# Ep 51. High-Stakes Biotech Leadership: Innovation, Failure, & Redemption with CEO David Esposito

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/success-reimagined-with-amna-shabbir-md-7213595/ep-51-high-stakes-biotech-leadership-innovation-failure-redemption-with-ceo-david-esposito
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/success-reimagined-with-amna-shabbir-md-7213595/ep-51-high-stakes-biotech-leadership-innovation-failure-redemption-with-ceo-david-esposito.md
Podcast: [Success Reimagined with Amna Shabbir MD](https://stenobird.com/podcast/success-reimagined-with-amna-shabbir-md-7213595)
Published: 2026-02-09T00:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://share.transistor.fm/s/fcadce88
Audio file: https://media.transistor.fm/fcadce88/69e53d35.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/success-reimagined-with-amna-shabbir-md-7213595/episodes/ep-51-high-stakes-biotech-leadership-innovation-failure-redemption-with-ceo-david-esposito
Duration seconds: 1820

## Resource

In this powerful conversation, Dr. Amna Shabbir speaks with David Esposito, healthcare executive, combat veteran and CEO of ONL Therapeutics, about what it truly means to lead with purpose in high growth, mission driven environments. David shares how his definition of leadership has evolved from rallying teams toward big goals to understanding the deeply personal side of helping individuals feel they matter. He opens up about a major failure early in his career when he failed to pivot quickly enough on a disinfectant technology that was not the right fit for the hospital market, and how that taught him the importance of courageous decision making and moving beyond the sunk cost fallacy. David redefines success through the lens of redemption, sharing how witnessing personal transformation in others and overcoming his own mistakes has become the true measure of meaningful achievement. From his mother's simple yet profound advice to keep your chin up, to building teams that thrive on belonging and mattering, this episode is a reminder that leadership is as much about the human side as it is about strategy and results. Episode Takeaways How to build high performance teams by helping individuals feel they matter Why ego and sunk cost fallacy prevent leaders from making courageous pivot decisions How to redefine success through personal redemption and transformation instead of titles Why understanding the full human behind each team member drives sustainable leadership The leadership lesson that keeps you resilient through failure: keep your chin up About Our Guest: David Esposito is a seasoned healthcare executive and combat veteran who has built and scaled multiple healthcare companies that accelerated innovation to help patients across a wide range of unmet needs. David i…

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## Transcript

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