Alumni Spotlight - September 2026

How long were you a member of miLEAD? What positions did you hold?

I was part of miLEAD for 2.5 years. During my time with miLEAD, I served as a consultant, project manager, and ultimately joined the Board of Directors as the Director of Public Relations.

What was the most interesting project you were involved with while in milead?

The most interesting project that I worked on was as the lead consultant for a water management startup company. We performed nationwide surveys for them with potential customers to identify the available market and performed independent research on their competitor base.

How did miLEAD help you obtain your current position?

My experiences at miLEAD were very helpful in providing me with experience in leading small teams in a professional setting and dealing with clients in a client-facing position. It gave me an opportunity to demonstrate on my resume and through interviews to consultancy firms and law firms that I was capable of working with clients to solve difficult problems. This was a type of experience that I would not have had if not for miLEAD and it allowed me to be successful in obtaining job offers at both a biotechnology consultancy firm and an Intellectual Property law firm. After weighing both opportunities, I moved forward with the law firm position.

What Is your day-to-day life like in your current position?

My current position is Director of Intellectual Property at BioNTech, a multinational and publicly traded pharmaceutical company. I have been at BioNTech for two years, following almost seven years at an IP law firm. My day-to-day work focuses on all aspects of patent law, including interfacing with scientific experts and inventors, drafting patent applications, working alongside regulatory and legal colleagues on clinical and contractual matters, and identifying business risks and opportunities (e.g., freedom to operate issues, opportunities to enforce our IP).

What Skills did you learn through milead that you use in your current position?

The primary skills that I learned through miLEAD that still apply today is the ability to consider a business problem with creativity and flexibility. It is a skill in-and-of-itself to understand the actual business problem to be solved. A client may come to you with a series of questions (in my current role, questions about whether we can file patent protection on a specific concept or idea, etc.) and you need to be able to anticipate secondary questions that may arise from those initial questions. I started to learn and improve on this particular skill while working with miLEAD.

What advice would you give to current or prospective miLEAD consultants?

My advice would be to dive in headfirst and ask a lot of questions of any and all people that you interact with. If you get a chance to sit in the room with a C-suite executive or an investor or anyone involved in the business side of science, ask questions and demonstrate interest in their work and experiences.