Ron Vale is a Distinguished Professor at University of California, San Francisco. He is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and was recently named Executive Director of the Janelia Research Campus. He has co-founded several organizations dedicated to facilitating scientific publishing, outreach, mentorship and networking, including iBiology, ASAPbio and IndiaBioscience. During YIM 2019, we chatted with Ron Vale about his experience as a leader.