Leocadia Ruiz

Vice President, CMC, Blackbird

Leocadia Ruiz is a Vice President, CMC with Blackbird at Raven. Leocadia’s primary responsibilities include the building of external manufacturing networks and establishing the technical frameworks — including drug substance, drug product, and QMS architecture. Prior to Raven, Leocadia was at Verve Therapeutics and Merck where she governed networks of 20+ CDMOs across North America and Europe, managing multimillion-dollar budgets and driving technical transfers for cell/​gene therapies including LNPs, LVV, AVV, antibodies and small molecules. Leocadia’s strategic leadership recently underpinned a 2.5X shareholder buyout, directly maximizing enterprise value. Leocadia is a global operations executive with over 18 years of experience in CMC strategy and quality oversight for complex biopharmaceuticals. Leocadia holds a MS in Biotechnology from Northwestern University and a BS in Biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University.