Vishal PatelFounder

United States - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Vishal is currently CEO of a Biotech NewCo and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Atlas Ventures.

He was previously Head of Portfolio Strategy and Alliances and President of FL92 at Flagship Pioneering. In this role, he worked with a team of entrepreneurial scientists and operational leaders to guide scientific and business strategy and to maximize value creation across multiple companies in the Flagship ecosystem.

Prior to Flagship, Vishal Patel was Vice President, Global Head of Strategy and Scientific Engagement at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR), the research and early development arm of Novartis. He led R&D strategy, competitive intelligence, and portfolio excellence – as well as “Genesis Labs”, an in-house innovation incubator. Vishal was a member of the NIBR Global Leadership Team and the Novartis US Country Executive Committee.

Prior to Novartis, Vishal held public policy and external affairs roles at Merck KGaA. He also held roles of increasing responsibility at the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Senate – where he helped draft the Affordable Care Act. Vishal is a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy. He is on the Board of Seeding Labs, an NGO that trains and equips scientists in developing countries. Vishal was a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations and AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow.

Vishal received a Ph.D. in biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology from Harvard University, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow; a M.B.A. from MIT’s Sloan School of Management; and a B.S. in bioengineering from the University of Illinois.