It's Lonely at the Top: How 5-Time Biotech CEO Jodie Morrison Built a Network

Jodie Morrison never planned to run a company. Her career goal was VP of Clinical, and when the board at Tokai Pharmaceuticals first offered her the CEO role, she said no. She eventually took it on one condition: her board chair would meet with her every week until she felt ready. Six months later, he asked her to take the company public.

Today Jodie is CEO of Q32 Bio, a public biotech that went through a painful restructuring in 2025 and came out the other side. In 2026, Q32 reported positive Phase 2 data for bempikibart in severe alopecia areata and completed a $200 million public offering to fund its registration-directed program.

In this episode of Inspiring Women, Laurie McGraw talks with Jodie about what it takes to lead through the hard years, why asking for help is a CEO skill, and how she built one of biotech's most trusted CEO networks.

In this episode

- Why she moved from bench science to clinical research, and the stroke patient who made her stay

- Turning down the CEO role, then taking Tokai Pharmaceuticals public in 2014

- The weekly board chair meetings that helped her learn the job

- Why first-time CEOs get into trouble when they "fake it till they make it"

- Q32 Bio's turnaround: choosing alopecia areata, selling the kidney asset, and holding the team together

- Explaining tough strategic calls to a board and to public investors

- Starting The CEO Forum in March 2020, growing from 10 CEOs to more than 100 in weeks

- Bringing COVID testing to Cambridge biotech employees

- Using CEO survey data to push back on boards about return-to-office

- How Q32 Bio is setting AI governance and training employees

- Learning that the Tokai IPO had set records for women in leadership

- Why women's college networks produce so many executives and board members

- Her advice for early-career women: do the work, and find people who tell you it's possible

About Jodie Morrison

- CEO, Q32 Bio (Nasdaq: QTTB)

- Former CEO, Cadent Therapeutics (acquired by Novartis)

- Former President & CEO, Tokai Pharmaceuticals (led 2014 IPO)

- Former interim CEO, Keryx Biopharmaceuticals; former COO, Syntimmune

- Earlier clinical roles at Dyax, Curis and Diacrin

- Founder, The CEO Forum

- Board of Managers, Life Science Cares

- B.A. Neuroscience, Mount Holyoke College

About Inspiring Women

Inspiring Women is hosted by Laurie McGraw. Each episode features women leaders in health, science and business sharing how they built their careers and what they learned along the way.

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