rise the question of however each person, process and signifier mightiness request to change, Knudsen says you request to beryllium acceptable to place not lone what works but besides what needs to spell away.

Coming into the CEO station astatine ACS was "like coming into a caller merger that was successful request of concern transformation," she said. "Finding opportunities and fixing what needs repairing is often the hardest portion of leadership," she added. 

Knudsen took a hard look astatine a bureaucracy that implicit much than a period had grown into 12 abstracted organizations, with 12 CEOs and 12 strategies, and she made important changes to streamline the operation. It wasn't each astir rooting retired the inefficiencies, though. "I was connected the roadworthy 49 weeks of the twelvemonth for 4 years successful a row, due to the fact that you truly needed to beryllium determination to spot what was truthful bully successful these assorted areas, and use that to the remainder of the organization," Knudsen said.

Her larger constituent is that a beingness successful probe has made her a person who sees alteration arsenic a constant. "Because medicine is changing, subject is changing, exertion volition alteration ... It's good to alteration and to perpetually iterate," she said.

Work with radical who aren't acrophobic to 'fail fast,' and money them if you can

Sean Parker comes retired of the Silicon Valley "move accelerated and interruption things" satellite of success, and Knudsen says she had learned to beryllium "a small much assured astatine risk-taking" implicit the years.

Working with Parker, who was the archetypal president of Facebook and co-founder of Napster, is the culmination of the risk-taking concern broadside of her mindset.

"He's unafraid of reasoning differently," Knudsen said, adding that helium inactive embodies the thought that "if we're failing, let's neglect fast."

More specifically, she said Parker identified that deficiency of entree to superior was a large impediment to advancement successful the combat against cancer, and that was holding the hazard takers backmost from doing what they bash best.

"The full doctrine of the Parker Institute is to, measurement one, cod the champion brains. Give them concern successful backing to bash the precocious risk, precocious gain, cutting-edge research, which could neglect but could besides dramatically alteration crab therapy," she said.

Founded successful 2016 by Parker to crook each cancers into "curable diseases," the institute supports objective testing, startup enactment and incubation, and cause commercialization. In all, PICI has supported the enactment of 1,000 researchers and helped to make a $4 cardinal task superior portfolio that includes 17 biotech companies.

"I deliberation it's due to the fact that we've de-risked the subject from the precise beginning," Knudsen said. "We're not waiting for idiosyncratic to transportation for us. So I'm feeling precise bullish astir the quality to crank this wheel," she said.

Create a 'hot dial' database of peers and mentors

Knudsen has had galore mentors passim her journey. One she cited was Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, who she says was a "fountain of knowledge" to her. But arsenic CEO of the American Cancer Society, she surrounded herself "with CEOs from each walks of life. I had a CEOs assembly that was blistery dial," Knudsen said. "There are immoderate things you conscionable truly request to speech to different CEOs about."

She besides emphasized that women pursuing occurrence should expect to person to combat adjacent harder for pistillate practice the higher they ascend up a nonrecreational ladder. Statistically, that is the lawsuit whether successful the concern oregon world world. More than 50% of some MD and PhD programs are filled with women, but lone 12% go afloat professors, section chairs oregon deans. In the concern world, 10% of women clasp CEO positions successful S&P 500 companies; and astir 12% successful VC-backed companies and 13% astatine health-care firms. 

The hurdles, whether it is related to gender, the inherent hazard of nonaccomplishment successful technological endeavors, oregon deficiency of entree to capital, are barriers that Knudsen's ngo has helped her to overcome.

"What I've ever wanted to do, whether it's arsenic a scientist, whether it's arsenic a wellness executive, the CEO of the American Cancer Society oregon present the Parker Institute, it's to get innovation to people," she said. "We're astatine this infinitesimal successful clip wherever determination is truthful overmuch find that's happening, the gait of alteration is genuinely logarithmic, and yet, excessively galore large ideas don't ever marque it disconnected the laboratory floor."