Our Team

Dr. Veena Thomas is a scientist in pharmacology, the CEO & founder of her drug discovery strategic consulting company DrugAbility and a business strategy aficionado. She received her postdoctoral training at Stanford, her Ph.D. from UCSF in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics, and her B.S. in Biology from MIT. She is the former Director of Therapeutic Strategy at Redesign Science. Her relentless strategy was instrumental in achieving her training at top universities and labs, and in building a career in science that she absolutely loves.

When a serious knee injury during the pandemic prevented her from working a traditional 9-5 job — she pivoted and turned her passion for science & business strategy into not only her primary pharmacology consulting company for drug discovery, DrugAbility, but she also turned her side passion project on business strategy & strategic marketing, Leg Up Strategic Consulting, into a second consulting business.

She’s thrilled to spin off her main company DrugAbility into Selling The Science, neatly combining her passions for exciting technical science, business strategy & strategic marketing, charismatic & dynamic pitching, improv, journalism, human connection, psychology, detective work & investigation, and getting things done. Selling The Science is inspired by what she’s learned from incredible business-side consulting experiences with Plex Research, LatchBio, and Spring Discovery — and she’s excited to take what she’s learned to help other scientific businesses as well.

When all that strategic thinking gets tiring, Veena has performed improv comedy for 5 years (where there’s actually no time to think!). She prides herself on being a fun-loving, outgoing and charismatic scientist, leader, and communicator, and quick-on-her-feet thinker.

She is passionate about helping people, scientific and business marketing strategy, bold ideas, and writing, and accordingly was awarded both an NIH National Research Service Award (NRSA) postdoctoral grant and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for her idea proposals. Her students voted her “Teaching Assistant of the Year” at UCSF for her skill and enthusiasm for teaching and mentorship.

Fun facts: Veena worked in forensic science for the FBI in Quantico, VA, where she received an FBI top-secret security clearance; did a summer intensive training in improv comedy at Second City Chicago, where many of the Saturday Night Live cast trained; wrote a weekly opinion column for MIT’s newspaper for 3 years; was a co-organizer and event host for one of the largest hobby social meetup groups in the Bay Area for 3 years; and was a certified conflict mediator in the state of Massachusetts.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veena-thomas-15579425/