James Ryan

Chief Legal and Chief Business Officer at BioNtech

Speaker

James Ryan, Ph.D., is our Chief Legal and Chief Business Officer. He brings nearly 20 years of global legal and IP expertise in the pharmaceutical industry to BioNTech. James Ryan joined the Company in 2018 as General Counsel and Senior Vice President Legal & IP and was appointed to Chief Legal Officer and a Member of the Management Board in 2023. He has guided BioNTech through a wide range of key business, IP and transactional activities, mergers and acquisitions, strategic collaborations and equity capital markets transactions including the Company’s IPO in 2019. James Ryan and his teams played a pivotal role in the successful development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, supporting every legal aspect of the program, its launch and commercialization. Prior to joining BioNTech, he established the legal group of GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH), where he also served as Head of Legal Affairs. Earlier in his career, James Ryan worked for a number of UK and US law firms, including Special Counsel at Covington & Burling LLP, where he specialized in commercial and strategic transactions with a focus on companies in the life sciences sector.

James has a Ph.D. in epigenetics from the University of St Andrews, is a member of the Law Society of England & Wales, and a member of the Law Society of Ireland.