CNBC Changemakers

CEO of Sean Parker’s breakthrough cancer drug institute on leading new race for cure

Knudsen has devoted her career to translating laboratory research into innovation that improves lives and remains focused on stats, including the fact that 2.1 million Americans are going to receive a new cancer diagnosis this year.

“What I’ve always wanted to do, whether it’s as a scientist, whether it’s as a health executive, the CEO of the American Cancer Society or now the Parker Institute, it’s to get innovation to people,” she said. “We’re at this moment in time where there is so much discovery that’s happening, the pace of change is truly logarithmic, and yet, too many great ideas don’t ever make it off the laboratory floor.”