Kawa Chiu

Kawa Chiu is the Vice President of CMC Supply Chain at Lyell Immunopharma.  She is accountable for building CMC teams and supply chain infrastructure to support cell therapy development and commercialization.  Kawa has over 23 years of US, Europe and international biotechnology industry experience across Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Quality and Strategy.

Prior to Lyell, Kawa was the Head of Global Planning at Genentech/Roche.  She chaired the Global Supply Planning Committee accountable for key supply decisions of the company’s $40 billion biologics product portfolio distributed across 160 countries.  While at Genentech/Roche, Kawa lived and worked in the US and Switzerland.  Previous roles at Genentech/Roche included Head of Biologics Drug Substance Manufacturing, Head of Technical Operations Strategy, Global Head of Operational Excellence and Global Head of Product Supply Chain Owners.  Kawa was one of the first female Department Heads leading Biologics Manufacturing at Genentech in 2006 and championed the Genentech Women Professional at the Oceanside, CA plant.  Kawa demonstrated proven ability to grow, lead and transform teams and processes to achieve a higher level of performance.  She is passionate about identifying and growing teams and talents to reach their potential.

Previously, Kawa spent 9 years with Merck where she prepared numerous manufacturing plants and CMOs for successful PAI and GMP inspections.  Kawa also led global improvement programs that redefined Merck’s Order to Cash process and achieved significant revenue enhancement in North America, Latin America, and Europe.  Kawa started her career as a shop floor supervisor supported the startup of Merck’s first fully automated and flexible Biotechnology Manufacturing Complex (BTMC) at West Point, PA.

Kawa holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from the Ohio State University, a Master of Science in Engineering Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from New York University.  She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree at UC Berkeley.