Al Vaz

Al Vaz joined Flagship Pioneering in 2021 as Senior Vice President, Asset Management & Real Estate Operations. As the senior leader of the Flagship Real Estate Team, Al brings 35 years of experience in the biotech industry to this role and is responsible for managing the Flagship Real Estate Team including the leasing, development, construction, and operations of laboratory and office buildings across the Flagship enterprise of companies.

Prior to joining Flagship, Al owned and operated his own consulting firm, OAJ Consulting Services, providing owner’s project management services, and corporate real estate and facilities operations solutions for life sciences companies. Previously, Al was at Vertex Pharmaceuticals for 22 years, where he was most recently Senior Vice President of Corporate Real Estate Development responsible for all worldwide corporate real estate lease transactions and the development of new company locations. He led the team that completed the Fan Pier deal to relocate Vertex’ Worldwide Headquarters — the largest lease transaction in Boston’s history. During his tenure at Vertex, he was a Senior Vice President of Facilities & Operations and served on the senior management planning team for corporate real estate, facilities, space planning, engineering, procurement, health and safety, security, travel and general operations to support the company. He was also part of the founding management team in 1989. Al started his career at Biogen in 1983 where he spent five years in the Safety & Laboratory / Facilities Services Group.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Biology from Providence College and a master’s degree in Public Health / Environmental Sciences from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He has served on various boards and committees throughout the years representing the biotech and pharmaceutical sectors.