Skip Navigation
left arrowGo back to In the News Page

Cortex Board Member and BioSTL President & CEO Featured in St. Louis Business Journal

July 16, 2025

slm_374057__Donn_Rubin-1.jpg

by St. Louis Business Journal

Donn Rubin didn't plan on staying in St. Louis in the late 1980s when he took a job at what he said was then St. Louis' only national law firm, Bryan Cave McPheeters and McRoberts (now known as Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner).

Graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and a J.D. from the University of Michigan, Rubin's early career did not immediately put him on a path to lead a bioscience innovation hub. But he says the path he took to get to his job leading BioSTL was all part of an "entrepreneurial thread" that stretched across his career choices.

The founding president and CEO of BioSTL went from Bryan Cave to post-Soviet Albania, and elsewhere in-between, before he landed on his longest job at the helm of the nearly 25-year-old innovation hub.

More Articles

iris.png

$37M Mixed-Use Cortex Development Breaks Ground

The project at the corner of Clayton & Sarah will deliver 174 apartments and ground-floor retail space.

arrow pointing right
PSE404-0985.jpg

Cortex District Member Per Scholas St. Louis is...

The nonprofit at Cortex is providing free classes and wraparound support for ambitious St. Louisans.

arrow pointing right
7V8A8967.JPG

Three Cortex Companies featured in 2026 Startups...

The Startups to Watch program each year identifies a new group of up-and-coming startup companies in St. Louis that are best positioned for growth.

arrow pointing right
fancy footer design