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Harvard Business School announces 2022/23 Blavatnik Fellows

Four men in suits and a woman in a pink dress

The 2022-2023 Blavatnik Fellows (from left): Shardule Shah, Hunter Goble, Matt Ross, Ilana Springer Borkenstein, Alexey Youssef. Photo courtesy Susan Young.

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Harvard Business School (HBS) has named its 2022-23 Blavatnik Fellows and the program’s ninth cohort. Launched in 2013, the Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship is part of a gift to Harvard University from the Blavatnik Family Foundation. This program supports HBS alumni and Harvard-affiliated postdocs as they build their promising life science ventures by developing their leadership talents and providing mentorship and community during their entrepreneurial journey.

To date, Blavatnik Fellows have created 30 companies including a precision gene therapy, a respiratory dialysis device, a femtech device using genomics to enable women’s care, a biosensing wearable to prevent dehydration, and an oxygen sensor for personalized oncology care. They have collectively raised more than $485 million in funding and an additional $244 million from an IPO in June 2020. The Blavatnik Fellowship is led by faculty chair Peter Barrett and an advisory board of seasoned business and biotechnology leaders who serve as one-on-one mentors and provide strategic direction during the fellows’ program year.

“Since joining the Blavatnik Fellowship five years ago, the community has doubled in size and fellows’ companies funding has quadrupled. It is gratifying to be a part of the program’s tremendous growth and mentor next generation entrepreneurs who contribute to society by commercializing groundbreaking technology and biomedical innovation,” said Barrett. “This year’s fellows launched their ventures as M.B.A . students and start their fellowship year with the largest seed financing raised as a new cohort. I am excited to work with them and carry on the program’s mission to inspire young life science entrepreneurs as they enter the Boston biotech ecosystem as Blavatnik Fellows.”