The Business of Science:
Pamela Bush's Journey to Life Sciences Leadership
Carnegie Mellon University alumna Pamela Bush vividly recalls the day she received her Consortium scholarship for the Tepper School MBA program — it was the same day she learned she was pregnant with her first child. The scholarship, provided through The Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, offered a full-tuition, merit-based fellowship for MBA candidates.
Bush contacted Colleen McMullen, Executive Director of Community and Inclusion at the Tepper School, to request a one-year postponement of her enrollment. When she finally began her MBA studies, her baby was eight months old. “The school was super supportive when I was a student mom,” Bush says. “I attended classes from 8-5, then picked up my baby from daycare.”
Bush, who holds a Ph.D. in biological sciences from the Mellon College of Science (2002) and an MBA from the Tepper School of Business (2009), chose the Tepper School MBA program for its top-tier education and its proximity to her home in Pittsburgh.
“My goal when I came to Carnegie Mellon was to work in oncology. I wanted to find a cure for cancer.”
Most recently, she served as the chief business officer of Predictive Oncology, a life sciences company that uses artificial intelligence to develop personalized cancer therapies, where she led strategic, operational, and financial planning initiatives. Bush has finished her time with Predictive Oncology, and she is currently exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. She has pursued these meaningful goals throughout her career, holding executive and consultant roles in life sciences business development.
Bush credits the Tepper School’s MBA program with having a significant impact on her career. “There’s the immediate credibility from having an MBA from Carnegie Mellon,” she says. “The school is very analytical, and I used that skill to make smart business decisions. I’m passionate about identifying the problem we need to solve and figuring out the right questions to ask.”
She emphasized the importance of the practical experience she gained while working towards her MBA. “The capstone project for entrepreneurship was crucial for me to gain hands-on experience and tackle real-world problems,” she notes. As a Swartz Fellow at the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, she found the program transformative, providing invaluable exposure to the entrepreneurial world.
Several courses and projects shaped her educational experience. She recalls Laurie Weingart’s course on negotiations as a turning point. “I was terrified the first time we had to do a negotiation, but with practice, I improved and now actually enjoy it. Negotiating has been a key skill in my career.”
Her first post-MBA job was in finance at Eli Lilly and Company. She then moved into executive and consultant roles at various pharmaceutical, biological, and life sciences research firms where she advanced to direct business development transactions and immunology customer support.
As she reflects on her experience, she notes the inspiration she draws from Carnegie Mellon and the Tepper School's role in the development of artificial intelligence. The technology at Predictive Oncology, where she worked with AI and machine learning to create personalized cancer therapies, was developed by Carnegie Mellon professors Robert Murphy and Joshua Kangus. These innovations demonstrate the real-world impact of academic research from Carnegie Mellon on people's lives and businesses.
As a double Carnegie Mellon alumna, Bush often fields questions from science students aspiring to transition into industry. She expresses a desire to help the university develop programs that prepare science students for business careers.
“Everybody should be a scientist. I don’t know why everybody’s not a scientist,” Bush says. “I absolutely love it. It is the coolest thing to work in science at the intersection with business.”
