PHOTO: CHRIS TAGGART
“The United States spends twice as much on health care as a share of its GDP than most other developed countries do, yet we don’t have better outcomes.”
After graduating with an undergraduate degree in civil engineering at MIT, Broshy earned a master’s at Stanford and an MBA at Harvard Business School. Open to opportunity, he joined Boston Consulting Group in New York City, where he eventually became head of its health care practice and gained a deep understanding of the sector’s potential as well as its challenges.
For more than three decades, Broshy has been building high-growth businesses that inject efficiencies into the health care industry. Companies he has led include inVentiv Health, a provider of outsourced clinical and commercial services to global pharmaceutical and life sciences companies. After a decade as its CEO and chairman, Broshy took the company private and went on to guide and build a variety of other health care businesses as a board chair, director, strategist, and investor.
A force for progress in health care
Broshy and his wife, Feigue Berman-Broshy, PhD, are passionate about transforming health care and see MIT as a force for progress. “One-third of what MIT is doing relates to moving health care into new frontiers,” says Broshy, a member of the MIT Corporation.
That is why the couple created two fellowships. “Fellowships are a good investment,” says Broshy. “They are key to attracting graduate students, who in turn help attract young faculty who are driving research forward.”
One fellowship currently supports graduate students in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences (BCS). “By reverse-engineering the brain, BCS aims to discover how the brain gives rise to the mind,” says Broshy. “Such understanding will open new frontiers in science and medicine.”
A previous fellowship helped to advance research at MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), a hub for research at the convergence of engineering, science, and translational medicine. “At IMES, I was interested in supporting graduate students with promising ideas they want to bring forward and move from the lab to the market,” says Broshy, “particularly projects with the potential to improve health care while reducing its cost.”
Volunteer roles
Since 2013, Broshy has served on both the IMES and BCS Visiting Committees, and he chairs the latter. He is also a member of the Department of Chemistry Visiting Committee, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Visiting Committee, the School of Science Dean’s Advisory Council, the MIT Sloan Initiative for Health Systems Innovation Advisory Board, and the MIT Campaign Leadership Council.
Commenting on the biannual critiques that the MIT Visiting Committees conduct of their departments, Broshy says, “These are deep dives into what is going well and what should be changed,” says Broshy. “At some universities, such events can be a form of fundraising. At MIT, they’ve been a serious self-improvement vehicle for over 100 years.”
Broshy’s multiple volunteer roles enable him to observe MIT’s cross-disciplinary ventures close up. “A lot of cutting-edge opportunities emerge at the intersection of disciplines,” says Broshy, who is excited about the promise he sees in MIT research spanning neuroscience, brain and cognitive sciences, and electrical engineering and computer science.
Supporting MISTI
The son of an Israeli diplomat, Broshy grew up both in Israel and Austria, where he completed high school; his wife, Feigue Berman-Broshy, PhD, was raised in Mexico. Given their multinational upbringing, it’s fitting that they support research spanning geographic borders as well as disciplines. In 2019, they created the MIT-Israel Broshy Brain and Cognitive Sciences Seed Fund within the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives Global Seed Funds, which supports overseas collaborations for faculty and students.
“Our fund enables MIT faculty and students to collaborate with the great brain and cognitive sciences research going on in Israeli universities,” says Broshy, who recalls arriving at MIT from Vienna at age 16, two suitcases in hand. “We learn from working across countries and enlarge our perspectives. We’re not just building a better country. We’re building a better world.
“MIT is among the world’s great institutions of teaching and research,” he adds. “Being able to support and observe its developments from a front-row seat is incredibly satisfying. It’s a privilege to be part of it. MIT gave me a great start. I’m glad to give back.”