Sue Siegel: Innovation, Life Sciences, and Governance in a Changing World
Sue Siegel is a highly accomplished executive, investor, and board member who has been at the forefront of innovation across life sciences, healthcare, and technology for more than three decades. She currently serves on the boards of Illumina, Align Technology, Nevro, The Engine (built by MIT), and the Kaiser Family Foundation, and has served on more than twenty boards over the course of her career.
Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein · Executive Compensation, Leadership, Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Capital, GE, General Electric, Silicon Valley, Startups, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Shareholder Activism, Life Sciences, Geopolitics, Affymetrix, Compensation, Board Refreshment
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (cdn.simplecast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
(0:00) Intro
(1:55) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel
(2:42) Start of interview
(3:56) Sue's origin story
(5:42) The Rise of Biotech and her Career Journey (BioRad, Dupont, Amersham and Affymetrix)
(12:04) Transition to Venture Capital (Mohr Davidow Ventures, GE Ventures)
(14:55) Evolution of Corporate Venture Capital (since ~2010) "They [now] represent about 28% of all VC dollars going into startups."
(19:32) Her Board Membership Journey (since 2000, as a board member at Affymetrix where she was an executive)
(21:12) The Impact of AI on Governance
(21:53) Cultural Differences in Boardrooms between founders and investors: "if you do governance right, it should be an enabler, not a suffocator."
(29:24) Navigating Geopolitical Risks. Example: Align Technology: We moved about 90% of our Russia based developers to Armenia.
(33:01) Challenges in Life Sciences Funding
(34:52) The AI Investment Boom
(37:16) Activism's Influence on Corporate Boards. "They punish the lack of communication. They punish obscuring things." Reference to E189 with Joele Frank and Anne Chapman.
(42:36) The Evolution of Compensation Structures "I think one of the key topics around comp is aligning pay, performance, and purpose."
(45:34) Other relevant board topics: human capital, innovation, data and board culture.
(47:57) The Importance of Board Refreshment (digital and IA natives that can govern in the boardroom)
(49:12) Books that have greatly influenced her life:
- Passages by Gael Sheehy (1976)
- Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder (2003)
(52:00) "People that helped her along"
(54:23) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves.
(54:59) The living person she most admires: Francis Collins.
(56:39) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by.
Sue Siegel is a highly accomplished executive, investor, and board member who has been at the forefront of innovation across life sciences, healthcare, and technology for more than three decades.
You can follow Evan on social media at:
X: @evanepstein
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/
Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/
__
To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/
__
Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License