Mary Tolikas named Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer

Mary Tolikas, MBA, PhD, has been named Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, effective April 1, 2022. In this role she will lead Dana-Faber’s efforts to accelerate innovations by teaming with investigators to identify exciting discoveries, and by forming collaborative alliances to move our science from the laboratory to the clinic faster to help patients everywhere. 

“Mary’s extensive experience in establishing and growing technology-based organizations in both industry and academia will serve her well in this role and will be instrumental as she grows our work in this important area,” said Laurie H. Glimcher, MD, President and CEO, Dana-Farber.

Most recently Tolikas has been the Chief Executive Officer at Wyss Center for Bio & Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to that she was instrumental in the launching and growth of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University where she spent almost ten years on the leadership team as Operations Director.

During her tenure at Harvard University, she also served as Executive Director for Special Projects at the Office of the Provost and was co-instructor in the Masters in Design Engineering Program, offered by the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Prior to joining Harvard University, she served as Director of Business Development at Ansoft Corporation. Earlier in her career, she held various executive and engineering roles in a number of start-up companies in markets ranging from automotive to medical.

She holds a B.Eng. degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA degree from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.

“I am honored and inspired to join a team that has the sole mission to reduce the burden of cancer. I look forward to contributing to Dana-Farber’s efforts, helping accelerate pioneering work in cancer research to the patient,” said Tolikas.