Biotech CEO Sisterhood: Heather Turner and Sheila Gujrathi discuss managing your board of directors effectively

Interviewed by Sisterhood editorial board member Sheila Gujrathi, former Carmot Therapeutics CEO and newly named CEO of LB Therapeutics Heather Turner talks about communications skills and other best practices for CEOs to have an effective working relationship with their board of directors.

Biographies

Heather Turner was President and CEO of Carmot Therapeutics from January 2023 to June 2024. From September 2022 to December 2022 she was COO. As CEO she completed a $150 million cross over round of financing and well as successfully orchestrated a dual track IPO/strategic transaction process which ultimately resulted in the acquisition of Carmot by Roche for $3.1 billion. In addition to the transactions, Ms. Turner also built a very successful team growing Carmot from approximately 35 people to approximately 70 people which included leadership in key functions such as CMC, Quality, Finance, Legal and HR. Before Carmot, Ms. Turner served as Chief General Counsel and Secretary at Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. Notably, she oversaw the execution of the company’s $400 million Series C financing and the fourth largest Nasdaq IPO which raised gross proceeds of approximately $425 million. In addition, Ms. Turner oversaw numerous strategic partnerships including the Company’s development and commercialization partnership with GSK which included a $200 million investment. Prior to Lyell, Ms. Turner served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. a publicly traded gene therapy and gene editing company. Ms. Turner served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Head of Portfolio Strategy at Atara Biotherapeutics, Inc., a publicly-traded allogeneic cell therapy company. At Atara, in addition to legal and portfolio strategy, Ms. Turner oversaw human resources as well as medical affairs. Prior to Atara, Ms. Turner served as General Counsel and Secretary at Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. a publicly-traded company focused on metabolic diseases. During her tenure at Orexigen, Ms. Turner oversaw the legal, human resources, government affairs and facilities functions. Ms. Turner started her career at Cooley as a corporate securities associate. Ms. Turner received her J.D. from UCLA School of Law and her B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Sheila Gujrathi, MD is a biotech entrepreneur, healthcare investor, and drug developer with over 25 years of experience. She serves as chair of ADARx, Ventyx, and Lila Bio, and director of Janux. She previously served as chair of Turning Point (acquired by BMS for $4.1B) and ImmPACT Bio (acquired by Lyell). Dr. Gujrathi is the co-founder and former CEO of Gossamer Bio. Prior to Gossamer Bio, she served as chief medical officer of Receptos (acquired by Celgene for $7.2B). At Receptos, she led the development of Zeposia®, which is approved for multiple sclerosis and for ulcerative colitis. Previously, she was the immunology therapeutic area head at BMS and held multiple roles in immunology and oncology at Genentech. Earlier in her career, she was a management consultant at McKinsey and completed her medical training at Harvard, UCSF and Stanford.

Dr. Gujrathi has earned multiple awards, including Corporate Directors Forum Director of the Year; Healthcare Technology Report Top 25 Women Leaders; Athena Pinnacle Award, and was named among the Fiercest Women in Life Sciences. Dr. Gujrathi is passionate about making the working world safe and inclusive for women and other minority groups. She is co-founder of the Biotech CEO Sisterhood and the South Asian Biopharma Alliance. She received both her M.D. and B.S. in biomedical engineering in the accelerated Honors Program in Medical Education at Northwestern University where she was the 2024 commencement speaker.