President Elect Joe Biden appointed Eric Lander, Ph.D., to his Cabinet as Science Advisor. Lander is listed as a member of F-Prime Capital's Scientific Advisory Board.
In 2014 Lander co-authored a WSJ article "Private Money Pays Off for Medicine" with Lou Gertsner, Former Chairman and now Senior Advisor for The Carlyle Group. Carlyle is a politically connected, Washington, D.C. based private equity underwriter (PEU)
A 2016 STAT article stated:
Current and former colleagues contacted by STAT described Lander as brilliant, prickly, and brash, as having “an ego without end,” as “a visionary” who “doesn’t suffer fools gladly,” and as “an authentic genius” who “sees things the rest of us don’t.”
Lander is a co-founder of Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, Verastem, and the cancer vaccine startup Neon Therapeutics (Third Rock Ventures). He is a founding advisor to cancer genomics company Foundation Medicine and has close ties to venture capital firm Third Rock Ventures, a major investor in the CRISPR company Editas.
President Elect Biden may have a diverse, talented Cabinet but it has a distinct PEU odor. Will the public see how good Lander is at explaining the value provided by the greed and leverage boys?
Many U.S. workers felt the sting of private equity ownership in smaller paychecks, reduced retirement funding and other benefit cuts. That was my experience working for a PEU healthcare affiliate. Executives at the Lander level took all the gains, leaving the people who did the work with no crumbs from the C-Suite table.
The Biden Cabinet is chock full of PEUs. That's a bad sign for the average citizen. Politicians Red and Blue love PEU.
Update 2-7-22: PEU Lander promised ethical behavior but failed to deliver.
“Everyone is afraid of him. Lander yells — screams. He’ll ask the same thing over and over but getting louder and louder each time.”
Politico reported:
Lander “retaliated against staff for speaking out and asking questions by calling them names, disparaging them, embarrassing them in front of their peers, laughing at them, shunning them, taking away their duties, and replacing them or driving them out of the agency. Numerous women have been left in tears, traumatized, and feeling vulnerable and isolated.”
Ugly American. Toxic greed and abuse of power are signature PEU behaviors.
