Jackson Lab CEO Leads From Heart

BAR HARBOR Edison Liu, M.D. has filled top leadership positions across the globe while gaining encyclopedic knowledge of cancer pathology, human genetics and medical science. But one year into his term as president and CEO of the Jackson Laboratory, Dr. Liu has become known for something decidedly artistic; the good doctor is actually one heck of a piano player.

Music runs strong through Dr. Lius life, from his childhood in California, through his recent, decade-long stint as the founding executive director of the Genome Institute of Singapore. It didnt take long for others at the lab to take notice of his skills. A monthly pick-up session in Roscoes, the labs cafeteria, soon developed, with Dr. Liu taking the lead on the house piano.

Theres only one prerequisite to play, Dr. Liu told the Islander in a wide-ranging interview this week, and that is an adherence to what he calls sincere art. In other words, you may not be very good, but you have to be very sincere.

When filtered through Dr. Lius impressive intellect, those monthly jam sessions resonate with meaning. Music, he said, provides alternative communication pathways, ones that are able to break through much of the stalemate that can develop out of modern life. Musical sincerityis the closest thing to truth that I know of, he said.

There is a different etiquette, an opening of different portals into the heart, Dr. Liu said. And the more pathways we have into each others souls, the closer community we have.

A search for those pathways defines Dr. Lius leadership style and traces the arc of his career. From the time he was five years old, he wanted to be a physician, just as his parents were. But just as music, and the great literature that Dr. Liu also loves, tells a sometimes unexpected story, so, too, has Dr. Lius path in life.

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Jackson Lab CEO Leads From Heart