When you meet Ziyi Wang, one thing becomes immediately clear: his career has been guided by curiosity, problem-solving, and a drive to make a lasting impact. With a PhD in biomedical engineering, patents to his name, years of strategy consulting at McKinsey, and now a pivotal role at ZAGENO, Ziyi has carved out a unique path that blends science and business.
Growing up in China, he studied electronic engineering as an undergraduate, but quickly realized he wanted to focus on health and medicine, with biomedical engineering emerging as a way to combine his interests and make a real-world difference in biology, medicine, and clinical research.
Five years well spent: Why mastery takes time
At Duke University, Ziyi spent five years researching pulmonary disorders, using MRI to study how gases moved through the lungs.
From MRI machines to McKinsey decks
After earning his PhD and working on multiple patents, Ziyi moved into consulting, seeking experience in the business world. “I was very drawn to working with a team, with other smart people day in and day out. That’s quite different from research, where you spend most of the time by yourself,” he shares.
During his years at McKinsey, he served global pharmaceutical and medical device companies, working across a spectrum of topics such as enterprise strategy, where he set multi-year roadmaps for entire organizations, and procurement transformation, where he built plans to generate significant cost savings for individual departments.
But consulting left him wanting more.
No typical week: Thriving in the in-between
That led Ziyi to ZAGENO. Since joining, his role has been intentionally broad. “There’s no typical week. The beauty of my position is the flexibility — what I focus on, and where I put my effort,” he explains.
On a given day, Ziyi may work closely with the growth team, constructing thorough business cases that address customer needs with ZAGENO’s offering. He may also dive into the numbers with the analytics team to extract valuable insights on user behavior to inform smart business decisions, or support the implementation team by clearing barriers to ensure platform updates are launched on time and fully adopted.
Treadmill epiphanies
Ziyi likes to start his morning early, often by touching base with ZAGENO’s global colleagues and customers. Afternoons are dedicated to focused work. Evenings often include a trip to the gym. “I hit the gym every day to stay healthy, but interestingly, when I’m running or cycling, I start to replay conversations from the day. Sometimes that’s when a good idea pops into my head.”
Turning data into decisions
For Ziyi, one of ZAGENO’s biggest opportunities lies in data analytics.
The long game in lab procurement
What excites Ziyi most is ZAGENO’s ability to scale with its customers.
Before you go
Despite his busy schedule, Ziyi doesn’t take himself too seriously. When asked what he wants readers to know, he grins: “Please stop scrolling — and hit subscribe.” “Subscribe” being a guided ZAGENO demo, of course.
And while his parents “never understood what I did back in consulting,” he jokes that this role isn’t much easier to explain.
About Ziyi Wang
Ziyi Wang, PhD, is Chief of Staff and Strategic Growth at ZAGENO, where he helps biopharma and biotech organizations unlock greater value through smarter procurement and data-driven insights.
With a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and patents in medical imaging and AI, Ziyi began his career in research before moving into strategy consulting with McKinsey & Company. There, he advised leading pharmaceutical and medical device companies on digital transformation, commercialization, and operational efficiency.
Today at ZAGENO, he combines his scientific background and business expertise to support growth initiatives, enterprise partnerships, and innovative data solutions that help life sciences companies scale from early-stage research to global impact.
