Karoline Shair P’29

Karoline Shair spent more than two decades as an in-house intellectual property attorney and senior legal executive. She retired in 2023 as chief legal officer and corporate secretary at Akouos, a Boston-based biotechnology company that was acquired by Eli Lilly. Prior to Akouos, Shair served as vice president and head of intellectual property program portfolio at Biogen, and before that, she served as vice president, chief intellectual property counsel, and corporate secretary at Forma Therapeutics. She previously held leadership roles at Millennium Pharmaceuticals and Takeda Pharmaceuticals and a legal role at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Shair began her legal career in private practice at Choate, Hall & Stewart. She is a registered patent attorney.

Shair earned a B.A. in chemistry from Bryn Mawr College, a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale University, and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. At Trinity, she has served on the Parents Leadership Council. Shair also previously served as a former board member of WomenHeart: The National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease.

Shair and husband Matthew Shair P’29 are the parents of Amelia ’29 and Benjamin and live in Lexington, Massachusetts.