Jana Jensen

Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer at Excelsior Sciences

Speaker

Jana Jensen, Ph.D., is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Excelsior Sciences, Inc., a company dedicated to ushering in the molecular industrial revolution by transforming small molecule chemistry.

Prior to founding Excelsior Sciences, Jana served as the Chief Operating Officer of Deerfield Discovery and Development (3DC), where she partnered with CEO Mike Foley to build the team, infrastructure and partnerships behind a new model for innovative drug discovery.

Jana is passionate about translating groundbreaking ideas into practical, scalable impact. Her expertise lies in guiding scientific innovation toward focused execution and operational success.

Before her role at 3DC, she was Vice President and Head of Business Operations at Covance, leading a 300-person global team supporting a 20,000-employee organization. There she drove long-term strategy planning, governance and internal communications.

Jana’s earlier career spanned two decades in the biopharma industry, including scientific and leadership roles at Merck, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb. She began her career as a research scientist and advanced through project and portfolio management to executive operations leadership roles.

Jana holds a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and an M.B.A. from Rutgers University.