Jacques is currently a Senior Director of Search & Evaluation with AstraZeneca's Business Development & Licensing team, sourcing new therapies and assets to bring into the organization. Prior to joining the Search & Evaluation team, Jacques served as a Director in AZ’s Deal Finance unit, leading deal teams across the broader organization in financial modelling, diligence, and stewardship to help guide a wide variety of BD investment decisions, ranging from right-sized research collaborations to multibillion-dollar acquisitions. Jacques came to AZ through the acquisition of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, where he co-led Alexion’s Commercial Competitive Intelligence team, guiding proactive strategic planning efforts based on competitive dynamics of Alexion’s pipeline portfolio. Prior to Alexion, Jacques worked as a healthcare equity research analyst at Cowen and Company covering market and pipeline dynamics of large-cap pharmaceutical companies, including AZ.

Jacques earned his BS in biological sciences from the University of Notre Dame and received his PhD in biomedical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a focus in cardiac mechanics and regeneration. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School, he developed novel strategies for the derivation of myocyte and non-myocyte cardiac cell types from human induced pluripotent stem cells to investigate the effects of cell-cell and cell-biomaterial interactions on neo-myocardial function and maturation. Jacques’ work has resulted in multiple patents and publications, including articles in Nature Medicine, Circulation Research, and Nature Communications.