Dr. Joanne Smith-Farrell is a mission-driven executive whose career has been dedicated to leading teams in conquering cancer, genetic diseases, and other life-limiting conditions. As President & CEO and Director of Be Biopharma since February 2021, she guides a diverse team of scientists, drug developers, clinicians, and manufacturing specialists in pioneering a new class of in vivo biologics—engineered B cell medicines—to deliver previously impossible solutions for patients with both rare and prevalent diseases.

Before joining Be Biopharma, Dr. Smith-Farrell served as Chief Operating Officer and Business Unit Head, Oncology at bluebird bio. In that role, she and her team built a robust oncology business, marked by breakthroughs such as Abecma—the first-in-class CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma. She has also held executive positions at Merck, Pfizer, and Gene Logic, and began her career as a consultant with The Boston Consulting Group.

Dr. Smith-Farrell completed her post-doctoral research in biomedical engineering in Professor Robert Langer’s lab at the Harvard-MIT Division for Health Science and Technology, supported by the NIH National Service in Research Award Fellowship. She earned her Ph.D. in physics from The Catholic University of America—where she was recognized as a Herzfeld Scholar and Hubbard Fellow—and holds a B.S. in physics and mathematics from Vanderbilt University.

Susan Abu-Absi, Ph.D. is a strategic operations executive with over 20 years of experience in product development and supply in the biopharmaceutical industry. She joined Be Bio in March 2025 as Chief Operating Officer, responsible for driving all operational aspects of the business to unleash the power of engineered B cell medicines as therapeutics for patients with serious diseases.

Prior to Be Bio, Susan was Chief Technology Officer at 2seventy bio where she led the Technical Development, Supply & Quality organization. Her team provided deep execution capabilities in autologous cell therapy manufacturing resulting in the launch of Abecma and the translation of four novel therapies with complex layered technologies into the clinic.

Prior to 2seventy bio, Susan led technical development & operations at bluebird bio, a pioneer in ex vivo gene therapies, where she played an integral role in the approvals of Zynteglo and Skysona.

Prior to joining bluebird, Susan held leadership roles in the Global Product Development and Supply organization at Bristol Myers Squibb. She started her career in the Process Sciences organization at Bayer Healthcare.

Susan earned a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota, where she conducted research in the laboratory of Professor Wei-Shou Hu as a National Science Foundation Fellow, and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude with Honors, from the University of Toledo.

Mr. Smith joined Be Biopharma from Affimed N.V., where he served as Chief Financial Officer from July 2020 to December 2023. During his time at Affimed, Mr. Smith led over $350 million of equity and debt financings for the company. He brings more than 18 years of experience in finance and investment banking within the life sciences and health care industries. His expertise lies in corporate and financial strategy, U.S. capital markets, business development and operations.

Before joining Affimed, Mr. Smith was the Chief Financial Officer at Rockwell Medical, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development and commercialization of anemia therapies. At Rockwell, Mr. Smith elevated his proven track record of financial execution, overseeing the financing of Rockwell’s flagship commercial drug launch and a revamp of the company’s internal controls.

Previously, Mr. Smith held several leadership positions at Pernix Therapeutics, including Senior Vice President, Chief Business Officer and Principal Financial Officer, overseeing Pernix’s financial, M&A and business development strategy. During his tenure at Pernix, Mr. Smith led the execution of several financing transactions and the acquisition of two commercial prescription drugs, aggregating over $500 million in total value.

Mr. Smith began his career in healthcare investment banking, serving most recently as a Director in the Healthcare Investment Banking Group at Cantor Fitzgerald in New York. During his nearly decade-long investment banking career, Mr. Smith specialized in spearheading growth strategies for life sciences and health care companies, resulting in an aggregate transaction value of more than $15 billion. Mr. Smith received a Bachelor of Arts in mathematical economics from Colgate University in Hamilton, New York.

The bulk of Dr. Morgan’s career was at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where he led a series of laboratories in the field of cell and gene therapy. He was a member of the team that published the first approved human gene transfer experiment in 1990 (N. Engl. J. Med. 323:570, 1990). Early in his career, he focused on the first-in-human applications of gene therapy for genetic diseases such as severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) and research into gene therapy for hemophilia. He also led major research efforts into the application of gene therapy for infectious disease, specifically on HIV/AIDS, including one of the first clinical trials testing anti-HIV gene therapy in humans. He later switched focus to concentrate on cancer immunotherapy. Rick has extensively published on T-cell receptor (TCR) gene therapy and was the lead author on the first report where this technology was shown to mediate cancer regression in patients (Science 314:126, 2006).

In 2013, Rick made the switch from academia to industry to lead the immunotherapy efforts at bluebird bio where he was vice president of immunotherapy. Major accomplishments at bluebird include driving all pre-clinical activities for bluebird’s first oncology asset for the treatment of multiple myeloma, an anti-BCMA CAR. The successful clinical application of this technology was published in the New England Journal of Medicine (N Engl J Med. 2019 May 2;380(18):1726-1737), culminating in the approval of this approach as medicine (Abecma) in 2021. In 2018, Rick moved to Editas Medicine as senior vice president of immunogenetics where he focused on gene editing applications in immunotherapy. At Editas, he led the development of off-the-shelf cellular treatments for cancer immunotherapy using gene edited NK cells. Externally, Rick served as a member of the board of directors of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT), and he is a member of the scientific advisory board of the Keystone symposia.

Rick is an author of more than 200 scientific publications including papers with Nobel laureates EJ Corey, Harold Varmus and Andrew Fire. Rick holds a B.A. in biochemistry from Brandeis University and a Ph.D. in genetics from The Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Wong is an experienced physician, clinical scientist and drug developer with over 20 years of successful product development across early to late-stage development and medical affairs.  She is a treating physician with direct experience in the treatment and management of people with hemophilia, sickle cell disease and pediatric hematology/oncology. She has played pivotal roles in the development and approval of various therapies including:  the first gene therapy for Hemophilia A (Roctavian), FEIBA, Advate, Adynovate, Eloctate, Alprolix, Rixubis, Obizur, and the first recombinant von Willebrand factor (Vonvendi).

Most recently, Dr. Wong was Group Vice-President of Global Medical Affairs and Scientific Strategy at BioMarin and led the development and approval of Roctavian for Hemophilia A. Dr. Wong provided ground-breaking leadership in the design and oversight of over six years of the AAV5 clinical trials reported in NEJM publications including the largest Phase 3 clinical trial in gene therapy for Hemophilia to date.  Prior to BioMarin, Dr. Wong was Vice President of Global Medical and Head of Clinical Research of Hemophilia at Biogen and Baxter respectively and has supported the development, approval and life cycle extension of multiple therapies in hemophilia. 

Prior to her work in industry, Dr. Wong spent over 15 years as a practicing clinician and professor at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County (LAC) and University of Southern California (USC) Medical Center. As a clinician, Dr. Wong presented and published numerous studies and papers on her research in hemophilia and hematology and has served as a reviewer for medical journals including the American Journal of Hematology, Hemophilia and the Lancet. In 2003, Dr. Wong was appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services as a member of the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability. 

Dr. Wong earned her M.D. at the USC, Keck School of Medicine and a BA at Occidental College. She served a Fellowship at the LAC and USC Medical Center in pediatric hematology-oncology and is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California.