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Bo Han’s two-year-old daughter Zoe inspired her to join the young and innovative biotech company Orbital Therapeutics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“During my parental leave, my daughter gave me the time away from work to reflect on what I wanted next in my legal career,” Han says. “Lawyers are, by nature, risk adverse. At first, I was hesitant to leave the innovation law department at Bristol Myers Squibb, an established, global biopharmaceutical company. I had built strong relationships with my colleagues and clients at BMS, and I worried about the volatile nature of the biotech industry.
“However, as I learned more about Orbital’s science, people, and mission, I felt compelled to seriously consider the exciting opportunity to help build the company and to lead its IP strategy. Reading all those children’s books to my daughter about reaching for the stars gave me the final push to make the leap to Orbital.”
Han, vice president of intellectual property at Orbital Therapeutics, supports the young company’s goal of developing new and groundbreaking RNA medicines. From her chair, Han is tasked with leading the company’s IP strategy, collaborating with R&D teams to protect the company’s innovations, and providing legal guidance to help bring innovative RNA medicines to the marketplace.
“Reading all those children’s books to my daughter about reaching for the stars gave me the final push to make the leap to Orbital.”
Bo Han
Her role requires significant relationship-building and collaboration with researchers, who are talented scientists but may not speak “legalese.”
“My work is about building relationships and gaining the trust and respect of our researchers,” Han explains. “By building strong relationships, I can more effectively learn about the exciting science that we are developing. I then translate the often-technical language of IP law into understandable, practical legal guidance.
“Through this two-way communication, we ensure that we capture our innovations with strong, high-quality IP protection. Our efficient communication also helps guide the direction of our research and accelerates our development of innovative RNA medicines.”
Moreover, Han says she has greatly enjoyed collaborating with Orbital’s C-suite and the board of directors to shape IP strategy that supports the company’s mission.
The VP also says a small company like Orbital is a fantastic place to put diversity, equity, and inclusion at the forefront of its operations. Han, who immigrated to Raleigh, North Carolina, from Taiyuan, China, when she was seven years old, is also a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She knows what it means to feel like an outsider and therefore understands the importance of supporting DEI efforts to bring diverse perspectives to the table.
“In my foundational days at the law firm WilmerHale, I had fantastic mentors who may not have looked like me, but who provided invaluable training and guidance that helped shape me as a lawyer,” the VP says.
“I am also fortunate to have had wonderful mentors and sponsors at BMS. It is important for a company to have leaders who look like you, but also allies who support you in your development. The value of allyship should not be underestimated.”
At Orbital, a company of about fifty people, Han says she strives to be an approachable leader, a role model, and an ally for younger professionals navigating their careers.
“It comes down to figuring out what works for your family … Just remember you can’t do it alone, and you’re not supposed to.”
Bo Han
It’s about more than Han’s legal, scientific, and business proficiency. She has also managed a successful career while she and her wife raise two young children. Han is a working mother who says she is continually working to balance her duties at home with her career. But she is doing it.
Han and her wife, Yuanxin, a software engineer, have divided parenting duties about as evenly as possible, each carrying one of their children to birth. But Han says particularly for those in same-sex relationships, there has been extra work for her family to figure out how to divide that work fairly. They have learned that it’s important to be communicative and flexible.
“It comes down to figuring out what works for your family,” Han says simply. “And that can be different for your first child than it is for your second. Just remember, you can’t do it alone, and you’re not supposed to.”
Han says she’s also grateful for her parents, who are loving grandparents and have gladly helped with childcare responsibilities. Han’s parents both have backgrounds in science and research, and they had a significant influence on the career she pursued. Han had considered pursuing medicine, but through her parents’ guidance and her volunteering and internship experiences, she ultimately found her career path combining her interest in science and the law.
“My parents were pretty evolved in their thinking,” Han says. “I felt supported in my decision and career path, and I have taken so many of the lessons they taught me and translated them into my work.”
As Han continues to help propel Orbital Therapeutics forward, the VP, attorney, IP expert, mother, and wife will continue to be a beacon for diverse attorneys everywhere, highlighting just how far a motivated woman can go with a supportive network. It may be impossible to “have it all,” but Han’s life paints a compelling counterargument.
