Leadership

Dr. John P. Leonard is senior associate dean for innovation and initiatives and the Richard T. Silver Distinguished Professor of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine. He is executive vice chair of the Weill Department of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he also serves as attending physician. He received his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed his residency in medicine at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Dr. Leonard completed a fellowship in hematology and oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine and served as chief medical resident at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Leonard's primary research interests are in the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of lymphoma and related hematologic malignancies. Much of his work has involved the development of novel therapies for lymphoma, including monoclonal antibodies, other immune-based treatments, targeted agents and other innovative approaches. Dr. Leonard’s research has been published in numerous medical journals, and he has served as a member of the editorial boards of Blood and Journal of Clinical Oncology. He is chair of the Lymphoma Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology, a multi-center cooperative group and key component of the National Cancer Institute’s National Clinical Trials Network. Dr. Leonard has been a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Subspecialty Board on Hematology and is elected to membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation.

Since 2020, in his role as senior associate dean for innovation and initiatives, he leads Weill Cornell Medicine’s efforts to foster a dynamic culture of entrepreneurship and innovation and promote commercialization opportunities for inventions developed by its investigators. He oversees Weill Cornell Medicine Enterprise Innovation, a robust innovation ecosystem that accelerates the transfer of technologies to industry partners and the health care marketplace in order to maximize their impact.

Dr. Lisa Placanica is senior managing director, Center for Technology Licensing at Weill Cornell Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for overseeing activities in technology management, marketing, licensing and outreach to support Cornell’s goals in commercializing technologies, promoting startups and building alliances. As part of Weill Cornell Medicine’s research leadership, she provides strategic guidance and advice to senior leadership on matters relating to intellectual property, innovation and entrepreneurship and the formation, launch and operation of Weill Cornell Medicine Enterprise Innovation.

Prior to joining Weill Cornell Medicine in 2020, Dr. Placanica held the position of managing director, Business Development and Licensing at Mount Sinai Innovation Partners. In this role, she was responsible for managing a team of business development professionals focused on identifying, advancing and partnering therapeutic technologies developed at the Mount Sinai Health System and acted as deal team lead for closing complex intellectual property transactions. Dr. Placanica was also a licensing manager in the Office of Technology Development at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where she focused on development and commercialization of cell and gene therapy related inventions and previously was a key member of the Cell Biology research group at Athersys, Inc in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Placanica received her Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences where she studied the biochemical composition of gamma secretase and its role in Alzheimer’s Disease in the laboratory of Dr. Yueming Li at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Cornell University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude with Distinction.

In 2013, Dr. Placanica became a Certified Licensing Professional.