Dr. Hecht served as the co-founder and chief executive officer of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals from 1998 to 2019. Under his leadership, Ironwood grew from nine Ph.D. scientists to a commercial biotechnology company that discovered, developed and is now commercializing LINZESS^® – the branded prescription market leader in its class. Additionally, during his tenure the company pioneered new areas of science, delivered a promising development portfolio with multiple innovative drug candidates and established a valuable network of global partnerships. Through a combination of private and public equity, structured debt and partnerships, Dr. Hecht and his team raised over one billion dollars to fund these efforts. He also served on the Ironwood board from 1998 to 2019, and currently serves on the board of Kallyope Inc., a privately held biotechnology company.  Prior to founding Ironwood, Dr. Hecht was a research fellow at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Dr. Hecht earned a B.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in biology from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California at Berkeley.