I’m Julien Willard, a physician-economist who advises biopharma C-suites on strategy, policy, and operations.
For nearly 15 years, I have advised senior leadership in life sciences – at the World Bank, Oxfam, IBM Life Sciences, and Accenture Strategy. In every role, the work has been the same: helping biopharma executives make consequential decisions on capital allocation, M&A, restructuring, technology strategy, and market access.
I bring an unusual combination of economic intelligence and diplomatic experience to this work. I trained in medicine in Moscow and in health economics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine as a Melinda Gates Scholar. I have negotiated across governments, managed multilateral health programs, and represented the UK at the UN General Assembly on pharmaceutical policy. Good science fails without good strategy. I work to close that gap. I live in San Diego.
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By the numbers
$35B+
In biopharma transactions personally led or advised – buy-side, sell-side, and integration
$1B
Corporate restructuring led end to end – P&L, workforce, and operating model
$130M
HIV vaccine program managed across governments, donors, and research institutions
$10B+
Capital allocation decisions supported with board-ready materials
Experience
- 2025 –
BioPalace
Fractional Head of Research and Investments
- 2022 – 25
IBM Life Sciences
Partner, Head of Corporate Strategy
- 2019 – 22
Accenture Strategy
Head of Corporate Strategy – North America Biotech
- 2007 – 18
World Bank, Oxfam GB
Diplomatic Service, Economic Intelligence
Areas of work
Strategic Transactions
Buy-side and sell-side advisory across $35 billion in biopharma deals. Integration planning, regulatory clearance, board materials, and shareholder defense.
Operations and Restructuring
End-to-end corporate restructuring – realigning P&L, workforce, and operating models. Resource allocation frameworks for C-suite decision-making.
Economic Intelligence and Policy
Competitive intelligence programs, scenario analysis, and technology strategy for biopharma leadership. Multilateral policy negotiation across governments and international institutions.
AI and Digital Strategy
Deploying AI in executive strategy workflows and evaluating digital therapeutics platforms across R&D, clinical, and commercial functions.
References
Julien helped to build our R&D roadmap and market analysis across teams on two continents, ready to be presented to our board. He flew to Washington and opened doors to government and international health agencies as well as several pharma partners in three days. Most strategists do only one of those things. You do not need to manage him.
Julien is an exceptional economist, diplomat, and strategist. We worked together on a $450 million public health lending operation. He possesses two critical traits: non-intuitive thinking and skill in high-pressure negotiations. He is a very confident and ruthless operator.
Dr. Willard is uncompromising in his strategic focus. He operates at the forefront of corporate and digital strategy, and he helped bring Pfizer's clinical development program into the innovation realm with quantum computing and AI. He is rare – a physician who understands both the science and the boardroom.
Julien is a perfectionist. His work as our business and technology advisor was central to our innovation. He is no yes-man; expect pushback, grounded in data and research.
Julien is one of the few advisors I have worked with who connects global supply chain, corporate strategy, and digital into a single point of view. That made him an effective counsel and execution partner to our C-suite. He earns the room.
Dr. Willard advised us on strategy and economic intelligence in biopharmaceutical development in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Julien was very effective as both a strategic advisor and an economist, particularly in how to work effectively with governments and the private sector on biosecurity and new drug development, the latter during some very difficult moments. He is able to range in his thinking from high-level systems analysis and business planning to very specific implementation challenges.
I work with biopharma leadership ready to move – on transactions, on growth, on the hard operational decisions that separate companies that scale from those that stall. If you need a strategist and operator, I would welcome a conversation.