Marine Biological Laboratory Trustees Elect Five New Members, Announce New Chair of the Board

WOODS HOLE, Mass. – The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is pleased to announce the election of five new members to its Board of Trustees and the transition of Trustee William I. (Bill) Huyett to the role of Board Chair.

The new Trustees are David Johnson, MBA, of Bain & Company; Max Paul Rosen, MD, MPH, of University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School; Robert Rosiello, MBA, of Flagship Pioneering; Catherine Mahoney Thomas of the Whitehall Foundation; and Lewis T. (Rusty) Williams, MD, PhD of Ten30Bio.

New MBL Board Chair Bill Huyett is director emeritus of McKinsey and Company, where he spent 30 years serving clients in life sciences operating, strategy, corporate finance and governance matters.

“The larger board will help accelerate the growth of the MBL and its impact,” said MBL Director Nipam Patel. “The five new Trustees, along with seven Trustees who have been reappointed, are exceptionally engaged and energized to be a part of the MBL. They grasp the eminence of the MBL as an institution and are eager to dive in and contribute to ensuring its future excellence.”

 “We have a vision of making the MBL Board of Trustees the best-connected board in the life sciences, one that places the MBL on a strong foundation for growth that matches its eminent reputation. With our new and reappointed Trustees, we fully have the capacity to do so, and we expect to add more new members this year to further leverage our reach and impact,” said MBL Trustee Christopher G. Kennedy, Chair of the Board’s Nominating and Governance Committee.

New Board Chair Bill Huyett, a Massachusetts native and resident, has been associated with the MBL for 23 years, including 18 as a Trustee.  In addition to his role at McKinsey, Huyett also served as COO/CFO of two public biotechnology companies. He most recently rejoined the Board in 2020 at the invitation of Robert J. Zimmer, then president of the University of Chicago and Chair of the MBL Board of Trustees.

“The MBL is a unique institution, with a reputation unmatched in the world. It’s had outsized impact on scientific discovery and careers for more than a century, and it will undoubtedly carry these strengths forward into scientific landscapes that the MBL will help define," Huyett said. "The MBL ethos is to be bold, take risks and bring new perspectives to important discovery questions. Our Board, expanded and strengthened, is inspired by the same ethos, and we are eager to make sure the coming years are a period of significant growth for the MBL.”

Huyett succeeds Paul Alivisatos, President of the University of Chicago, as Chair of the MBL Board. Alivisatos remains an MBL Trustee and will work closely with Nipam Patel and Bill Huyett to further deepen academic collaborations between UChicago and the MBL. These collaborations are wide-ranging and include UChicago undergraduate courses held at the MBL, a graduate program, and joint faculty appointments that expand the research ties between the two institutions. UChicago Provost Katherine Baicker also serves as an ex-officio member of the MBL Board in her role as Provost of the University.

Established in 1888, the Marine Biological Laboratory is a non-profit, private institution dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. The MBL’s most singular strength is its convening power, attracting hundreds of the world’s leading scientists and students to Woods Hole each year. Known for pushing the boundaries of science, pioneering new fields, and establishing the careers of generations of leading scientists, the MBL enjoys a unique position in the world as a magnet for the best minds in contemporary research. To date, more than 60 Nobel laureates have been associated with the MBL as researchers, faculty, or alumni.

More about the New Board Chair and Trustees:

Bill Huyett, MBA

Bill Huyett is a Director Emeritus of McKinsey and Company, Inc., where he spent 30 years serving clients in life sciences, industrial and other technology-intensive sectors on operating, strategy, corporate finance and governance matters. His transaction experience is extensive and includes mergers, spin-outs, IPOs, acquisitions and licensing. He worked in the Washington, Zurich and Boston Offices, leading the Firm’s Strategy and Corporate Finance practice and he served on the Firm’s board of directors. He is a co-author of Value, a text on corporate finance for CEOs, CFOs and boards, published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011. Mr. Huyett retired in December 2020 as the Chief Financial Officer of Cyclerion Therapeutics, a spin off company of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals in 2019, where he held the position of Chief Operating Officer. He also serves as retired board chair/lead director of two public companies, one in healthcare and one in technology.

In the not-for-profit sector, Mr. Huyett serves on the boards of the Rockefeller University, the Marine Biological Laboratory, the University of Virginia Engineering School Foundation, the National Parks Conservation Association and the Native Plant Trust. He has chaired board investment committees, development committees and participated on finance, tech transfer and operations committees. He is retired from the boards of the University of Virginia Darden School, the Greater Boston YMCA and the Concord Museum. He is a lecturer on corporate finance, corporate strategy, and governance at the University of Virginia Darden School.

Prior to joining McKinsey, Mr. Huyett held a variety of line management positions in the automation industry with Rockwell/Allen-Bradley. His degrees in electronics engineering and business are from the University of Virginia. He and his wife Lauren live in Concord, MA and have five grown children. His hobbies include sailing, wilderness activities and furniture making.

David “Dave” Johnson, MBA

Dave Johnson is a leader in Bain & Company Financial Services practice. Mr. Johnson joined the firm in 1985 and was elected to its partnership in 1990. He has held a number of firm leadership roles, including regional managing partner of the Americas and founder and leader of Bain's New York office. He has also served on the firm's global operating committee, board of directors and partner promotion and compensation committee. He has extensive experience across a range of industries, with a particular focus in consumer financial services, including fin-tech, and in professional services. During his tenure at Bain, Mr. Johnson has advised clients across corporate and business unit strategy development and implementation, operating models, organization, transformations, change management, mergers and acquisitions and winning the war for talent. He holds additional expertise in organic growth with an emphasis on pursuing new segments, developing new value propositions, pricing strategy and tactics, and transforming the end-to-end customer experience. As a result of his global experience with both clients and the firm itself, Mr. Johnson has invested heavily in designing and executing growth plans in most of the world's major developed and developing markets. He also has extensive experience in designing and leading global training sessions aimed at every level within Bain, from firm leadership to entry-level hires coming directly from business school or undergraduate programs. Prior to joining Bain, Mr. Johnson was a regulatory economist for New England Telephone. He currently sits on the board of directors and the executive committee for The Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and was a member of the board of the local United Way for nine years. Mr. Johnson earned an MBA from Harvard Business School with distinction and is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, where he received a bachelor of arts in economics with highest honors.

Max Paul Rosen, MD, MPH

Dr. Max Rosen serves as the chair of Radiology at UMass Chan Medical School and UMass Memorial Health, overseeing a wide range of imaging and interventional radiology services in central Massachusetts. His department is responsible for training radiology residents and fellows, as well as UMass Chan medical students.  In addition, many of the UMass Chan anatomy, pharmacology, and cell biology faculty are members of his department.

Dr. Rosen is a graduate of Brown University, Tufts University School of Medicine, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He received his clinical training at Boston City Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a fellow of the American College of Radiology, the Society of Interventional Radiology, and the American Heart Association and is a past-president of the Massachusetts Radiological Society and the New England Roentgen Ray Society. Dr. Rosen’s current research interests involve using eye-tracking to better understand why radiologists may miss a finding and using natural language processing to improve the accurate communication of findings in the radiology report.

Robert “Rob” Rosiello, MBA

Rob Rosiello joined Flagship Pioneering in 2018. He focuses on building capability to help originate, manage, and grow new Flagship companies. He also works with senior leadership to drive Flagship’s strategy, institution building, and growth initiatives.

From September 1984 to June 2015, Mr. Rosiello worked at McKinsey & Company advising CEOs and boards of leading health care, technology, and consumer companies. He served as a senior partner for 18 years and was a member of McKinsey’s Senior Partner Review and Compensation Committees. Mr. Rosiello led the work that shifted McKinsey’s recruiting toward non-MBAs and developed innovative leadership training for McKinsey’s senior partners. He also led significant pro bono work for Save the Children, Americares, Carnegie Corporation, and Fairfield University.

From July 2015 to August 2016, Mr. Rosiello was both Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Valeant Pharmaceuticals, where he led the finance, human resources, and IT functions. Mr. Rosiello led Valeant’s financial restatement and regained timely reporting status with the SEC.

Mr. Rosiello currently serves on the Board and Executive Committee of Catholic Charities of New York and the Central Selection Committee of the Morehead-Cain Foundation. He previously served on the Boards of the Pew Research Center and Inari Agriculture.

Mr. Rosiello received his BA in economics from the University of North Carolina, where he was a Morehead Scholar and graduated Phi Beta Kappa, an MSc in economics from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Catherine Mahoney Thomas

Catherine Thomas is the Executive Director and President of the Board of Trustees of the Whitehall Foundation. Founded in 1937, the Whitehall Foundation, through its program of grants, supports basic research in neurobiology. The foundation disburses over four million dollars annually to scientific researchers throughout the United States.

Ms. Thomas has been a member of the Board of Trustees at The Sandwich Glass Museum since 2023. She was previously a Trustee at the Sturgis Charter Public School in Hyannis, MA from 2016-2022. She has been involved with the Sturgis Parent’s Association in a variety of roles since 2012, including as President (2015-2016), Vice-President (2014-2015) and Auction Co-Chair (2014-2015). Ms. Thomas received her BA in Economics from Connecticut College.

Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams, MD, PHD

Lewis T. “Rusty” Williams, MD, PhD is the Executive Chairman and co-founder of Ten30 Bio. Prior to Ten30 Bio, he was the co-founder and CEO of Walking Fish Therapeutics, a B cell therapy company.

Dr. Williams founded and served as chairman, and CEO of Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc., a public biotechnology company acquired by Amgen and was a co-founder and member of the Cor Therapeutics Board, a public biotechnology company later acquired by Millenium. He has held senior management and board positions at Chiron Corporation ("Chiron"), acquired by Novartis and served on the boards of Beckman Coulter, Inc and many other public and private biotechnology companies.

Dr. Williams was a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and served as Director of the University's Cardiovascular Research Institution (UCSF) and Daiichi Research Center. Throughout his tenure at UCSF, he was an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Dr. Williams has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, where he trained in internal medicine and cardiology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Williams received a BS from Rice University and an MD and PhD from Duke University, where he later served on the Board of Trustees. He has also served on the Board of Trustees at the Berklee College of Music.

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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is dedicated to scientific discovery – exploring fundamental biology, understanding marine biodiversity and the environment, and informing the human condition through research and education. Founded in Woods Hole, Massachusetts in 1888, the MBL is a private, nonprofit institution and an affiliate of the University of Chicago.