Who We Are

Executive Director  

Ilene Fischer joins WEST from Enagility LLC, a performance and consulting firm focusing on organizational change, where she served as Managing Director. Previously, she served as Managing Director for consulting services, Tom Peters Company; Partner accountable for organizational learning at PA Consulting Group; Associate Partner, Innovation Associates (IA), founded by Peter Senge; Quality Manager, Honeywell; chemical engineer, Raytheon. Fischer has a B.S. in Chemistry and has completed graduate studies in business at Harvard University.  She published an article on culture change published in Business 2.0 and she was a contributor to The Fifth Discipline Field Book, Peter Senge. Fischer has been a mentor for the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) Boston Program in 2008 and 2010; Chairperson for HBA’s Executive Women’s Series in 2010 and is a Board member for HBA’s Women Executive Series in 2011.  Her pioneering efforts on behalf of women include establishing one of the first battered women’s shelters in the US, leading the Boston Chapter of Wealth (Women Executives Advancing Life Sciences, Technology and Healthcare) and serving as president of the National Organization for Women, Northeastern Pennsylvania chapter.

Board of Directors

Chair:

Alexandra (Sandra) Glucksmann, Ph.D., is currently Senior Vice President of Research and Business Operations at Cerulean Pharma, which she joined in October 2006 at its founding. Cerulean Pharma is developing a proprietary nanoparticle technology designed to improve the safety and efficacy of marketed and development-stage drugs. Prior to joining Cerulean, she spent 13 years at Millennium Pharmaceuticals which she joined in 1993 as one of its first scientists.At Millennium, she held a series of positions of increasing responsibility, ultimately becoming vice president of all platform technology groups before moving into a senior role in strategic program management and operations,where she worked closely with the CEO and led company-wide process improvement initiatives and participated in business development and M&A efforts. During her tenure at Millennium, Alexandra was critical to helping Millennium evolve from a genomics research-focused organization to a fully integrated pharmaceuticals company with products on the market. Her division played an integral role in the numerous Millennium-large pharma collaborations, which raised over $1.8 billion in funding for the company. She serves on the Board of Directors of Taconic Farms and is the Chair of the Board of Women Entrepreneurs in Science and Technology. She is also a member of Genetics Advisory Council of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics. Sandra was a post-doctoral fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds a Ph.D. with honors from the University of Chicago.

Nikki Borman has over 30 years experience in the management of higher education, intellectual property, and academic medical centers.  She is the Founder and Principal Consultant of Borman & Company, LLC., which actively advises clients on complex technical, regulatory and business matters including  intellectual property management, regulatory support, and open innovation.  Prior to this she served as Manager, Biomedical Strategy Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and was Vice President for Affiliate Members at Association of Technology Managers (AUTM).  She also served as a Senior Manager at Ernst & Young, and as a Manager at KPMG Advisory.  She was a Finance and Systems Manager at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and holds a BA in Social Science and Psychology, and an MA in Administration from Ohio State University.

Beth Edwards is on the Commercial team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, after being a Finance director for the past three and a half years.  Prior to joining Vertex, Beth was in senior sales and marketing positions at Johnson and Johnson.  Her previous background is in technology with stints at Forrester Research, a number of start-ups, and in corporate Venture Capital.  Beth received her MBA at University of Pennsylvania/Wharton, and is currently a Masters of Public Health Candidate at UMass.  She has always been passionate about helping women and entrepreneurs grow learn and grow – she has been a long time Radcliffe mentor, corporate ambassador, and Venture Mentor for the MIT 100k competition.

Joel MacAuslan, Ph.D., is Chief Executive and Chief Science Officer of STAR Analytical Services, which provides mathematical and analytical capability for clients' innovation projects that require expertise in system modeling, signal processing, and nonlinear dynamics - from brain surgery to rocket science.. He has spent over twenty years in mathematical speech, signal, and image-processing analysis. He founded STAR on an NIH grant to apply techniques of chaos theory to the dynamics of the larynx. Joel has participated actively in WEST since early 2000. Joel holds a PhD in Astrophysics from Cornell and has spent over twenty-five years in mathematical speech, signal, and image-processing analysis.

Jane Mason is currently Vice President, Commercial Services, at Cambridge Trust Company and is based at the Cambridge Innovation Center. Jane holds an MBA from Simmons School of Management and has over 25 years of experience in entrepreneurial, large corporate, consulting, and small business environments. Her experience includes a position as vice president of an international consulting firm, founder of Boston Business Ventures, and corporate financial analyst for a multi-national consumer electronics conglomerate and a publicly-traded (NASDAQ) manufacturing company. Jane’s career focus has been in corporate finance, strategic planning, M&A, turnaround and workout assignments. She has served on various boards and is currently a member of the Board of Incorporators for the Boston Local Development Corporation, member of the SBANE Women’s Business Committee, and has volunteered time and resources to the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship, Women’s Business Opportunities Program, and the South Boston Main Street Economic Restructuring Committee.

Patricia McGloin is a global marketing executive who is best known for her leadership in the areas of strategic positioning, branding, go-to-market planning and execution.  Pat inspires teams to peak performance and develops innovative, high impact programs for organizations of various sizes.  Early in her career, she co-founded a specialized book publishing company, and has maintained that entrepreneurial spirit in her leadership roles in Fortune 100 companies such as Digital Equipment Corporation.  Most recently, Pat was Director of Marketing and Communications at IBM.    Pat’s Harvard education included a major in Social Studies with a focus on International Political Economy.  As an aspiring marine biologist, she majored in math and biology in her previous studies.  Pat currently chairs the Marketing Committee for WEST.

Chair Emeritus:

Janice Bourque is former Senior Vice President and Group Head-Life Sciences for Comerica Bank where she was responsible for leading Comerica’s national strategy for the life sciences.  Prior to that, Ms. Bourque was President/CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council (MBC) where she led the organization for 12 years. Under her leadership, the MBC membership grew from 80 to over 400 organizations with revenue increasing from $500,000 to over $4.1 million.  Ms. Bourque created multiple services, policy initiatives and the Education Foundation (MassBioEd) that focused on science education, workforce training and public awareness.  Under Ms. Bourque’s tenure, the MassBiotech 2010 was released which provided a blueprint for Massachusetts to remain at the forefront of the biotechnology revolution. Ms. Bourque has held several previous senior managerial positions, including CFO of Cambridge Medical Technology Corporation, senior public accountant for Coopers & Lybrand Emerging and Middle Market Group, and as a NASA Space Science grant project manager for the first satellite payloads to be repaired by the space shuttle missions.  Ms. Bourque was a member of Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s Transition Team.  She is currently a member of the Boston History Collaborative Board of Directors and Chair of the Board of the Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology (WEST).  In 2004, she was awarded the Woman of Valor Award by the American Diabetes Association and the 2004 Distinguished Leadership Award by the Huntington Disease Society for her work in public policy and public health.  In 2003, Boston Magazine named her one of Boston’s 100 most influential women and the Cambridge Chamber Commerce awarded her Business Person of the Year. Ms. Bourque received her MBA degree in finance and accounting and her BS degree in veterinary science from the University of New Hampshire.