Wendy Young is a biotechnology, pharma, and life sciences executive and board advisor with more than 25 years of experience in the discovery and development of innovative new medicines for patients. Wendy has held key senior roles at Genentech, Celera Genomics, and Johnson & Johnson Company.
Prior to joining MPM, Wendy was the Senior Vice President at Genentech where she actively built and led the small molecule drug discovery organization. Under her leadership, more than 25 clinical candidates, in the areas of oncology, immunology, neurology, and anti-infectives, progressed into development. Additionally, Wendy led the BTK discovery program and is co-inventor of fenebrutinib which is currently in Phase 3 trials for multiple sclerosis. Prior to joining Genentech, Wendy held roles of increasing scientific leadership at Celera Genomics and Scios, a J&J company. Wendy is an inventor and/or author on more than 70 published patents and manuscripts.
Known for her strong passion and contributions within the scientific community, Wendy has been involved with the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 20 years. In 2017, she was elected as the ACS National Chair of the Medicinal Chemistry Division (MEDI), and she currently serves as an associate editor of The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. In 2018, Wendy was inducted as an ACS Fellow for her lifelong service to chemistry, society and medicine, and in 2019 highlighted as “One of the Top 20 Women in Biopharma” by Endpoint News. In 2020 she was awarded the prestigious Earle B. Barnes Award for Leadership in Chemical Research Management.
Wendy earned her Ph.D. from Princeton University, having studied in the laboratories of Edward C. Taylor. At Princeton, and in collaboration with Eli Lilly, Wendy worked on folate analogs as antitumor agents and Alimta® was an outcome of this collaboration. Thereafter, as an American Cancer Society Fellow, she performed post-doctoral studies in the laboratories of Samuel Danishefsky at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and was part of the team that completed the total synthesis of Taxol®.