Eric Ende, MD, MBA, MSSM ’94

After graduating from MSSM, Dr. Ende found himself at a crossroads. At that point, his peers were moving onto different residency programs and finally beginning their careers as physicians. Dr. Ende, on the other hand, was questioning whether that was the right path for himself. Despite having spent a great deal of time, effort, and money on his medical education and having few mentors to guide him, he took a risk and decided to pursue his passion. He returned to business school at NYU to obtain his MBA, which, along with his MD, differentiated him from nearly everyone else on Wall Street. Dr. Ende worked hard to become a top-ranked biotechnology analyst for 11 years. He then learned the area of activist investing from one of the best in the field – Carl Icahn, billionaire founder of Icahn Enterprise and Member of the Mount Sinai Boards of Trustees.

After venturing on his own to become an activist Board Member, Dr. Ende has worked as a 

consultant for many up-and-coming biotechnology companies. He mainly focuses on working with corporate managements to help re-shape a company’s strategy and structure or helping investors maximize shareholder returns. He believes that by helping to fix problem companies, capital is used much more efficiently and as a result, drug development becomes the top priority, hopefully helping patients.

Dr. Ende is on the Innovations Committee, a resource for Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (MSIP) which is responsible for driving the real-world application and commercialization of Mount Sinai discoveries and inventions, and the development of research partnerships with industry. Its aim is to translate discoveries and inventions into health care products and services that benefit patients and society. MSIP is accountable for the full spectrum of commercialization activities required to bring Mount Sinai inventions to life. These activities include evaluating, patenting, marketing and licensing new technologies building research, collaborations and partnerships with commercial and nonprofit entities, material transfer and confidentiality, coaching innovators to advance commercially-relevant translational discoveries, and actively fostering an ecosystem of entrepreneurship within the Mount Sinai research and health system communities. For more information please visit www.ip.mountsinai.org.

Advice for Current Students

Dr. Ende says that it is never too late to choose a career based on what you want for your future. Don’t be afraid to change paths because it is too important a decision to not pursue your long-term happiness and goals. Making this decision, however, requires extensive research, networking with people in the field, and gaining experience. “Know why you want to pursue that specific field and then own it.”