Kristen Hege, Member Board of Directors at KSQ Therapeutics, shared Rosanna Ricafort’s post on LinkedIn, adding:
“There is no ‘I’ in team.
What we do is so hard and so likely to fail – until it doesn’t. And then, the opportunity to share in the advancement of breakthrough science with the people you most trust and respect and see with your own eyes the patients who benefit. That’s what it’s all about.”
Rosanna Ricafort, Senior Vice President, Cell Therapy Medical at Bristol Myers Squibb, shared:
“In a field that moves as fast as ours, it’s worth pausing to recognize what real innovation takes: true leadership, perseverance, and a lifelong commitment to learning. I was thrilled and honored to celebrate my friend and former colleague Kristen Hege, who embodies all three, as she was inducted as a Fellow of the Academy of Immuno-Oncology at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) – SITC2026.
Kristen saw what CAR-T could become long before most of us did, leading some of the earliest cell therapy clinical trials.
She championed taking this modality into cancer, built early clinical development at Celgene, helped launch its first cell therapy collaboration, and at Bristol Myers Squibb led the first CAR T therapy approved for multiple myeloma. Fittingly, she and Rachel W. Humphrey, are the Academy’s first two biopharma inductees.
Kristen has mentored and opened doors for so many of us, especially women in science, always with generosity and candor, and sometimes with a walking meeting or hike along the way!
Celebrating her alongside dear colleagues Lynelle Hoch, Mike Burgess, Michael Pourdehnad, Timothy Campbell and Ashley Koegel reminded me of something I believe deeply: brilliance alone doesn’t drive innovation. It comes from working next to people you respect enough to challenge and trust enough to lean on. People who push your thinking hard and still check in on how you’re doing.
As we work to bring the promise of cell therapy to more patients, I’m grateful to work every day with colleagues who hold each other to a high bar and truly care for one another.
Congratulations, Kristen. Thank you for showing us what’s possible, in the clinic and on the trail.”
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