Co-founder and Chair of the Board of Directors, Seaport Therapeutics; Former Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, Karuna Therapeutics; Director, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH); Former Scientific Director, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH/NIH)
Dr. Steve Paul is Founder and Chair of the Board of Directors at Seaport Therapeutics. Dr. Paul previously served as the Chief Scientific Officer, President of Research and Development, and a member of the Board of Directors at Karuna Therapeutics. He also served as Chairman of the Board, President, and Chief Executive Officer from 2018 – 2022. He is an expert in drug discovery and development. Dr. Paul spent 17 years at Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), during which time he held several key leadership roles, including Executive Vice President for Science and Technology and President of the Lilly Research Laboratories. At Lilly, he was responsible for the company’s overall research and development efforts and helped oversee Lilly’s pipeline of both small molecule drugs and biologics in its core therapeutic areas of neuroscience, oncology, diabetes/obesity, and inflammation. Prior to Lilly, Dr. Paul spent 18 years at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and served as the Scientific Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Paul is a co-founder and board member of Sage Therapeutics (NASDAQ: SAGE) and a co-founder of Voyager Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VYGR), where he served as President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Paul is the former director of the Appel Alzheimer’s Disease Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medical College and is currently a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology at Washington University at St. Louis School of Medicine and a Venture Partner at Third Rock Ventures.
Dr. Paul has authored or co-authored more than 550 papers and book chapters. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). He is also an elected Fellow Emeritus of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) and served as ACNP President (1999). Dr. Paul is the Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for the NIH (FNIH) and previously served on the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in addition to serving on many other advisory committees and receiving many awards and honors for his scientific research.
Dr. Paul received his bachelor’s degree in Biology and Psychology from Tulane University and his M.S. and M.D. degrees from the Tulane University School of Medicine. He currently serves on the Board of Tulane University.
