In 2018, Jeffrey Lu drove Engine Biosciences’ seed-funding round of US$10 million, one of the largest in Southeast Asia at the time. The biotech company, of which he is co-founder and CEO, uses advanced gene-editing, data-science and machine-learning approaches to enable more efficient and effective discovery of therapies for cancers and neurodegenerative disorders.

Building biotechnology and technology companies almost seems like a hobby to Lu. With 15 years of business, executive management and entrepreneurial experience, he has also played founding and leadership roles in companies such as Enleofen Bio, which develops antibody therapeutics to treat fibrotic diseases; PairX Bio, a cancer immunotherapy company; and AAE Travel under AirAsia and Expedia Group.

Lu started out as a management consultant at Bain & Company, and subsequently became AirAsia’s head of strategy and group head of commercial strategy. A Taiwanese-American, he studied in the UK and Taipei before receiving his honours degree from the University of Pennsylvania.