Leslie Williams

Leslie Williams is an accomplished Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Board Director with more than 25 years of experience building and leading high-growth life science companies, including HC Bioscience, ImmusanT, Ventaira Pharmaceuticals, and INO Therapeutics. She is currently President & CEO of DaCapo Brainscience, where she brings a mission-driven focus to advancing new medicines for patients with serious and underserved diseases.

At DaCapo Brainscience, Leslie leads a team applying the company’s proprietary discovery platform to uncover novel pathways in neurodegenerative disease and develop small-molecule therapeutics, beginning with Parkinson’s disease.

She has a proven track record of founding and scaling innovative biotech ventures and advancing first-in-class science — from tRNA-based protein editing therapeutics for rare disease and oncology, to novel immunotherapies for autoimmune disease, to a breakthrough treatment for neonatal pulmonary hypertension based on nitric oxide, a discovery recognized with the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Leslie has served as a Venture Partner and holds extensive fundraising experience as a CEO, having raised more than $300 million in venture capital and non-dilutive funding through philanthropy, strategic partnerships, and collaborations. She has led organizations from discovery through clinical development and successful exits, with deep expertise across strategy, operations, corporate development, and regulatory planning.

Her therapeutic experience spans autoimmune and rare diseases, genetic medicine, oncology, respiratory and critical care. Leslie’s board service includes BIO, MassBio, Ocular Therapeutix (Nasdaq: OCUL), Axelyf Inc., Make-A-Wish Massachusetts & Rhode Island, CSCRI, and the Advisory Board of Life Science Cares. She has also served as an Operating Partner at Accelerator Life Science Partners, Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the University of Virginia and the University of Iowa, a Mentor with the Termeer Foundation, and a Founding Ambassador of BioBoost.

Trained as a critical-care nurse, Leslie brings a deeply patient-centered perspective to leadership. She holds an MBA from Washington University’s Olin School of Business and a B.S. in Nursing/Biology, cum laude, from the University of Iowa, where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award (2015) and the College of Pharmacy Honorary Alumni Award (2019).