Living with Disease: A Conversation on Life After Diagnosis

In this role, Adam heads a business unit that contributed more than one third of the company’s total revenue in 2020. He leads an organization of more than 2,500 employees that have delivered transformational medicines such as Eliquis, Opdivo, Yervoy, Zeposia and Orencia. He is passionate about cultivating a diverse and inclusive culture that prioritizes its people, performance, customers and, above all else, patients.

Adam is an experienced leader who has held numerous senior strategic and operational roles across the company. In his most recent role, he headed the company’s U.S. Oncology business, which, by revenue produced, was the single largest therapeutic division with Bristol Myers Squibb during his tenure. In 2014, he led the Worldwide Oncology Commercialization team, overseeing the launch of Opdivo, which now generates more than $1B a quarter and is widely recognized as one of the most successfully launched oncology products in history. Adam was instrumental in the design and creation of the company’s Integrated Oncology operating model to drive speed and success for marketed and pipeline oncology assets.

Adam’s full biopharma career extends more than 20 years across commercial, market access, sales and operations. He has held a number of commercial leadership positions at Bristol Myers Squibb.

He resides in Lawrenceville, NJ with his wife Candice, and two boys Andrew and Jack.

Shelley Fuld Nasso, MPP, is CEO of NCCS, where she advocates to transform the cancer care system for everyone touched by cancer. NCCS engages in public policy efforts to improve cancer care and empowers cancer survivors and caregivers to be a voice in public policy debates. Prior to joining NCCS in 2013, she led public policy efforts at Susan G. Komen. She is a graduate of Rice University and the Harvard Kennedy School. She advocates in honor of her dear friend, Dr. Brent Whitworth, a beloved physician who died of cancer at the age of 43.

Dr. Rowland is a long-time clinician, researcher and teacher in the area of psychosocial aspects of cancer. She has worked with and conducted competitively funded research among both pediatric and adult cancer survivors and their caregivers, and published broadly in psycho-oncology, including co-editing with the late Dr. Jimmie Holland the ground-breaking text, Handbook of Psychooncology.

Dr. Rowland received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University and was one of the first two psychologists to complete a post-doctoral fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in psychosocial oncology. While at Memorial, she earned her license in psychology and held joint appointments in the Departments of Neurology and Pediatrics. In 1990 Dr. Rowland moved to Washington, DC to become founding Director of the Psycho-Oncology Program at Georgetown University and the Lombardi Cancer Center. Nine years later, she was recruited to the National Cancer Institute to become the first, full-time Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship. During her tenure as Director, Dr. Rowland helped build the visibility of the Office of Cancer Survivorship and created numerous governmental and non-profit partnerships to advance public awareness about and funding for research advancing the healthspan and post-treatment care of the growing population of cancer survivors of all ages, and their families.

Upon retiring from the NCI in September 2017, Dr. Rowland assumed the role of Senior Strategic Advisor to Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, a 25-year old non-profit providing integrative care programs and services to cancer survivors, and their formal and informal caregivers, in the heart of Washington, DC. In this special role, she seeks to bring the growing evidence-base for best practices in quality survivorship care to the broader community.

Ms. Richardson has been active since treatment in various forms of advocacy. She serves on the NCI Moonshot IMPACT program, as a pre-reviewer for the DOD/OCMRP and member of the OCRA Industry Council on Disparities. Her latest endeavor is the development of the Survivors Advising Scientist Educational Program (SASEP), a collaborative program between researchers and patient advocates that creates educational content for survivors and patient advocates who want to learn more about cancer research and scientific inquiry.