Guest Drew Natenshon, Dartmouth ’96, was a chemistry major but considered himself lazy and didn’t see the immediate path to a career after college. He interviewed with a small technology consulting company and became employee #32. After peaking at over 1,000 employees, the IPO in the boom years allowed him to get a really nice sports car. When his company—along with the industry—tanked, he had to sell the car (and more), but said he learned a very good lesson about how businesses should and shouldn’t run.

A friend from high school told him about a master’s program at Johns Hopkins in international development that would let him spend a year in Italy. It was all he needed to switch gears and try that. While hiking on the island of Elbe in the middle of the program, he realized that delivering preventative medicine would be a good way to marry his chemistry background and international development interests. He started finding ways to learn more and gain experience in the world of vaccine development and approval and hopped from interesting assignment to interesting assignment on multiple continents.

In this episode, find out from Drew how focusing on the impact you want to have and letting interests collide can point to the path to making the world better…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Drew Natenshon is Vice President, Program Executive in Infectious Diseases at Moderna Therapeutics, where he has led clinical developments of their Zika vaccine as well as Cytomegalovirus or CMV. Prior to his current role, he has been in vaccine research and development and program leadership roles for other companies. He lives in the Boston area with his wife and twin sons.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Research and Development: Drew Natenshon on marrying interests and seeking out impact

Roads Taken