UMass Boston

Avak Kahvejian, Ph.D. is a life sciences inventor, entrepreneur, and CEO who has co-founded more than ten companies. Since 2011, he has been a partner at Flagship Pioneering, where he leads a team to invent and launch new therapeutic platforms. His work has led to the creation of multiple high-value public and private companies including Seres Therapeutics, Ring Therapeutics, Cellarity, Laronde (a predecessor to Sail Biomedicines), Generate Biomedicines, ProFound Therapeutics, Ampersand Biomedicines, Cygnal Therapeutics, Rubius Therapeutics, and Codiak BioSciences.

Avak served as founding President and CEO of Rubius from 2013 to 2017, as co-CEO of Generate from 2018 to 2021, and as founding CEO of Cellarity (2017 to 2020), Laronde (2017 to 2020), Ring (2017 to 2020), ProFound (2020 to 2023), and Ampersand (2021 to 2023). He is on the boards of Cellarity and Sail, and Chairman of Ring.

Prior to Flagship, Avak was Vice President of Business Development at Helicos BioSciences. In this role, he developed and commercialized the world’s first single molecule DNA sequencer.

Avak serves as the Chairman of the Board of the International Institute of New England, an institution which creates opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed through resettlement, education, career advancement and pathways to citizenship. He is also on the Board of Genome Canada, the Advisory Board of the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology (FAST), and the McGill University Regional Advisory Board US.

Avak earned his Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Biochemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.