Joined Bio Appoints Technology Veteran Bill O'Donnell as Chief Technology Officer
Former KAYAK Chief Architect and Blade co-founder to lead development of revolutionary patient-researcher marketplace platform.
Lexington, MA — March 13, 2025 — Joined Bio, a pioneering healthcare technology company creating a marketplace that connects life science researchers with willing research participants, today announced the appointment of Bill O'Donnell as Chief Technology Officer. O'Donnell brings over three decades of leadership experience in developing innovative technology platforms, most notably as a founding member and Chief Architect at KAYAK, where he played a pivotal role in revolutionizing the travel search industry.
"Bill's exceptional track record of building scalable, user-friendly platforms that connect service providers with consumers makes him the ideal technology leader for Joined Bio at this critical growth stage," said Jill Mullan, Founder and Co-CEO of Joined Bio. "His experience creating KAYAK's groundbreaking search technology and his success as a startup accelerator co-founder align perfectly with our mission to transform how research connects with willing participants. We're thrilled to welcome him to our leadership team."
In his new role, O'Donnell will lead Joined Bio's technology strategy and development team as they build out the company's innovative platform that securely analyzes electronic health records (with patient consent) to match researchers with ideal participants for studies, specimen collections, and data sharing initiatives.
"The opportunity to apply marketplace technology principles to healthcare research is incredibly compelling," said O'Donnell. "Joined Bio is addressing a fundamental challenge in medical research—connecting the right participants to the right studies in a way that respects individual privacy and preferences while accelerating scientific discovery. I'm excited to help build a platform that creates genuine value for both researchers and participants while potentially transforming how medical advances are developed."
O'Donnell brings extensive experience building innovative technology platforms. At KAYAK, he served as Chief Architect for over nine years, helping create the company's revolutionary travel search platform that aggregated and presented flight, hotel, and rental car options from hundreds of travel sites. During his tenure, KAYAK grew from startup to public company before being acquired by Booking Holdings (formerly Priceline Group) for $1.8 billion in 2013.
Following KAYAK, O'Donnell co-founded Blade, a startup accelerator and generator in the Boston area, where he served as CTO, providing technical guidance to numerous emerging technology companies. He also served as Chief Architect at Lola, a chat-based travel planning service. Earlier in his career, O'Donnell held technology leadership roles at Intuit, including Chief Architect for the company's small business network services.
"Bill's expertise in creating consumer-friendly interfaces for complex systems will be invaluable as we develop a platform that makes participation in medical research more accessible and transparent," added Christopher Ianelli, Founder and Co-CEO of Joined Bio. "His leadership will be crucial as we scale our technology to connect more researchers with more participants, ultimately helping accelerate medical discoveries that benefit everyone."
About Joined Bio
Joined Bio is creating a revolutionary marketplace that reimagines the connection between medical research and patient participation. Through its AI-powered platform that securely analyzes electronic health records (with patient consent), the company precisely matches researchers with willing participants for specimen collections, data sharing, and various study types. This dual-benefit ecosystem allows individuals to maintain control over their participation while earning compensation and gives researchers efficient access to ideal candidates—accelerating scientific discovery for everyone.
