🧬 From Law School to Teva: Learning a 45,000-Person Organization | Mati Gill (2/4)
June 18, 2026
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs. Mati traces his path from juggling a minister's bureau with Israeli law school to joining Teva as an intern with no private-sector experience, then learning a 45,000-person org from the chart up — until Teva's financial crisis handed him the mandate to build the innovation program that became AION Labs.
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"There's one thing that we haven't been able to innovate, which is how to make the day longer than 24 hours. So it's all what you give up."
"There's one thing that we haven't been able to innovate, which is how to make the day longer than 24 hours. So it's all what you give up."
In this episode of The Biotech Startups Podcast, Jon Chee sits down with Mati Gill, CEO of AION Labs. Mati traces his path from juggling a minister's bureau with Israeli law school to joining Teva as an intern with no private-sector experience, then learning a 45,000-person org from the chart up — until Teva's financial crisis handed him the mandate to build the innovation program that became AION Labs.
Key Topics Covered:
- Juggling Government and Law School: Why Mati said yes to a minister's office mid-law-school.
- A Health Crisis as a Reset: Being wounded in a terrorist attack and the priorities it forced.
- Starting at the Bottom of Teva: The deliberate choice to intern at a company he knew nothing about.
- Learning a 45,000-Person Org: Coffee with the former deputy R&D head twice a week, plus a walk through the org chart.
- Never Waste a Crisis: How Teva's financial collapse gave Mati the mandate for a new innovation program.
- Industry-Academia Partnerships: Where collaborations break down and what the Weizmann model gets right.
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Find our guest, Mati Gill at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matigill/?originalSubdomain=il
Website: https://aionlabs.com/
Find our host, Jon Chee, at these links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonchee/
Learn more about Excedr:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/excedr/
Website: https://www.excedr.com
Intro & Outro Songs Created by OkKyojin, Owned by Excedr:
Website: https://flow.page/kyojin
Resources & Articles:
Biotech Partnerships: How Industry and Academia Work Together: https://www.excedr.com/blog/how-biotech-partnerships-support-research
The Story of Copaxone — From Weizmann Lab to FDA Approval: https://wis-wander.weizmann.ac.il/life-sciences/cop-1-copaxone%C2%AE-story-drug
Industry-Academia Drug Discovery Collaborations: https://blog.drugbank.com/the-collaboration-between-industry-and-academia-in-drug-development/
Brian Chesky on AI Founder Mode — Invest Like the Best, Ep. 471: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brian-chesky-ai-founder-mode/id1154105909?i=1000766196703
Companies, Universities, & People Mentioned:
Teva Pharmaceuticals: https://www.tevapharm.com
AION Labs: https://aionlabs.com
Weizmann Institute of Science: https://www.weizmann.ac.il
Danaher Corporation: https://www.danaher.com
Thermo Fisher Scientific: https://www.thermofisher.com
Airbnb: https://www.airbnb.com
Donna Baron (Dana Bar-On), Head of Academic Collaborations, Teva R&D: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barondana
Jeremy Levin, Former CEO of Teva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeremy_Levin
KÃ¥re Schultz, Former CEO of Teva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A5re_Schultz
Eli Hurvitz, Founder of Modern Teva: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Hurvitz
Yair Benita, CTO of AION Labs: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ybenita
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:56 Three Life Anchors and the Decision to Say Yes
06:03 Juggling a Minister's Bureau and Law School
08:13 A Wounding, a Reset, and the Decision to Finish
09:04 Time Is the One Resource You Can't Innovate
09:15 Choosing Teva: Industry Over Government for a Reason
13:34 Early Days at Teva — Starting from the Bottom
15:09 Strategy for Thriving in a 45,000-Person Organization
18:47 Org Chart as Discovery: Meeting Everyone Systematically
20:16 Never Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
22:13 Managing Up, Down, and Across: Teva's Leadership Styles
22:49 Building the External Innovation Program from Scratch
27:41 The Bio-Innovators Talent Program and Its Origins
32:14 What Makes Industry-Academia Partnerships Actually Work
34:43 Outro
The Biotech Startups Podcast gives you a front-row seat to the business and science of building a biotech. Hosted by Jon Chee, CEO of Excedr, the show features honest conversations with founders, execs, and investors about their work, their companies, and how they got there. From scientific breakthroughs to startup lessons, each episode explores what it really takes to grow a life science company—from pre-seed to IPO.