Since 2012, President Farvardin has hosted the annual President’s Distinguished Lecture Series. At each edition, Farvardin invites a leader of the industry, government, or academic of science, technology, business, engineering, and one of the many other disciplines represented at Stevens to come and lecture to many members of the community of Stevens. This year’s ceremony in the UCC TechFlex on October 4 welcomed Bristol Myers Squibb Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Giovanni Caforio.
Dr. Caforio is a pharmaceutical industry leader. Caforio has served as the CEO of Bristol Myers Squibb since May 2015 and a board member since 2014 before assuming the role of chairman in 2017. In his current role, Caforio leads the company through vigorous research and development of transformational medicines and immunotherapies that are helping patients around the world live happier, healthier lives. One of Caforio’s main goals is to increase the efficiency of the development of treatments, reducing the time and cost of medicines while increasing Bristol Myers Squibb’s competitiveness. With a background as a physician, Caforio received his medical degree from the University of Rome. Before becoming CEO, Caforio worked as Chief Operating Officer (COO) with Enterprise Services and Global Manufacturing & Supply. His ascent to leadership comes after years of work at Bristol Myers Squibb, before which he worked in leadership positions at Abbott Laboratories for 12 years.
Caforio detailed Bristol Myers Squibb’s work in the pharmaceutical industry in his lecture. Initially, he explained how the cost to develop a medicine or treatment has increased exponentially in the past decades, and the time and success rates have remained modestly constant. Cafoerio used this precedence to introduce Bristol Myers Squibb’s revolutionary use of artificial intelligence and other rapidly advancing technologies that have the potential to decrease the development time of treatments significantly, increase the diversity of trials to more rural and underdeveloped communities, and drastically cut the costs of many life-saving medicines.
Cafoerio continued by explaining how the medicinal industry must expand beyond biologists and doctors to include software engineers, program developers, and computer scientists to use the technologies he hopes to bring to Bristol Myers Squibb. Following the lecture, Caforio fielded some questions from the audience and President Farvardin before receiving the President’s Medal.
Farvardin introduced the President’s Medal in 2017. Since then, each lecture series member has received the President’s Medal. This lecture series includes Associated Press Executives, leaders of the Artificial Intelligence field, scientific advisors for governments worldwide, and distinguished military leaders.
The President’s Distinguished Lecture Series and the Presidential Medal are two of the most prestigious honors at Stevens. Caforio’s lecture highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for innovation and change. It demonstrated that The President’s Distinguished Lecture Series and the Presidential Medal continue to bring leaders in various fields to Stevens to inspire and educate the community.
