Flagship Pioneering Strengthens Leadership with Appointment of Christine Heenan as Senior Partner and Chief Communications Officer

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Oct 21, 2020, 08:00 ET

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Pioneering, a life sciences innovation enterprise that builds companies to transform human health and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Christine Heenan as Senior Partner and Chief Communications Officer. Heenan, founder and president of Clarendon Group, has advised some of the world's most prestigious universities, research institutions, and philanthropies. She will join Flagship's senior leadership team to shape the organization's global brand strategy, communications and external affairs. Reporting directly to Founder and CEO Noubar Afeyan, she will also oversee all external communications for Flagship's suite of innovative companies.

"We are thrilled to welcome Christine to our team of world-class scientific and professional talent and to our ecosystem of groundbreaking companies," said Noubar Afeyan, Ph.D. "Christine's leadership at the intersection of science, academia, policy, and international development brings new capabilities to Flagship and promises to expand our role in important global conversations about science and society."

Heenan is the founder and president of Clarendon Group, a consulting firm focused on communications, advocacy and social impact for a portfolio of leading organizations and individuals. She has advised the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Broad Institute, the Whitehead Institute, Amgen, the Centers for Disease Control and others. As senior vice president for Global Policy and Advocacy at the Rockefeller Foundation she led the policy, program influence, partnerships and communications teams, as well as regional teams in Asia, Africa and Italy.

"Flagship and its portfolio companies are pioneering approaches that completely reimagine human health and sustainability, and are drafting new scientific blueprints for tackling disease – and preventing it in the first place," said Heenan. "I am excited to join Flagship's exceptional leadership team to help tell its incredible story and galvanize decision makers across sectors to bring urgent solutions to scale."

From 2008 to 2015, Christine Heenan was vice president of Public Affairs and Communications for Harvard University, overseeing its government relations, communications, and digital strategy teams in Boston, Cambridge and Washington, DC. She is currently an Executive Fellow at Harvard Business School.

Heenan served in the White House during the Clinton Administration as a senior policy analyst and speechwriter, focused on health care policy and gender equity as part of the Domestic Policy Council team. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the David Rockefeller Fund and the Board of Trustees of the University of Rhode Island. She holds a B.A. from Boston University with a concentration in journalism.

About Flagship Pioneering
Flagship Pioneering conceives, creates, resources, and develops first-in-category life sciences companies to transform human health and sustainability. Since its launch in 2000, the firm has applied a unique hypothesis-driven innovation process to originate and foster more than 100 scientific ventures, resulting in over $34 billion in aggregate value. To date, Flagship is backed by more than $4.4 billion of aggregate capital commitments, of which over $1.9 billion has been deployed toward the founding and growth of its pioneering companies alongside more than $10 billion of follow-on investments from other institutions. The current Flagship ecosystem comprises 41 transformative companies, including Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA), Denali Therapeutics (NASDAQ: DNLI), Evelo Biosciences (NASDAQ: EVLO), Foghorn Therapeutics, Indigo Ag, Kaleido Biosciences (NASDAQ: KLDO), Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA), Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY), Sana Biotechnology, Seres Therapeutics (NASDAQ: MCRB), Sigilon Therapeutics, and Syros Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: SYRS).