Kristen M Hege, MD 

Dr. Hege retired from Bristol Myers Squibb and UCSF in March of 2023 to pursue her lifelong dream of thru hiking the 2650-mile Pacific Crest Trail. In her BMS role as SVP Early Clinical Development, Hematology, Oncology & Cell Therapy, she was responsible for advancing a pipeline of small molecules, biologics and cell therapies from first-in-human studies through clinical proof-of- concept. While there she led the 2Seventybio (formerly bluebird)-partnered BCMA CAR-T cell program (Abecma) in multiple myeloma from inception through FDA approval. Prior to BMS she held a similar role at Celgene as well as executive roles in biotech at Cell Genesys, Cellerant, and Theraclone.

Dr. Hege currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mersana, Adaptimmune and Kelonia Therapeutics and as co-chair of the Biotech Committee for the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) along with advisory roles at cTRL, Moonlight, Dispatch, Cartography, Neomorph, Kamau and FL94. In addition, Dr. Hege spent nearly three decades as a part time clinical faculty member in the division of hematology at the Univ. California, San Francisco (UCSF), most recently as Clinical Professor of Medicine, where she cared for patients with blood cancers and other hematologic disorders.

Dr. Hege received her M.D. at UCSF and internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. In 2015 she was recognized by Fierce Biotech as one of the top 12 women in Biopharma, in 2019 by the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association as a “Luminary” and in 2021 by San Francisco Business Times as one of the most influential women in Bay Area business. In 2022, she was recognized by UCSD with the Duane Roth Career Achievement Award for advances in science and medicine. Her career path and long history with CAR T cell development was featured as one of 25 physicians and scientists recognized as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of Nature Medicine and by Forbes magazine in 2022 as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” in recognition of her leadership role in the development of Abecma.