From Scientist to Strategic Leader: How the MIT EMBA Helped One Alum Bridge Two Worlds

At age nine, Bill Desmarais took apart a toy without unplugging it and was shocked, but the experience ignited his curiosity. That drive led him to a PhD in biophysics and into biotech and pharmaceutical business development. At Eli Lilly, he felt stuck between identities—scientists viewed him as a businessperson, and executives saw him as a scientist. To break the stalemate, he entered the MIT EMBA program to gain strategic, financial, and leadership skills. A year after graduating, he joined a Cambridge biotech firm and was quickly leading major deals and expanding his career growth, influence, and impact.

What made you decide to pursue an Executive MBA at MIT Sloan?

I spent more than a decade in business development at Eli Lilly, but was still seen primarily as a scientist. The business side of the company relied on me for scientific evaluation, but they wouldn’t let me negotiate contracts or conduct financial modeling. The scientists, on the other hand, thought I was too focused on business. I was caught between two worlds and needed a way to break free from that perception.

An MBA was the logical next step, but I didn’t want just any program. I wanted something rigorous, something that would challenge me. I looked at a few programs, but I knew that what I wanted wasn’t going to be the traditional approach to business education.

That’s when I attended a recruiting workshop at MIT Sloan. And I have to say, I was immediately struck by the difference. The experience was unlike anything I had seen before. As part of the workshop, I was given homework, which honestly scared me at first. But that moment made me realize how much MIT was asking of its students. I was impressed by how serious they were about academic rigor, and it was exactly what I was looking for.

What were some of the most valuable lessons you learned at MIT Sloan?

The biggest shift for me was realizing that data alone doesn’t drive decisions. People do. Before MIT, I believed that if I presented the right data, people would come to the obvious conclusion. But I learned that influence is just as important as analysis. One of the most valuable lessons was from Roberto Fernandez’s class, where he emphasized the “three lenses” approach to decision-making, understanding not just the logic, but also the political and cultural aspects of influencing an organization.

How did your experience at MIT Sloan influence your role when you moved to a smaller biotech company?

The great thing about MIT was that it prepared me for the kind of work I would be doing in a small biotech company. In the big pharma company where I worked, they had a hard time fitting me into a place because of my background. I had both scientific expertise and business acumen, but they didn’t know how to leverage that combination.

When I moved to the smaller biotech firm, they actively sought my unique experience. They wanted someone with a scientific background, but also someone who could bring in the business strategies and frameworks I had gained at MIT. In the smaller company, they were looking for new ideas, different ways of doing business, and a deeper understanding of their operations. That was a perfect fit for me because I had been trained at MIT to think differently about business and to approach problems from multiple angles.

How did your experience at MIT Sloan change the way you view the softer skills of business (like storytelling) in your professional work?

Before MIT, I would have absolutely just thrown data at people. I would’ve shown them charts, and more charts, and more data. I thought, "This is data-driven, this is what the numbers are telling us, and this is what we should do." I would have said, "Just look at the data." But I quickly learned at MIT, and especially through Roberto Fernandez’s class, that it’s not just about the data; it’s about the story.

I learned that the story really matters. It’s not enough to just present raw numbers; you have to put those numbers into context and make them compelling. I use that lesson every day in my current job, where I form partnerships with big pharma companies and seek funding from venture capitalists. We need to not only show the data, but we must tell a story around it. The story is crucial, and I learned how to craft that narrative during the program. It started in Roberto’s class and just further developed throughout the whole experience.

How did the EMBA program shape your approach to networking and building relationships?

The MIT EMBA radically shifted the way I view networking. Prior to enrolling, I thought of it primarily as a transactional activity—meeting people with the sole goal of advancing my career. However, MIT emphasized the value of building meaningful, long-term relationships. It wasn’t just about making contacts; it was about understanding people’s stories, perspectives, and how we could genuinely help each other.

One of the most powerful aspects of the program was the cohort experience. We came from diverse industries and backgrounds. We had people in tech, finance, healthcare, and others, which created an environment where we could learn from each other in ways that extended beyond the classroom. Some of the relationships I built during the program have become instrumental in my career. I often collaborate with peers on professional challenges or bounce ideas off them for fresh perspectives.

What was the ROI of the MIT EMBA program for you? Was it worth it?

Oh, it was definitely worth it. First of all, there’s a part that you can’t really measure in terms of money, and that’s the transformation I went through. The way I think about things now is different from how I thought about them before. The excitement I have now when I’m taking on a new project, that educational perspective, the network of friends I still tap into today. Those things are priceless. It was worth it just for that.