Back Bay Celebrates 8 Years and 450 Life Science Assignments
By Jonathan P. Gertler
Back Bay’s first day was April 8, 2010. In those days, we occupied a small walk-up office on Newbury Street in Boston. Today, we are 450 BioPharma and MedTech assignments more experienced, 30 life science experts strong and operate globally from an entire floor of bright offices overlooking the Boston skyline. All this, as we get ready to celebrate our eighth birthday. Thank you to all who have made this growth possible and for the privilege of working alongside you.
On April 8, Back Bay Life Science Advisors turns eight. In 2010, Mark King and I founded the firm with vision, energy, hope, and some help from our network. In 2018, we couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome. From a singular moment of realization that we wanted to do things our way, we started Back Bay with three people in two small rooms, combining entrepreneurial spirit stemming from stubbornness, openness to risk, and an idea that would not let go. To this, we added experience from our many successful years in academia, industry and medicine.At the heart of life sciences is medicine, which brings me back further than 2010 to my roots. Nineteen years ago, to the month, I gave my final surgical Grand Rounds at the Massachusetts General Hospital. I spoke about the National Institutes of Health’s purpose to bring healthcare innovation, and thus better care, to the American people – something my colleagues and I sometimes forgot as we chased grants and funding as a source of academic prowess. I felt passionate about this and spoke to responsible clinical development and commercialization as the collective purpose of the academic, financial, and corporate communities.This vision sparked Back Bay’s genesis and guides us always. Every step is informed by lessons learned from challenging clinical life as well as the knowledge that humanity is vulnerable and scientific excellence is the root of progress. Only after understanding these things can life science businesses be successful.Guided by this founding vision, Back Bay is today one of the few truly integrated strategy consulting and transaction platforms, with expertise along the continuum of stage, sector, and geography across every therapeutic class. We are called to the table to unravel the toughest challenges faced by Biopharma and MedTech companies, tackling more than 450 assignments across the life sciences sector, from gleam-in-the-eye preclinical technology platforms to $2 billion established brands. We work with local and global companies on both the buy and sell side of transaction execution. Simultaneously, Back Bay has spun out two companies that are making good progress and have investment capability on our near horizon.Our clients and partners challenge and support us, providing repeat business and creating new relationships for Back Bay. This allows us to grow, but never stray from the foundation of medicine, as well as our basic principles of integrity, intellect, analytic rigor and our tremendous sense of purpose.With this, I am most gratified by Back Bay’s culture. Because of it, I have the privilege of working with intelligent, highly capable people who share this purpose. Our senior partnership has worked side by side for all eight years, led by Steve Gauldie, Michelle Hoffmann and Chris Leo on the consulting side, and Greg Benning and Vasilios Kofitsas on the transaction side. We see our people thrive and contribute by putting their entrepreneurial shoulders to the wheel. The spirit of camaraderie and collegiality makes it a pleasure to go to work every day.Happy Birthday, Back Bay Life Science Advisors! Here’s to data-driven decision making and contributing to the greater good – for our industry and the world.Warm best,Jonathan