Yashodhara Dash is MSK’s Vice President in the Office of Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (OEC). In October 2024, she was appointed to lead the Office (then known as the Office of Technology Development), where her team includes business development and product development professionals, as well as an Operations and Finance unit.
Under Yashodhara’s leadership, OEC actively supports the entire lifecycle of drug development at MSK, starting from discoveries made in the lab to the point at which startups are formed or technologies are licensed to pharma/biotech. The Office’s impact can be measured in many ways, including with Fast Company’s 2025 recognition of MSK as one of the “Best Workplaces for Innovators,” and MSK’s longstanding record as one of the top academic-research institutions in terms of licensing revenue.
Yashodhara’s responsibilities include leading an interrelated network of innovation-focused programs and initiatives, which are designed to drive entrepreneurship, industry partnerships, and commercialization—while empowering MSK’s community of innovators. These include the MSK Innovation Hub and iHub Challenge program; the MSK Therapeutics Accelerator and Cohort program; the Entrepreneurship Initiative (EI); the Technology Development Investment Fund (TDIF and related funds); and MSK Therapeutics Bridge Labs (Tx Bridge Labs); along with Life Sciences & Digital Health business development and licensing teams.
Yashodhara joined MSK in 2007 and has previously held a series of management roles in this Office. She received her PhD degree in immunology from the University of Connecticut Health Center in 2007. She also holds an MBA degree from the University of Connecticut and an MBBS degree from India’s SCB Medical College. She has taught an undergraduate seminar about drug development and the biotechnology industry, “The Economics and Science of Medicine,” at Yale University for the past eight years.