Dr. Slaoui achieved historic success overseeing Operation Warp Speed, where their investments helped enable the development of several highly effective vaccines with unprecedented speed. In doing so, Dr. Slaoui had to make tough decisions – placing bets on a fixed number of specific development efforts – with limited information and operating under enormous pressure. We talk with Dr. Slaoui about his approach, and lessons learned for high stakes decision making.
ABOUT DR. MONCEF SLAOUI: Prior to his work on Operation Warp Speed, Dr. Slaoui oversaw research and development as Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline R&D and served on the Board of Directors. Dr. Slaoui built the GSK Vaccines division into the lead position in the industry as the Chairman of GSK Vaccines. During Dr. Slaoui’s 30-year tenure at GSK, he was instrumental in reorganizing the company’s R&D structure to facilitate innovation and improve productivity. He was directly involved in the discovery, development and oversight of GSK’s vaccine pipeline, which was the most productive source of vaccines in the industry — yielding 14 new vaccines in the past decade and assembling the broadest portfolio of vaccines (48), of any company, with nearly a billion doses distributed annually. Dr. Slaoui received a PhD in Molecular Biology and Immunology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston.
