As a five-time biotech CEO, I’ve guided my companies through recessions, supply chain disruptions, Wall Street volatility, even a global pandemic.
Yet nothing quite prepared me for the news on Thursday, March 9, that my cell therapy company’s ability to make payroll could be jeopardized by the mother of all bank runs unfolding at Silicon Valley Bank. More than $42 billion was withdrawn in a single day after venture capitalist Peter Thiel and others yelled “fire” in a crowded chat room and told their portfolio companies to divest.
This, I confess, was uncharted territory for me. Fortunately, leaders at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. reached out to investor advisers and acted in swift, coordinated fashion to declare a systemic risk to the banking system, invoke the government’s emergency powers, and establish a bridge bank to right the ship.
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