On April 14, 2026, Bio-Strategies & Leadership at the Hoover Institution will convene ~300 action-oriented leaders at Stanford for the inaugural Bio Leadership Summit, a one-day event designed to elevate biotechnology culturally and politically, and to speak frankly regarding what biotech leadership looks like across the most important domains of strategic impact.
We are looking for leaders—up and coming or established, with or without a biotechnology background—who have a track record of turning ideas into outcomes to participate. If you would like to nominate yourself of others to participate, please do so below.
Confirmed speakers and moderators for the event include:
- Brian Hie - Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University and Innovation Investigator at Arc Institute
- Christina Smolke - CEO & Co-Founder of Antheia
- Condoleezza Rice - Tad and Dianne Taube Director at the Hoover Institution and the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy
- Deborah Moorad - Secretary of Commerce for the State of Oklahoma
- Doug Friedman - Founder and CEO of BioMADE
- Drew Endy - Director of Hoover Bio-Strategies & Leadership at Stanford University
- Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall - Former United States Homeland Security Advisor & Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
- Emily Clise Tully - Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Vice President of National Technology Strategy at In-Q-Tel
- Emily Leproust - CEO and Co-Founder of Twist Bioscience
- Filippa Lentzos - Associate Professor at King’s College London
- Gerald Parker - Former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Biosecurity and Pandemic Response & Associate Dean for Global One Health at the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at Texas A&M University
- Grey Frandsen - CEO of Flyttr
- Jaime Yassif - Senior Advisor and former Bio Vice President for the Nuclear Threat Initiative
- Jennifer Cochran - Vice President for SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and for Strategic Initiatives, Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University
- Jenny Rooke - Managing Director of Genoa Ventures
- Kate Adamala - Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota
- Keith Wood - CEO and Co-Founder of Light Bio
- Kerri Dugan - Senior Vice President for Biotechnology at Applied Research Institute and former director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA
- Lee Lilley - Secretary of Commerce for the State of North Carolina
- Markus Covert - Shriram Chair of the Department of Bioengineering at Stanford University
- Matt Kaloupek - Vice President of Carbon Capture and Storage for ADM
- Matt McKnight - CEO of Perimeter
- Matt Pottinger - Former Deputy National Security Advisor and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution
- Megan Palmer - Lead for Responsible Innovation at ARPA-H
- Mike Kuiken - Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Vice Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission
- Nadia Schadlow - National Security Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution
- Natalie Kuldell - Founder and President of BioBuilder Educational Foundation
- Padmini Pillai - Special Asst to the Director of the Biological Technologies Office at DARPA
- Maj. Gen. (ret.) Paul Friedrichs - RAND Senior Biopreparedness Fellow and former Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy
- Sam Levin - Co-Founder and CTO of Neion Bio
- Sam Rodriques - CEO and Co-Founder of FutureHouse
- Stephen Kotkin - Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and Birkelund Professor Emeritus at the former Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University
- Steve Quake - Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering and of Applied Physics at Stanford University, Past Head of Science for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
- Tim Schnabel - Founder and CEO of Switch Bioworks
- Zack Abbott - CEO and Co-Founder of ZBiotics
For questions about the event, please contact Sarah Moront at smoront@stanford.edu.
