Conversations with Mike Milken

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Ep. 15: The Record-Keeper, with Epic’s Judy Faulkner Apr 20, 2020

Show notes

Judy Faulkner

Founder and CEO, Epic

“We do have a culture of ownership, of working hard, of wanting to be heroes helping heroes. That's one of the things you hear our staff say.”

The story is familiar, even mythic: brilliant young student builds out a new technology in her garage and changes the world. But Judy Faulkner never made it to Silicon Valley. The medical software company she founded in a Madison basement four decades ago remains in Wisconsin—while Epic’s importance to the world of healthcare continues to grow.

More than 250 million patient medical records are on the Epic platform, and that data could yield valuable clues in the search for solutions to the pandemic. It’s all part of the employee-owned company’s mission to support the heroes on the front lines.

Ep. 14: Renaissance Woman, with Sue Desmond-Hellmann Apr 17, 2020

Show notes

Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; former Chancellor, UCSF; former President of Product Development, Genentech

From serving as a frontline physician treating HIV patients in Uganda, to overseeing new therapies for a leading biopharma company, to running a renowned health sciences university, to heading the world’s largest philanthropy – Sue Desmond-Hellmann has seen it all.

It’s little surprise, then, that when she surveys the current pandemic she sees possible solutions across a range of areas. Her conversation with Mike Milken covers broad topics including how to build a durable and effective public health infrastructure as well as deeply specific issues such as whether interleukin-6 inhibitors might be able to prevent the eventual cause of most COVID-19 fatalities – the phenomenon known as cytokine storms.

She also points to signs that make her hopeful, including a major consortium launched at UCSF: “This is such a good example of a multi-lab, multi-investigator scientific collaboration where people are just going as fast as they can together, putting competition to the side.”

Ep. 13: Community, with AARP’s Jo Ann Jenkins Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Jo Ann Jenkins CEO, AARP -

“It is that American spirit and willingness to give of oneself to make life better for others that is behind everything that we do at AARP.”

Since taking the helm of the largest nonprofit for Americans 50 and older, Jo Ann Jenkins has built a culture of community among her staff, 60,000 volunteers, and her organization’s 38 million members. Recently, this has been made easier by the fact that years ago she implemented powerful two-way communication infrastructure for her employees that could be quickly repurposed to include her constituents. Now, AARP hosts massive, weekly tele-townhall calls that help its members navigate today’s unique challenges.

That’s just one way Jo Ann continues to advance her idea of the American spirit. She adds, “In the last two weeks, we've trained over 900 people who have said, I'm willing to pick up the phone and make a call to someone that I don't even know, to just check on them.”

Ep. 12: A Global View, with EY’s Carmine Di Sibio Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

Carmine Di Sibio, Global Chairman and CEO, EY

“We've stressed to all our people and in particular our partners around the world that now is the time they really needed to be close with their clients, help them in any way they can, whether large clients, small clients and so forth, including doing work pro bono to make sure that they're surviving longer term.”

For EY’s 300,000 global employees – including 25,000 in China – the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted what it means to serve clients as trusted advisors and help them navigate an uncertain world. For Carmine Di Sibio, it’s also meant seeing to the wellbeing of a massive, global and highly mobile workforce.

As EY’s global chairman and CEO, Di Sibio has perhaps one of the most expansive views of how this situation is affecting organizations in every sector and geography. And to understand where we are and where we’re headed, he needs only look inside EY, which he views as “a little microcosm of the world.”

Ep. 11: Impatient, with Tempus/Groupon’s Eric Lefkofsky Apr 13, 2020

Show notes

Eric Lefkofsky, Founder and CEO, Tempus

“Today, if somebody’s positive for COVID-19, it still doesn't tell you what's likely to happen next. And what we're trying to do by combining clinical and molecular data is really be able to predict what's likely to happen to them next.”

When Groupon founder Eric Lefkofsky’s wife was diagnosed with cancer, he found a lack of data maddening. Outside of her hospital, it was the 21st century, but once he passed through the doors he felt he was being ushered two or three decades into the past.

He launched Tempus to change that. The company analyzes vast pools of genetic data to find and develop therapeutics for conditions ranging from cancers to major depressive disorder. He’s especially frustrated at the lack of progress in the current crisis. “We now have in this country over 400,000 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19,” he tells Mike. “Where is that data? Why don’t we have that data in one central place?”

For Lefkofsky, the promise of personalized medicine means finding and developing the right medicine for the right patient at the right time. Today, any of us may be the next patient, and the clock is ticking.

Ep. 10: The Public Servant, with former FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg Apr 10, 2020

Show notes

Margaret Hamburg, Foreign Secretary, National Academy of Medicine; Former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration

“I always said it was a question of when, not if, we would have to combat a global pandemic. But I never really thought I'd be watching it play out in real time.”

Margaret “Peggy” Hamburg has devoted her life to elevating the best in public health while anticipating the worst. As New York City Health Commissioner, she curtailed the spread of tuberculosis. She served as senior scientist for the Nuclear Threat Initiative. After the attacks on the World Trade Center, she redoubled her efforts to help create a world safe from chemical and biological weapons. And, as one of the longest-serving FDA commissioners, she modernized food safety regulations and implemented the Tobacco Control Act. Forbes magazine named her one of the world’s most powerful women.

Despite the current crisis, she remains optimistic, noting how quickly scientists were able to sequence the genome of the virus and share it with the world. “We have to realize that with a global pandemic, we are truly all in it together.”

Ep. 9: Shock Treatment, with Google's Eric Schmidt Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Eric Schmidt, former CEO and Chairman, Google

“We're going to need … some kind of shock treatment for seven, eight, nine days where we shut down everything to stop the spread…. And when I say shut down, I mean shut down.”

That’s Eric Schmidt’s bold plan to put a stop to the pandemic so we can start to return the nation to some semblance of normalcy. Schmidt, who led Google from a startup to one of the largest and most influential companies in the world, now chairs the Defense Innovation Advisory Board, part of the US Department of Defense.

Post-crisis, Schmidt sees opportunities for positive change. One example: with millions of students ushered into remote learning, Schmidt suggests we “see if we can actually get remote learning better than traditional learning.”

And he offers a simple but powerful reminder of his industry’s role in our lives: “Think about how bad this pandemic would be if you didn't have the internet.”

Ep. 8: Legacy, with former FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach Apr 08, 2020

Show notes

Andrew von Eschenbach MD

President, Samaritan Health Initiatives Inc.; former Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration; former Director, National Cancer Institute

“If we think of the game-changers of what is going to get America and the world back functioning normally, the FDA is probably right now the most central and critical of all the federal agencies.”

Long before Andrew von Eschenbach served as Commissioner for the FDA, he was crucial to Mike Milken’s decades-long efforts to transform biomedical research and speed delivery of cures to the world. Both men had lost their fathers to cancer and together were determined to prevent other families from similar fates. In this episode, they speak candidly and passionately about the job ahead.

If he were back at his old job at FDA, von Eschenbach would favor a multi-pronged approach to deal with the current crisis: capitalize on big data sets and near-instantaneous transfers; translate successful cancer immunotherapies and apply them to viruses; accelerate testing of drugs that have already been FDA-approved; and foster greater international cooperation and global engagement. “We need to move beyond this wounding of ourselves and of our society to create a legacy,” he says, “to make sure that this does not happen again.”

Ep. 7: Team Science, with MD Anderson’s James Allison and Padmanee Sharma Apr 07, 2020

Show notes

Mike welcomes two guests on this edition of the podcast: Pam Sharma and James Allison. Partners in marriage and professional collaborators, the couple are leading immunologists who have dedicated their careers to cancer treatment and research. Sharma is an immunologist and oncologist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, while Allison serves as executive director of the Immunotherapy Platform at the same institution.

In their conversation with Mike, they highlighted the primacy of the immune system in fighting COVID-19, the drive to treat the virus with antibodies, and the role patients can play in mobilizing effective research into treatment and vaccines.

Ep. 6: Mobilization, with George Washington University’s Lynn Goldman Apr 07, 2020

Show notes

Joining Mike on this episode is Lynn Goldman. A pediatrician and epidemiologist, Goldman is the former assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention at the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the current Dean of the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University.

With such an in-depth knowledge of epidemiology and related public policy, Goldman has been extremely busy in recent weeks. In her conversation with Mike, she describes how her faculty and students are working to protect the public during the COVID-19 crisis while stressing the importance of increased testing and vaccine development.

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