As the Regional Head of External R&D, Sean is responsible for the identification and evaluation vaccine-related opportunities developed by Asia-Pacific countries to support Sanofi Pasteur’s global pipeline. Under his leadership, Sanofi Pasteur has completed research agreements with the University of Melbourne, Xiamen University and Chinese Academy of Sciences, initiated feasibility studies with biotech companies from South Korea, Japan, and USA, and executed an exclusive global licensing agreement with Xiamen Innovax on its recombinant rotavirus vaccine candidate.

Sean has 20 years of extensive vaccine product and business development experience in biotech, regional pharma, and multinational companies. Before joining Sanofi Pasteur, Sean was Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Altravax. from May 2013 to September 2015 and Executive Director in Vaccine Research at Simcere Pharmaceutical Group from February 2010 to April 2013. Prior to Simcere, he worked as a Senior Scientist and Project Leader at Maxygen. for 9 years. Sean has led discovery research and preclinical development of multiple prophylactic and therapeutic vaccine candidates, conducted pre-clinical meetings with FDA, and achieved a clinical trial approval by CDE. Since 2010, Sean has also led business development activities with academic institutions and industrial partners, playing a lead role in evaluation, negotiation, and management of licensing opportunities.

Sean received his Ph.D. degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Delaware, M.S degree in Microbiology from the Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and B.S. degree in Microbiology from Shandong University. He received his postdoctoral training at Columbia University Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons from 1998 to 2001.