Sevda Memet is a joint Master of Business Administration and Master of Public Policy Stanford University alumna, 1 of the 51 scholars admitted in the inaugural class of the Knight-Hennessy Scholars Program, one of the world’s most prestigious scholarship programs, established by John L. Hennessy, Stanford University’s 10th President and Phil Knight, philanthropist, co-founder of Nike, Inc. Sevda also holds a Medical Doctor degree from Ovidius University of Constanta and has worked as a medical resident (Hematology-Oncology and Rare Diseases) in the Constanta County Hospital.
At Stanford, Sevda served in multiple leadership roles: co-Managing Director of Cardinal Ventures, (Stanford’s premiere startup accelerator whose more than 150 alumni companies have raised over $1bn in venture funding), co-President of the Stanford Public Policy Graduate Student Council (class speaker and recipient of the Bruce M. Owen award for outstanding public policy graduate and contributions to the program) and leadership member in the Stanford Biotechnology Group, among others. Academically, Sevda conducted and published research under the following programs and distinctions at Stanford: Global Human and Planetary Health Fellow (researched social innovation mechanisms at the intersection of healthcare and the environment; her work in the field was published last year alongside Stanford GSB faculty in “Frontiers of Social Innovation” under Harvard Business Press Review), 2020 Stanford US-Russia Fellow in the Biosecurity and Public Health Group (program that brought together top students from various universities with the mission to facilitate research and cooperation in areas of mutual interest to both the U.S. and Russia and link emerging scholars and leaders in the U.S.-Russia space) and while in the Public Policy program, Sevda researched and published her work on equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution policies in low and middle-income countries. At present, Sevda works as an investment banking associate in San Francisco focusing on mergers and acquisitions in biopharma.

