Moderna co-founder discusses making a difference, his push to transform Armenia into tech-creating nation

LOS ANGELES – As April marks Armenian Historical past Month in LA County, FOX 11 is highlighting a company and a person who’s making a distinction in individuals’s lives.

This week, we spoke with Dr. Noubar Afeyan, who’s the co-founder and chairman of Moderna and founder-CEO of Flagship Pioneering. Dr. Afeyan is the co-founder and chairman of Moderna and the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering. 

He’s additionally the co-founder of FAST (Basis for Armenian Science and Expertise). Dr. Afeyan traveled to Los Angeles to function the keynote speaker for the Advance Armenia Gala, FAST’s inaugural fundraising gala. 

FAST is working to remodel Armenia from a largely technology-consuming nation to a technology-creating nation. Dr. Afeyan is deeply concerned in lots of philanthropic efforts — a lot of which contain Armenia. Through the years, he has acquired many awards for his entrepreneurial and philanthropic contributions, together with serving to with the formation of 76 healthcare and life sciences corporations.

All of those corporations have been on the interface between biology, expertise science and chemistry. One of many corporations, after all, is Moderna, which is now well-known for having created the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Afeyan was born in Beirut, Lebanon to Armenian mother and father. He lived there till the civil warfare in 1975. As a youngster, he and his household escaped to Montreal, Canada as political refugees. 

He attended McGill College, majored in chemical engineering and went on to graduate from MIT. And at 24, he began his personal firm.

You’ll be able to click on right here for extra info on Dr. Afeyan. 

Under is Araksya’s full interview with Dr. Afeyan:

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