WEST Leadership Awards

Abbie Celniker, Ph.D, Global Head of the Program Office for the Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research (NIBR).  In this role, Dr. Celniker is responsible for the global integration and oversight of the Novartis Discovery Portfolio. Prior to working for Novartis, Abbie was the senior vice president for research and development strategy and operations, and pharmaceutical sciences at Millennium Pharmaceuticals.  At the Genetic Institute division of Wyeth Ayerst Research, she was assistant vice president for predevelopment and biopharmaceutical core technologies. She has also held positions at Genentech Inc. and the University of Arizona Cancer Center. She earned her Ph.D. in molecular biology at the University of Arizona.

Irene Greif, PhD, Director, Collaborative User Experience Group, IBM Watson Research Center.  She is regarded as the founder of the field of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), technology that is essential for allowing multiple parties to collaborate on a single document simultaneously and remotely. Dr. Greif formed Lotus Research in 1992, and invented the Version Manager which analysts have consistently designated as the most significant group-enabling feature in spreadsheets. Dr. Greif is a former faculty member of Computer Science at University of Washington and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. She headed a research group in the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science which developed shared calendar, co-authoring, and real-time collaboration systems. She is a fellow of both the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Association of Computing Machinery (ACM.) Irene was inducted into the Women In Technology International (WITI) Hall of Fame in 2000. She is the first woman to earn a doctorate in computer science from MIT.

Ivana Magovcevic-Liebisch, PhD, JD, Executive Vice President of Administration and General Counsel at Dyax Corporation. In this role, she oversees the management of the IT, HR, Legal and Facilities departments for this emerging biopharmaceuticals company with 200 employees operating in two countries (US and Belgium). Dr. Magovcevic-Liebisch was instrumental for the company’s successful negotiations of a 500M dollar sanofi-aventis agreement, and she has been responsible for raising more than $135 million in equity financings.  Prior to this, she was Director of Intellectual Property and Patent Counsel at Transkaryotic Therapies, Inc. She also served as a Patent Agent at Fish & Richardson, PC. And a Technical Specialist at Lahive & Cockfield, LLP. She earned a JD from Suffolk University Law School and a PhD in Genetics from Harvard University.  Ivana has successfully leveraged rigorous training in biomedical science and law to become a corporate leader and dealmaker for an innovative biotech company.

ML Mackey – CEO & Co-Founder of Beacon Interactive Systems, LLC. Ms. Mackey is remarkable because she is a woman technology CEO who has built a successful company first in the private sector, and then again in the public sector.  She started the company in a rent controlled apartment in 1992, and over nine years built it up to a profitable, self funding business providing software solutions to customers such as MetLife, Olympus, and IBM.  In the crash of 2001, Beacon successfully leveraged its core expertise to focus on SBIR and other government contracts, and has since become a preferred provider to the US Navy for workflow management solutions.  Ms. Mackey has earned the respect of many in both private and government circles, and is actively contributing input at legislative and policy levels on how to bring commercial sector innovation to the Department of Defense.  Prior to starting Beacon, Ms. Mackey worked for Digital Equipment Corporation. Ms. Mackey holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Lehigh University. She is passionate about seeing women lead their own companies and gain positions of power and influence.