Steven M. Paul, M.D. is the founder and chair of the board at Seaport Therapeutics and a venture partner at Third Rock Ventures. Steve is also a founder and chairman of the Board at Rapport Therapeutics. Steve is the former president and CEO of Karuna Therapeutics (now Bristol Myers Squibb), a biotechnology company developing medicines for schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease and pain. He is also a co-founder and former board member of Sage Therapeutics and Voyager Therapeutics. Steve was the founding director of the Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College, as well as professor of neuroscience, psychiatry and pharmacology. He is currently a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Steve spent 17 years at Eli Lilly and Company, during which time he served in several key leadership roles, including executive vice president of science and technology and president of the Lilly Research Laboratories. As president of the Lilly Research Laboratories, he was responsible for the company’s overall R&D strategy, expanding its efforts in neuroscience, diabetes, oncology, inflammation and biotechnology. Prior to Lilly, Steve served as a laboratory/branch chief and the scientific director of the National Institute of Mental Health. He has also served as medical director in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service.

Steve has authored or co-authored more than 550 papers and book chapters. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine. He is the chairman of the board of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health.