About Emma

Dr. Emma Lees holds a PhD from Imperial Cancer Research Fund, London England and performed post-doctoral work for Cold Spring Harbor labs and Harvard Medical school, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Her industry career began at DNAX Research Institute/Schering Plough in Palo Alto, California, where she was responsible for building and leading the Oncology Research group. From there, Emma joined Novartis Institutes of Biomedical Research (NIBR) as Site Head and Vice President of Oncology in Emeryville, California, and later became Vice President of Oncology Biotherapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was responsible for the design, development and strategy and implementation of the biologic’s oncology portfolio. Emma transitioned to Jounce Therapeutics, also in Cambridge, a small immuno-oncology company where she served as Head of Research.

Presently, Emma is Senior Vice President, Oncology Discovery at Bristol Myers Squibb and serves as Site Head at Bristol Myers Squibb’s Cambridge, MA location. As head of the Mechanisms of Cancer Resistance Thematic Research Center, Emma’s team is primarily focusing on understanding resistance to standard of care therapies, studying patients who do not respond or build resistance to current drugs, with a goal to discover medicines for these patients’ populations with unmet medical needs. In her role as Site Head, Emma collaborates with the site leadership team to craft a unified vision, set objectives, and cultivate culture that aligns with the global strategy.