R. Martin Chavez and Terry-Ann Burrell Join Recursion’s Board of Directors

Investment banking leaders known for pushing the boundaries of technology and innovation to lend their unique perspectives to the leader in tech-enabled drug discovery.

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Recursion, a digital biology company industrializing drug discovery, today announced the appointment of former chief financial officer, chief information officer and global co-head of the Securities Division at Goldman Sachs, R. Martin Chavez, and former managing director of J.P. Morgan and now CFO of Beam Therapeutics, Terry-Ann Burrell, to its board of directors, furthering its mission of decoding biology to radically improve lives. Chavez is best known for using data, software and machine learning to solve hard problems while at Goldman Sachs. Burrell, who spent 11 years with J.P. Morgan before joining Beam as CFO, is well-regarded as a financial industry veteran with expertise in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

“Recursion is on the forefront of tech-enabled drug discovery and it seems only fitting to welcome two individuals who are well known in their disciplines for having pushed the boundaries of innovative thinking,” said Chris Gibson, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Recursion. “Terry-Ann and Marty are the kinds of individuals that we need in our corner as we embark on even more bold and ambitious endeavors. They march to their own drum and aren’t afraid to do things differently, and that’s exactly what attracted us to them.”

Chavez is widely renowned as a trailblazer in bringing technology to Wall Street, revolutionizing how capital moves throughout the globe. He served in a variety of senior roles at Goldman Sachs, including CIO, CFO and global co-head of the firm’s Securities Division, and was a member of Goldman’s management committee. Previously, Chavez was CEO and co-founder of Kiodex, acquired by Sungard in 2004, and Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of Quorum Software Systems. In addition to Recursion, Chavez is an active board member for Paige, an AI-driven biomedical technology startup. He serves on the Board of Overseers of Harvard University (President), the Stanford Medicine Board of Fellows and the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study. He holds an A.B. (1985) magna cum laude in Biochemical Sciences and an S.M. (1985) in Computer Science from Harvard and a Ph.D. (1990) in Medical Information Sciences from Stanford.

“With the world focused on life-saving innovations in health, the need for accelerated therapies is more critical than ever,” said Chavez. “I’m proud to be joining the Recursion board of directors and look forward to working alongside leadership to help realize the company’s vision of digital drug discovery.”

Terry-Ann Burrell is CFO and treasurer at Beam Therapeutics. Prior to Beam, Burrell spent 11 years with J.P. Morgan, most recently as a managing director in the healthcare investment banking group. There, she had broad coverage across the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, helping to execute over $10 billion in equity and equity-linked financings, and more than $50 billion in M&A transactions. She was instrumental in advising clients on transaction considerations, including strategic rationale, valuation and structuring, and engaged with more than 100 companies during her tenure. Prior to J.P. Morgan, Burrell worked in equity research at Citigroup, where she covered specialty pharmaceuticals and generics. Burrell holds an MBA from New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.

“The combination of Recursion’s platform technology and its target-agnostic approach to drug discovery is, today, more important than ever,” said Burrell. “I feel privileged to have the opportunity to support the team as it leverages its internal capabilities to rapidly identify targets, interrogate them and advance new therapeutics on behalf of patients.”

Recursion also recently announced that Dr. Rob Hershberg, previously an executive at Celgene, also joined the board. The newly-added board members bring a wealth of operating experience and diverse backgrounds, spanning science to strategy. Recursion is the leader in technology-enabled drug discovery worldwide, and these Board members will help the company and its management team continue to grow, learn and execute to achieve its ambitious vision: to one day bring more medicines to patients and to lower the cost of drugs.

About Recursion

Recursion is a digital biology company industrializing drug discovery. Recursion does this by combining automation, artificial intelligence, machine learning, in vivo validation capabilities and a highly cross-functional team to discover novel medicines that expand our collective understanding of biology. Recursion’s rich, relatable database of 4 petabytes of biological images generated in-house on the company’s robotics platform enables advanced machine learning approaches to reveal drug candidates, mechanisms of action, novel chemistry, and potential toxicity, with the eventual goal of decoding biology and advancing new therapeutics that radically improve people’s lives. Recursion is proudly headquartered in Salt Lake City. Learn more at www.recursionpharma.com, or connect on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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