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Grace Han McMahon

AVP and Head, Pacific BD&L

Grace Han McMahon leads Merck’s Pacific Business Development & Licensing team and is based in Merck Research Laboratories, South San Francisco. Her team focuses on early stage business development opportunities across multiple therapeutic areas with companies and research institutions on the west coast of North America and Asia. Grace has more than 20 years of biopharma experience having started her career at Merck’s headquarters in New Jersey where she worked as an in-house attorney negotiating a variety of transactions and supporting commercial operations in Asia Pacific. She moved to the Bay Area in 2013 to work for Genentech where she led a team of transaction attorneys focused on licensing, M&A and manufacturing deals. In 2018, Grace moved to the business side to lead Transactions for Merck’s West Coast Business Development & Licensing group. She serves on the Board of California Life Sciences and is a member of the Council for Korean Americans. Grace holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD, a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from the University of Virginia.  She enjoys swimming and cycling and is an avid baseball fan.