Patty Martin, president and CEO of BioCrossroads since 2019, said Tuesday she plans to step down from the organization in April to examine opportunities in the private sector.
The not-for-profit organization, which invests in and advocates for the state’s $80 billion life sciences industry, did not name a successor.
Martin, 62, said the decision to leave BioCrossroads was hers “in joint discussions” with the organization’s board of directors. She said it was time for industry leadership to take a fresh look at how BioCrossroads can work with the sector to compete with other states.
BioCrossroads, established in 2002, has raised hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate, philanthropic, governmental and private equity funding for life sciences. It has invested in early-stage life sciences businesses and held conferences to discuss issues and challenges facing the industry.
“The life sciences sector is absolutely critical to Indiana,” Martin told IBJ. “We need to maintain and protect our standing in the competitive world of life sciences. To do that, have senior leaders across the sector and across the state revisit what we did 20 years ago.”
Under her leadership, BioCrossroads’ launched a statewide health data analytics initiative and convened academic, health care and life sciences leaders to protect Hoosiers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Her decision to leave BioCrossroads comes in the wake of several other high-level departures at the organization, including Brian Stemme, senior vice president for external engagement, who left to become CEO of the Hoosier Cancer Research Network; and Nora Doherty, who retired last year as executive vice president of strategy and managing director of the seed fund.
Martin said those departures were unrelated to her decision to leave. She said she was interested in looking at job opportunities at life science companies. She sits on the boards of two publicly traded biotech companies, Leap Therapeutics and AN2 Therapeutics.
“I’m a private-sector kind of person,” she said.
Martin worked at drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co., for 26 years in numerous capacities, including chief operating officer of Lilly Diabetes, chief diversity officer and chief alliance officer. She retired from the Indianapolis-based drugmaker in 2017.
Dan Peterson, BioCrossroads board chair and vice president of government and industry affairs at Bloomington-based medical-device maker Cook Group, said Martin’s “energy and passion” have helped the state’s life sciences sector during her four years as CEO.
Her guidance and leadership have been especially critical as BioCrossroads reached a significant milestone with their 20th anniversary in 2022,” Peterson said in written remarks. “As we look toward the future of the organization, the foundation she laid will continue to support new and exciting opportunities for the sector.”
BioCrossroads is part the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, a group focused on expanding Indiana’s economy by concentrating on specific industry sectors. David Johnson, the longtime president of CICP and former president of BioCrossroads, retired in December, and was succeeded by former Indianapolis Deputy Mayor Melina Kennedy.
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