Dr. Joanne Smith-Farrell is a mission-driven executive whose career has been devoted to leading teams conquering cancer and life-limiting disease.

Dr. Smith-Farrell joined Be Bio as chief executive officer in February of 2021, where she leads a committed team of scientists, drug developers, business builders and cell therapy operational specialists, united in one common mission – to fully unleash the power of engineered B cell medicines to provide previously impossible solutions across a wide range of therapeutic areas to patients with many of today’s least tractable diseases.

Prior to joining Be Bio, Joanne was the chief operating officer and business unit head, oncology at bluebird bio, where she led the growth of bluebird Oncology. Joanne established and led the team that transformed an early single-candidate effort within a rare disease gene therapy company to a leading oncology cell therapy business encompassing Abecma, a transformative, first-in-class CAR-T medicine for patients with multiple myeloma, a full portfolio of clinical and near-clinical cell therapies, a research engine producing one to two new investigational new drugs per year, and a team of more than 400 with full research and development, commercial manufacturing infrastructure and capabilities. Prior to this Dr. Smith-Farrell held executive leadership roles as the chief business officer of bluebird bio, vice president of transactions at Merck, vice president of business development at Pfizer, and senior vice president of global business development at Gene Logic.  Before entering industry, Joanne was a consultant within the healthcare practice at The Boston Consulting Group, a principal investigator at The Vitreous State Laboratories and a staff scientist at The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

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

Mr. Steinberg is a general partner at Longwood Fund and chief executive officer and co-founder of Longwood portfolio company Pyxis Oncology. Previously, David was at PureTech Health, (LSE: PRTC), a biotech incubator which he co-founded and served as chief innovation officer, focusing on venture creation, investing, and launching innovative biotech companies. David was the co-founder and CEO of several biotech companies, including Longwood-founded Pyxis Oncology, Vedanta Biosciences, Calix, Vor Biopharma, and was co-founder of Restorbio (NASDAQ: TORC). He previously worked in biopharma strategy consulting at Boston Consulting Group and Vertex Partners, and research and development at P&G Pharmaceuticals. He received his MBA in strategy and finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and holds a B.A. in biology from Cornell University.

Dr. Backstrom was most recently executive vice president, head of research and development at Acceleron Pharma. Prior to Acceleron, he held clinical research and development positions of increasing responsibility during his tenure at Celgene, from 2008 to 2019; eventually serving as Celgene’s chief medical officer and head of regulatory affairs.

Prior to Celgene, he served as vice president, global medical affairs and safety at Pharmion. Jay began his career in industry in 1990 at Marion Merrell Dow and continued as part of its successor companies including Hoechst Marion Roussel, where he held positions in clinical research and global drug surveillance and pharmacoepidemiology. He also spent nearly three years at Quintiles in medical and scientific services, including therapeutic head, cardiovascular, respiratory and critical care, where he oversaw extensive clinical work across a variety of cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.

Prior to his move to industry, Jay served as staff physician and medical director of the Samuel U. Rodgers Community Health Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Jay holds an M.D. from Temple University School of Medicine and received post-graduate training in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital. He also earned a Master’s in public health from Saint Louis University School of Public Health.

David Lubner is a senior finance executive with more than 25 years of experience in the life sciences industry. Mr. Lubner served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Ra Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RARX) until May 2020 following its acquisition by UCB S.A. Prior to Ra Pharma, he was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Tetraphase Pharmaceuticals and was previously chief financial officer of PharMetrics Inc., a leading patient-based pharmacy and medical claims data informatics company until it was acquired by IMS Health in 2015. He was also chief financial officer at ProScript, where Velcade® (bortezomib), a therapy widely used for the treatment of the blood cancer multiple myeloma, was discovered.

Dan Janney is the managing partner of Alta Partners. Dan Janney joined Alta Partners at its founding in 1996. He has nearly 25 years of successful early stage investing experience in life sciences. Dan’s focus on working with talented entrepreneurs to create companies around novel insights in biology and new approaches to drug discovery has led to the funding and development of 35 companies. Prior to Alta, Dan was a senior investment banker at Montgomery Securities.

Dan is currently on the board of directors of several public and private companies, including Allakos (NASDAQ:ALLK), Be Biopharma, Curasen Therapeutics, ImmuneID, Krystal Biotech (NASDAQ:KYRS), Lassen Therapeutics, Novome Biotechnologies and Prolacta Bioscience. In addition, he led Alta’s investments in Astex Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Supergen), Cellective (acquired by Medimmune), ChemGenex (ASX:CXS acquired by Cephalon), CoTherix (NASDAQ:CTRX acquired by Actellion), Definity Health (acquired by United Health), Dynavax (NASDAQ:DVAX), Endonetics (acquired by Medtronic), Esperion Therapeutics (NASDAQ:ESPR), Ilex Oncology (NASDAQ:ILXO acquired by Millennium Pharmaceuticals), InterMune (NASDAQ:ITMN acquired by Roche), LJL Biosystems (NASDAQ:LJLB acquired by Molecular Devices), Mako Surgical (NASDAQ:MAKO acquired by Stryker) and Triangle Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:VIRS acquired by Gilead).

Dan is a member of the president’s council of the J. David Gladstone Institutes and the chair of the board of directors of the California Academy of Sciences. He also serves on the Board of Regents of Georgetown University. He holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an MBA from the Anderson School at the University of California, Los Angeles.