Michael Klobuchar

Michael Klobuchar

Chief Operating Officer, Eikon Therapeutics
BSChE 1998

Michael Klobuchar’s engineering epiphany came after raising his hand at the end of a freshman chemistry lecture to volunteer for a study on chemical education. That led to him joining the research group led by Professor George Bodner (1946-2021), with whom he published research on knowledge acquisition via the disequilibration process.

Bodner, said Klobuchar, “believed in me more than I believed in myself,” resulting in “a feeling that is unlike anything I had felt up to that point in my life or have felt since. As a leader, seeking to recreate this feeling in others is the single most important thing I can do as an executive today.”

Purdue instilled in him what has become his most meaningful gift: the confidence to manage the complexities and intersections of science, technology and business by learning, applying, observing and iterating quickly to break problems into manageable pieces.

He has put this skill to good use for 26 years at Merck & Co., where he served as chief strategy officer and executive vice president and was one of the 13 members of the senior leadership team at this $65 billion company. He was the youngest executive to ever be appointed to this post in Merck’s 130-year-old history. In this capacity, he led the advancement and execution of the company’s innovation-based strategy, with additional responsibility for global business development and information technology across the entire enterprise. During his quarter century career at Merck, he worked as an engineer, finance leader, strategist and operational leader, contributing to the process of discovering, manufacturing, and delivering medicines and vaccines to save and extend lives around the world.

“Every day, I have the opportunity to make an impact on the lives of people I will never meet or whose names I will never know, but in the end, I know I have been a small part of something that really matters,” he said.

Since leaving Merck in October 2024, Klobuchar has joined San Francisco–based Eikon Therapeutics, one of the fastest growing and most valuable privately held biotechnology companies in the world, serving as chief operating officer.  His focus now is on building a generational biopharmaceutical company by advancing their clinical stage oncology products and leveraging their novel super-resolution microscopy platform to identify and prosecute novel biological targets for discovering new drugs.

In addition to his current duties, he is an independent board member of Revvity (formerly PerkinElmer) and serves as a strategic advisor to Purdue’s William D. and Sherry L. Young Institute for the Advanced Manufacturing of Pharmaceuticals.  In 2023, he was awarded the Outstanding Chemical Engineer Award from Purdue’s Davidson School of Chemical Engineering.

Klobuchar initially realized the value of his Purdue education during his first job with Merck as a process development engineer.

“It wasn’t my technical aptitude that separated my performance from my distinguished colleagues. What made the difference was that the Purdue Engineering curriculum trained me to effectively communicate. I found that while many of my peers did great things in the lab and had great ideas, few were able to articulate their potential and merits within the context of what was critically important at a higher, more strategic level.”

His advice to today’s undergraduates is something he wishes someone would’ve told him.

“As humans, we have survival instincts that naturally train us to avoid risks and failures. Don’t be afraid to move toward discomfort and fight the inherent tendency to run. Live within this margin of discomfort. Trust me, it will accelerate your development, both professionally and personally.”

Career Highlights

2024–present	Chief Operating Officer, Eikon Therapeutics
2024–present	Independent Board Member, Revvity, Inc. (PerkinElmer, Inc.)
2021–2024	Chief Strategy Officer, Merck & Co.
2019–2021	Chief Financial Officer and Operating Officer, Merck Research Laboratories, Merck & Co.
2017–2019	Head, Corporate Finance and President, Emerging Businesses, Merck & Co.
2014–2017	Company Planning and Transformative Leader, Merck & Co.
2012–2014	Chief of Staff, Office of the Chairman and CEO Ken Frazier, Merck & Co.
2010–2012	Executive Director, Global Discovery and Preclinical Development, Merck & Co.
2008–2010	Director, Research and Preclinical Development Business Integrator, Merck & Co.
2007–2008	Director, Preclinical Development Integrator, Merck & Co.
2004–2007	Manager, Vaccines, Biologics & Bioprocess and M&A Integration Lead, Merck & Co.
2001–2004	Area Head, Pilot Plant and Materials Management, Merck & Co.
1998–2001	Process Development Engineer, ARCOXIA Demonstration, Merck & Co.

Education

1998	BS Chemical Engineering, Purdue University
2002	MS Chemical Engineering, Rutgers University
2006	MBA General Management, Villanova University