Value Creators
Value Creators
Bruckner is well-known for consistently bringing clients practical, actionable ideas and effective strategic and tactical plans that make a real difference.
Leadership
Michael Russo
President and Co-Founder
David Balekdjian
CEO and Co-Founder
Michael Russo
President and Co-Founder
Michael Russo is President and Co-Founder of The Bruckner Group. With over 20 years of experience across nearly all aspects of healthcare therapy development, Michael bridges the scientific, medical, and business worlds of healthcare and possesses a combination of skill sets that puts him at the leading edge of pharma and biotech strategy development. Michael leverages his scientific and medical expertise to help biopharmaceutical and medical device companies solve complex business problems at the intersection of science, medicine, and the market. He regularly collaborates with executives to determine which assets they should prioritize and helps define the optimized clinical pathway for developing new therapeutics that maximizes chances for FDA approval and payer access. In addition to a broad range of pharma and biotech clients, Michael advises financial institutions and has previously worked with Fidelity Investments, the Cowen Group, and Merrill Lynch in assessing the future potential of healthcare products and companies.
What value do new technologies bring if patients can’t get their hands on them? I’m here to get new tech into patients' hands so we can transform their lives.
After graduating with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Columbia University as class valedictorian, Michael trained at the Health Sciences and Technology (HST) graduate program at Harvard Medical School and MIT. He holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship, and named a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Whitaker Fellow. His research in tissue engineering and cryobiology led to a breakthrough in his field, resulted in a patent, produced two lead-author papers published in Nature Biotechnology, and was a cover story for Scientific American.
When not working on healthcare strategy, Michael has a long list of volunteer engagements and interests, including collecting Japanese and designer art toys and a passion for the visual arts. He recently authored Martin Barooshian: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Prints: 1948-1970, a biography and catalog of the American Surrealist painter and printmaker. This was the first major publication to emerge from SPAAH (Society for the Preservation of American Artistic Heritage), a not-for-profit organization Michael founded 20 years ago. The book caught the attention of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, which subsequently acquired 35 additional pieces of Barooshian’s art for their permanent collection. His two biggest regrets are not going to Antarctica as a graduate student and not accepting Hanna-Barbera’s invite to audition for the voice of Jerry in the revival “Tom & Jerry” movie.
David Balekdjian
CEO and Co-Founder
David Balekdjian is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Bruckner Group. For over twenty years, David has led and worked on assignments involving every aspect of drug and device development and commercialization, from early-stage clinical trials through FDA approval, commercialization strategy, healthcare value strategy, payer strategy, business development/corporate partnering, marketing, and finance. Under David’s leadership, Bruckner has become an industry pioneer and thought leader in healthcare value and payer strategy. David and his co-founders have developed substantial intellectual property solving complex clinical development and healthcare value problems. Clients and payers consistently confirm this IP produces results others are not achieving.
By the way, if you ever wondered which one of the founders is Bruckner, it’s kinda like Tesla. The company was named after the great Austrian composer Anton Bruckner. And if you’re not convinced he’s the best, read my article, “Bruckner 101: Bruckner For Non-Believers”
David has authored and co-authored (often with co-founder Michael Russo) many papers and articles over the years, including several that have gone viral, published in Nature Biotechnology, In Vivo, Bloomberg Business Week, and other Tier-1 publications. “Weighing the Outcomes,” published in Nature Biotechnology, became the standard industry reference paper on how to develop a new biological or specialty therapy that delivers a strong healthcare value proposition to payers and other stakeholders. David and Michael are the only people who correctly and publicly predicted, at the time of FDA approval, what turned out to be the largest and most expensive drug failure in the last 20 years, costing Pfizer over $3 billion. Their prediction was detailed in a co-authored article published in Bloomberg BusinessWeek, “Irrational Exubera-nce for Pfizer.”
Additionally, David is a regular speaker and panelist at industry events and organizations, including MassBio, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, Harvard University, Life Sciences PA, and the American Management Association.
David has a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania and pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan. When not diving into healthcare strategies, you can often find David skiing. Nicknamed Mogulmeister, David was known to close the Big and Little Cottonwood ski areas when he lived in Utah. David is also a massive music lover, from classical to alternative and metal. He was a personal friend of Ludwig van Beethoven and hopes to meet Pete Townshend one day.