The MassBioEd Foundation will honor Mike Bonney, former CEO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals and a leader in the life sciences industry for 30 years, with the first-ever Champions for Biotechnology Education award. MassBioEd is recognizing Bonney for his ardent support of enhancing biotechnology educational programming in Massachusetts public schools and for his significant contributions as an advocate for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) workforce development.
Bonney retired as CEO and a board of director of Cubist Pharmaceuticals in 2014 after 12 years. Under Bonney’s leadership, Cubist established a corporate giving program focused on supporting STEM education — a topic for which Bonney is a vocal proponent. During that time, Cubist was the second largest donor to MassBioEd’s BioTeach program, which provides training to high school teachers so that they can bring lab-based lessons in biotechnology to their classrooms.
With more than 30 years of operational, commercial and senior management expertise in the biopharmaceutical industry, Bonney is a biopharma leader who has been a passionate advocate for education. Bonney and his wife donated $10 million to Bates College, the largest donation by a single party in the history of the college, which helped create six new endowed professorships and launch the college’s digital and computational studies program. In making the gift, Bonney stated, “Just as the 16th and 17th centuries are now known as the Renaissance and the 19th century as the Industrial Revolution, the 21st century will be known as the era of the Biology Revolution . . . Supporting our community's ability and capacity to light the flame of curiosity about science has been a priority for both Cubist and for my wife and me.”
Bonney is an industry leader who has demonstrated active support for community-based organizations and science education to prepare the future workforce. It is fitting that the life sciences community recognizes those who have led by example in their support for biotechnology education in our schools. There is no better individual representative of the industry to receive this award in its inaugural year than Mike Bonney.
The Champions for Biotechnology Education Awards Reception will be held on November 16th at the UMass Club in Boston.