Bashayer Alshehri

Founder and Managing Director

Bashayer Alshehri works on cell and gene therapy from both the clinical and the industry side, and founded the Saudi Pharma and Biotech Network, a member led non-profit that connects Saudi talent across pharmaceuticals and biotechnology through mentorship, events and shared knowledge, and that is open to students as well as working professionals. Its gatherings bring together founders, operators, investors, corporates, regulators and enabling partners, and have included entrepreneurship sessions run with Monsha'at, the Saudi authority for small and medium enterprises. She trained as a clinical pharmacist in oncology, haematology and stem cell transplantation at the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, one of the Kingdom's main referral systems for cancer and transplant care, and studied at the University of Illinois Chicago. She then moved into industry, holding a medical manager role at Kite Pharma, the Gilead company that develops CAR T cell therapies for blood cancers. Her focus is on what it takes to build cell and gene therapy capability inside Saudi Arabia rather than importing it.