SHADI FARHANGRAZI

Chief Executive Officer, S. M. Discovery Group

Dr. Shadi Farhangrazi, is a biochemist, neuroscientist, infectious diseases expert, and an expert in the area of future and emerging technologies, innovation and entrepreneurship. Dr. Farhangrazi is the CEO, president and Co-founder of S. M. Discovery Group (SMDG), a pre-clinical stage biotechnology company with an innovative technology platform for delivering therapeutics for neurological diseases.  Internationally recognized speaker, Dr. Farhangrazi teaches and works globally, and has been an advisor to major multinational companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations and biotechnology companies in such diverse areas as strategy and business development, product placement and global health.  Dr. Farhangrazi has worked on multi-million dollar projects with multinational companies and organizations including Boeing Co., The US State Department, USAID, The Home Depot Foundation, ALS Foundation and over 45 companies (small and early stage enterprises to companies which are now publicly traded) and organizations worldwide.  

Dr. Farhangrazi has advised numerous companies globally and her work has taken her over the last decade from back-country remote towns and villages in Rwanda, slums of Kenya and Mumbai, Research Parks in India and Malaysia, high tech companies in Silicon Valley, U.S. and Europe to working with international companies and organizations and meetings with global leaders. She has worked extensively in countries across Africa, Europe and Asia. 

Dr. Farhangrazi has written extensively scientific papers, articles, commentaries, reviews, book chapters and frequently speaks nationally and internationally on science and business topics including science education, neurological diseases, innovation, entrepreneurship and biotechnology industry.

Dr. Farhangrazi has given hundreds of talks and teaches classes and workshops in The U.S., Europe and across the world including workshops on biotechnology leadership and management.  She has been interviewed and profiled by many media outlets including the National Public Radio (NPR), St. Louis Post Dispatch, American Medical News, Nature, the Daily Beast, the Denver Post, and several other American news outlets and radio and television stations.  
Dr. Farhangrazi was formerly the founder of management consulting firm Biotrends International, working with companies all over the world and an adjunct professor at University College, University of Denver, teaching classes on entrepreneurship, innovation, strategy and non-profit management. In 2015, Dr. Farhangrazi was a Visiting Guest Professor at Università Degli Studi Di Padova (Italy). Prior to that, she was the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for the Study of Orphan Diseases (CSOD), Research Assistant Professor of Neurology and Neurological Surgery, faculty in the Center for the Study of Nervous System Injury, and the Science and Business Liaison for the Spinal Cord Injury Research and Rehabilitation Program, at Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery in St. Louis, Missouri.