Jay Stella, MBA

Jay Stella is the Chief Business Officer of Strand Therapeutics. He has almost three decades of experience across various disciplines, often at the intersection of strategy, finance, and operations. Prior to joining Strand, Jay was responsible for Corporate Strategy and Business Development at Akouos, Inc., a Boston-based precision genetic medicines company and played an instrumental role in the sale of the company to Eli Lilly for about $500M. Jay spent 15 years at Takeda Pharmaceuticals, including time at Millennium prior to the acquisition by Takeda. At both Millennium and Takeda, Jay held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of Strategy & Operations for Preclinical Development and CMC, leading strategic initiatives for scalability and sustainability, global cross-functional operating models, and modality diversification. As Chief of Staff for Takeda’s Center for External Innovation, Jay worked alongside industry leaders in R&D Business Development, Corporate Venture, Strategic Academic Alliances, and a Rare Disease Incubator, while overseeing External Outreach and Due Diligence. Jay also led divestitures of certain assets and operations in Japan to support Takeda’s R&D Transformation. In addition to his time at Millennium and Takeda, Jay worked at Sai Life Sciences, Biogen, Genetics Institute, and as an independent consultant. He currently serves as a Trustee of Tower School of Marblehead and on the Board of Directors of Reforest the Tropics. Jay received a Baccalaureate degree from the University of Vermont and an MBA from Boston University.