(00:00) Introduction and about the inaugural Boardroom Governance Summit

(03:03) Sue Siegel’s Background: from molecular biology and operating roles to venture capital, GE Ventures, Chief Innovation Officer of GE, and board service

(04:14) Innovation as a System: why breakthrough technology alone is not enough, and why boards need to understand the systems required to move innovation from invention to value creation

(06:00) When Success Stifles Innovation: why successful core businesses can become one of the biggest obstacles to new ideas, and how boards can help companies challenge what already works

(07:40) AI’s Impact on Life Sciences: combining imaging, clinical data, genomics, and other information to generate new insights, predictions, and digital twins

(09:33) AI and the Future of Personal Health: how tools like ChatGPT and Claude are changing how patients prepare for medical visits and how AI may reshape disease management

(11:33) Precision Medicine: how AI and genomic data are helping identify more personalized cancer therapies and monitor disease progression

(13:12) Regulating AI Across the Product Life Cycle: how continuously improving models create new questions about approval, liability, and board oversight in healthcare

(16:27) Biotech Funding and the IPO Drought: why capital has become harder to raise in life sciences and how regulation and reimbursement add friction for investors

(18:37) Navigating Shareholder Activism: Sue’s experience at Illumina with Carl Icahn and her framework to “diagnose, disaggregate, and decide”

(20:03) Red-Teaming the Company: why boards should proactively examine the thesis an activist might bring around capital allocation, governance, strategy, margins, M&A, and board composition

(22:48) U.S.-China Tensions in Life Sciences: China’s evolution from a manufacturing base and market into a major source of pharmaceutical innovation, alongside growing tensions around data, talent, clinical trials, and supply chains

(25:48) Corporate Venture Capital’s Growing Role: how CVC has evolved into a strategic tool for identifying technologies, business models, and innovation outside the company

Sue Siegel is the former Chief Innovation Officer of GE and an experienced public company director. She serves on the boards of Illumina, Align Technology, Stanford Health Care, KFF, and chairs The Engine, built by MIT.

Recorded at the inaugural Boardroom Governance Summit in Healdsburg, California, on August 27, 2026.

Join us for the next Boardroom Governance Summit, August 25–27, 2027, in Healdsburg, California. Register here.

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Music: “Seeing The Future” by Dexter Britain, via Free Music Archive, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

Sue Siegel: Innovation, AI, and the Future of Life Sciences

Boardroom Governance with Evan Epstein

Sue Siegel: Innovation, AI, and the Future of Life Sciences