Vicki Plaks, PhD, is an executive translational science leader with global experience building and scaling R&D organizations across immuno-oncology and advanced cell therapy platforms. She currently leads a global Cell Therapy translational organization across the United States and China, including several Directors, supporting complex CAR-T pipeline programs and portfolio assets at enterprise scale. Her career spans discovery, translational medicine, regulatory strategy, clinical integration, and post-marketing lifecycle management. She has formally led a CAR-T discovery organization, architected high-impact external collaborations including the Umoja–AbbVie in vivo CAR-T partnership, and driven translational strategies supporting regulatory filings and lifecycle expansion of marketed therapies. She also embeds AI/ML-enabled analytics into translational strategy to accelerate reverse translation, combination prioritization, and portfolio decisions across CAR-T and immuno-oncology platforms. She specializes in designing integrated discovery-to-clinic-and-back frameworks that align biology, biomarkers, clinical pharmacology, regulatory planning, and portfolio prioritization to de-risk modality innovation and accelerate proof-of-concept. She operates with a full-ownership leadership model: clarifying decision rights in complex matrices, aligning cross-functional stakeholders, and building high-performance teams that deliver under pressure while sustaining long-term capability.