Dr. Hege retired from Bristol Myers Squibb in March of 2023 to pursue her life-long dream of thru hiking the 2650 mile Pacific Crest Trail. In her BMS role as SVP Early Clinical Development, Hematology, Oncology & Cell Therapy, she was responsible for advancing a pipeline of small molecules, biologics and cell therapies from first-in-human studies through clinical proof-of-concept. While there she led the 2Seventybio (formerly bluebird)-partnered BCMA CART cell program (Abecma) in multiple myeloma from inception through FDA approval. Prior to BMS she held a similar role at Celgene as well as executive roles in biotech at Cell Genesys, Cellerant, and Theraclone.

Dr. Hege currently serves on the Board of Directors of Mersana, Adaptimmune and Kelonia Therapeutics and as co-chair of the Biotech Committee for the Society of Immunotherapy of Cancer along with advisory roles at cTRL, Moonlight, Dispatch, Neomorph, Kamau and FL94. In addition, Dr. Hege spent nearly three decades as a part time clinical faculty member in the division of hematology at the Univ. California, San Francisco (UCSF), most recently as Clinical Professor of Medicine. 

Dr. Hege received her undergraduate degree at Dartmouth College, MD at the Univ. California, San Francisco (UCSF) and completed internal medicine and hematology/oncology subspecialty training at Harvard and UCSF, respectively. In 2022, Dr. Hege was recognized by Forbes magazine as one of “50 women over 50: entrepreneurs” and received the Duane Roth Career Achievement award for advances in science and medicine from UCSD. In 2023/2024, she published a 6-part essay series in Endpoint News reflecting on parallels between cancer research and hiking the Pacific Crest Trail as well as her personal history with CART cell research and development.