Yvonne Hao joined Flagship Pioneering in 2025 as Chief Operating Officer and General Partner. In this role she leads key functional pillars that support Flagship and its ecosystem of companies, including HR and Talent, Legal and IP, IT/Digital, Communications, Government and Regulatory Affairs, and Facilities/Real Estate. Yvonne also contributes to strategic initiatives and serves on Flagship’s Resource Allocation Committee. In addition, she works alongside Flagship’s Growth Partners to help steward the firm’s later-stage companies, drawing on her experience in company building, operating, and investing.

Yvonne was most recently the Secretary of the Executive Office of Economic Development for the State of Massachusetts. Prior to her role in public service, Yvonne has had more than 25 years of experience as a senior executive, including as Co-founder, Managing Director and Advisor at investment firm Cove Hill Partners and as an Operating Partner at Pillar Ventures. Previously, she was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of PillPack, where she led the company’s sale to Amazon in 2018. She is also a former Operating Partner at Bain Capital, where she held interim CEO and COO roles, served on boards, and worked closely with portfolio companies. Earlier in her career, she held senior leadership roles at Honeywell and McKinsey & Company.

Yvonne has been a Board Director of companies such as CarGurus, Flywire, Gentherm, ZipRecruiter, and Bose. She also has been involved in the community, and was the Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Beth Israel Lahey Health, and is a Trustee Emeriti of her alma mater, Williams College.

Yvonne earned a B.A. in economics and Asian studies from Williams College and an M.Phil. in Development/Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Massachusetts Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Lauren Jones brings over two decades of experience working in local and state government, non-profits, and the private sector, with a particular focus on workforce development. Prior to joining the Healey-Driscoll Administration, Jones served as Executive Vice President of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable and led the organization’s workforce development policy and strategy. She previously led the Massachusetts market for the non-profit Apprenti, where she worked with companies to cultivate and diversify tech talent through registered apprenticeships. She also created and led the Business Strategy Unit for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s Office of Economic Development, supporting business attraction and employer engagement in the city of Boston. Prior to that, she held several roles in the Patrick-Murray Administration, including Communications Director for the Executive Office of Labor & Workforce Development, Policy & Communications Director for former Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray, and Senior Program Manager of the Economic Development Incentive Program in the Office of Business Development.  

As Executive Vice President of the Roundtable, Jones was the Co-Chair of the Workforce Solutions Group and served on the Board for the Massachusetts Workforce Association, the Executive Committee for the Alliance for Vocational Technical Education, the Board of Advisors for the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, the Boston Private Industry Council, and previously served on the Future of Work Commission. She holds a Master’s in Public Administration from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from Providence College. She lives in Boston.  

Faisal M. Khan, Ph.D. is the Corporate Vice President for Artificial Intelligence and Analytics at Novo Nordisk. His team focuses on the applications of AI and data science throughout the drug discovery and development lifecycle. His intere sts focus on the intersections of data science, digital health, biostatistics, bioimaging, personalized medicine, and healthcare delivery. His career has encompassed all aspects of healthcare and biomedical analytics, including diagnostics, devices, clinical trials/therapeutics, and payers/insurance. Dr. Khan has worked or consulted across academia and industry with both startups and Fortune-50 companies. He has over 100 published papers, abstracts, and patents on the applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence for healthcare and the life sciences. 

CEO, Sunny Schwartz leads the strategic vision for MassBioEd’s education and workforce development efforts. Sunny is proud to lead MassBioEd into its third decade of growing and developing talent in the Massachusetts life sciences workforce, which in turn develops innovations that save and improve lives. Under Sunny’s leadership and with an amazing team, MassBioEd has tripled in size since 2019 when Sunny joined the organization, adding innovative workforce development programs such as the Life Sciences Apprenticeship Program, College to Career, and the Life Sciences Career Hub while focusing BioTeach on high needs school districts though the ACCESS Program. In her previous positions, Sunny served as President & CEO of the MassHire Metro North Workforce Board, charged with leading workforce development policy and partnership building for a 20-city region, Chief Operating Officer of the Asian American Civic Association, a direct service education and training provider, and Program Development Manager at Commonwealth Corporation, a quasi-public state agency under the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. Sunny has been a leader in the education and workforce development fields in Massachusetts since 2000, building partnerships to provide employers with a highly skilled workforce and expanding access to great careers for low-income residents. Sunny also has experience in community organizing and social work. Sunny holds a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. 

Dr. Kena A. Swanson is Vice President and Head of Viral Vaccines at Pfizer (Pearl River, NY), where she leads research and development efforts across RSV and other viral vaccine programs. She is an immunologist with 20+ years of vaccine research experience, including 16+ years in industry spanning preclinical immunology, bacterial and viral vaccines, early and late-stage development, and post-approval support. She has authored/co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Swanson served a pivotal role in the research and development of Pfizer’s RSV (Abrysvo™) and COVID-19 (Comirnaty™) vaccines from early research through regulatory approval. The RSV vaccine received US approval in 2023 for maternal immunization to protect infants and for active immunization of older adults to prevent RSV lower respiratory tract disease and is now approved in over 70 countries globally. She also led Pfizer’s research team, in collaboration with BioNTech, through initial approvals and seasonal updates to the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine program was initiated in March 2019 and received Emergency Use Authorization in December 2020. The vaccine is now licensed across the globe.

Dr. Swanson earned her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology and completed postdoctoral training at NIH/NIAID Rocky Mountain Laboratories. Her work spans multiple pathogens and vaccine platforms, and she is recognized for building and leading multidisciplinary teams that translate immunology and antigen design into clinically impactful vaccines.