Leen Kawas is no stranger to being one of the only women in the room. As a scientist, biotech founder, venture capitalist, and now CEO of EIT Pharma, she’s spent most of her career navigating industries where women—particularly immigrant women—remain underrepresented. But rather than treat her ascent as a personal milestone, Kawas has made it part of her mission to expand the ladder for others.
Her philosophy is simple, but strategic: real equity in STEM requires more than scholarships and panel discussions. It requires durable networks. Mentorship circles, funding pathways, operational guidance, and shared visibility—not just for rising stars, but for mid-career professionals who often face the steepest drop-off. In Kawas’s view, these networks aren’t side projects. They’re infrastructure.
Throughout her leadership journey—from co-founding and taking Athira Pharma public to launching Propel Bio Partners, a life sciences venture fund—Leen Kawas has stayed closely attuned to the unseen mechanics that shape career trajectories. She understands that talent alone isn’t enough. Access, trust, and timing matter just as much. And for women in STEM, those levers are often harder to reach.
That’s why she focuses her energy on building platforms—not just businesses. Propel Bio Partners, where she serves as managing general partner, invests in biotech companies with transformative science—but it also champions diverse leadership teams. The fund doesn’t just cut checks. It brings founders into an ecosystem of operational support and strategic mentorship, helping to fill the gap that many women leaders face as they transition from science bench to C-suite.
Kawas also actively mentors other women navigating the dual demands of scientific rigor and executive leadership. She’s known for her candor around topics often kept quiet: imposter syndrome, fundraising bias, boardroom dynamics. Her guidance isn’t abstract—it’s rooted in lived experience. As one of only 22 women in U.S. history to take a biotech company public as founder and CEO, Kawas understands the subtle frictions that can compound when women lack peers, sponsors, or role models at critical junctures.
She also recognizes that visibility compounds. That’s why she regularly amplifies the work of other women in science—whether through investor introductions, speaking opportunities, or simply making space in conversations that matter. For Kawas, leadership means bringing others along. Not in tokenized ways, but in ways that genuinely shift who gets heard, funded, and trusted.
Crucially, Kawas doesn’t treat “women in STEM” as a monolith. She’s particularly attuned to intersectionality—how race, nationality, and socioeconomic background shape access and belonging. Her own path from Jordanian immigrant to biotech executive shapes the way she thinks about gatekeeping. She believes that networks must not only be opened—they must be designed for inclusion from the outset. Learn more about her background in this interview with Billion Success.
At the policy level, Kawas advocates for structural change: increased government and private sector investment in female-founded STEM ventures, better parental leave infrastructure in lab-based roles, and grant programs that reward team diversity as a sign of research strength, not just equity compliance.
But she also believes in cultural shifts—making mentorship a norm rather than a favor, teaching negotiation skills alongside lab techniques, and instilling confidence early in the pipeline. For Kawas, changing the numbers is only part of the goal. The deeper mission is to change the norms—so that future generations of women in science no longer feel like outliers in their own field.
Leen Kawas’s leadership style models that change. Whether building companies or boards, she prioritizes transparency, shared credit, and ongoing learning. Her success challenges the assumption that scientific leadership must come at the cost of collaboration or authenticity. Instead, she shows that the strongest networks are those built on mutual respect, strategic support, and a willingness to name—and dismantle—the invisible structures that hold talent back.
Leen Kawas has proven that it’s possible to lead a publicly traded biotech company, launch a venture fund, and develop novel therapies while still making time to lift others. But she’s also clear: this kind of ecosystem doesn’t emerge organically. It must be built—intentionally, consistently, and with a vision wide enough to include more than just the usual suspects.
Learn more about what Leen Kawas is up to at Inherent Biosciences.
