Joe Farmer

Mr. Farmer is the President and Chief Operating Officer of Zenas BioPharma. He is an accomplished biopharma executive with over 25 years of transactional and operational experience working with emerging biotechnology companies at all stages of development, from discovery through commercialization. Prior to joining Zenas, he served as Chief Operating Officer at Xilio Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company, where he led the general and administrative, business development, and business operations functions. Prior to Xilio he was the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at TESARO, where he led the global legal, compliance and government affairs functions and was a key member of the leadership team through its acquisition by GlaxoSmithKline in 2019. He previously served as Chief Corporate Counsel at Cubist Pharmaceuticals through its acquisition by Merck in 2015 and as General Counsel at two publicly traded companies, including AMAG Pharmaceuticals, where he was also the Chief Administrative Officer. He began his career as a corporate attorney at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault.
Throughout his career, Mr. Farmer has been involved in numerous large and complex financing, business development, and M&A transactions, together approaching $20 billion in aggregate value. He received his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A. in economics from Boston University.