Draft:John Oyler

John V. Oyler is the CEO, chairman, and co-founder of global biotechnology company BeiGene. Before founding BeiGene in 2010, he was co-founder and CEO at BioDuro and a leader at various other start-ups.

Education and early career
Oyler grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he started his first business renting and selling items to fellow students. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1990. He began his career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a role that involved travel to China and led him to develop an interest in the biopharmaceutical industry. During his time at McKinsey, he earned an MBA degree from Stanford University and continued to work there after graduate school.

Oyler joined Genta, a biotechnology company focused on cancer drugs, in 1997. At Genta, Oyler hired new management and grew the company's valuation from a few million dollars to $1.7 billion.

In 1998, Oyler was a founder of Telephia, a telecom research company where he served as president. Nielsen Holdings acquired Telephia, at the time a leading provider of research on consumer mobile phone use, in 2007. Oyler was also CEO of Galenea, a company focused on treatments for psychiatric diseases, from 2002 to 2004.

In 2005, Oyler returned to China and co-founded BioDuro, a contract research organization. Oyler served as CEO, and the co-founders also provided all initial financing for the firm. PPD acquired BioDuro in 2009.

BeiGene
Oyler co-founded BeiGene in 2010 with Dr. Xiaodong Wang, whom Oyler met while working at BioDuro. Oyler and Wang provided part of the startup funding for the business, including $10 million in capital from Oyler. Oyler is the company's Chairman and CEO.

Under his leadership, BeiGene developed and marketed two cancer medicines: Tevimbra, a checkpoint inhibitor, and Brukinsa, a Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Oyler and Wang envisioned a company that could produce affordable cancer medicines, so Oyler has focused on building up BeiGene's internal research capabilities to reduce clinical trial costs. The company has built up the capacity to run clinical trials in several regions simultaneously, providing larger numbers of patients with more diversity.

Oyler has also built up the company's global presence without locating primary operations in only one country, emphasizing how online collaboration is key to the company's operations. As of 2023, BeiGene had 10,000 employees.

Oyler joined the board of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization in June 2019. PharmaVoice named Oyler one of the top 100 pharmaceutical industry leaders of 2022.

Personal life
Oyler is married and has one daughter.