Leading at Every Altitude
A conversation with Dr. Karen Knudsen on the science and business of cancer research and care
There is a distinct difference between managing an organization and transforming one. In the latest episode of Precision Signals, I sat down with someone who has built a career on the latter: Dr. Karen Knudsen, the CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy (PICI).
Karen describes her upbringing as that of a “nomad” and an “army brat,” living in 11 different houses before graduating high school. That early exposure to constant change, and the stark contrast she witnessed between the secure healthcare of the military and the fragility of civilian access, instilled a certain fearlessness in her approach to leadership. Her career trajectory has been a climb through every altitude of the oncology ecosystem: from the molecular level as a yeast geneticist, to the clinical level running a massive service line at Jefferson Health, to the national stage leading the American Cancer Society (ACS), and now, to the intersection of philanthropy and venture capital at PICI.
Our conversation covered the unique mechanics of the PICI model, which effectively operates as venture philanthropy on steroids. We often talk about the “Valley of Death” in drug development, where promising science dies before it can attract commercial capital. PICI is attacking this problem by refusing to just be a check-writer. Instead, they operate as a non-profit that holds the keys to intellectual property, identifying high-risk, high-reward science and then “giving birth” to for-profit companies to bring those therapies to the clinic.
By maintaining visibility into the IP across multiple rival institutions, PICI can connect dots that others miss, combining a discovery from one lab with a vector from another to create a viable company. Karen highlighted recent successes like Dispatch Bio examples of this active de-risking strategy. It challenges the traditional boundaries between philanthropy and venture capital, proving that non-profits can be aggressive players in market-driven solutions.
Karen admits she is not a “keep the trains running” CEO. She is there to build new tracks and her approach offers a blueprint for how to navigate complex ecosystems: focus on the mission, demand business rigor, and don’t be afraid to dismantle the silos that slow us down.