New chief executive for Gates Foundation
pharmafile | December 19, 2013 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | Gates, Gates Foundation, Susan Desmond-Hellmann, uccsf
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has picked Susan Desmond-Hellmann as its next chief executive.
Desmond-Hellmann sits on the boards at Proctor and Gamble and Facebook, and was previously a member of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council.
Currently the chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Desmond-Hellmann begins her new role at the largest private foundation in the world in May next year.
Its aims are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty, and in America, to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology.
Co-chair of the foundation Melinda Gates said: “We chose Sue because of her scientific knowledge and deep technical expertise on the foundation’s issues, as well as the organisational and leadership skills required to lead a large, growing and dynamic global organisation. Sue shares our commitment and passion to create a more equitable world.”
Her husband and co-chair Bill Gates added: “Sue’s background in public health policy, research and development, and higher education, make her an exceptional fit for this role. She impressed us as an innovator and an outstanding leader and manager.”
An oncologist by training, Desmond-Hellmann is a leader on issues of higher education, public health, drug development, regulatory innovation and health policy. She has led UCSF since late 2009, when she became the first woman to serve as the university’s chancellor.
Prior to her tenure at UCSF she was president of product development at Genentech, where she led the development and introduction of two of the first gene-targeted therapies for cancer, Avastin and Herceptin.
Desmond-Hellmann also served as a member of Genentech’s executive committee from 1996. She will take over from Jeff Raikes at the Foundation, who announced his retirement in September this year after five years at the helm.
He was the Foundation’s second chief executive, and served after a long career as a senior executive at Microsoft.
Desmond-Hellmann said: “I am honored by the opportunity that Bill and Melinda have extended to me. I’m excited to join such a dynamic and ambitious organisation, with such a clear and focussed mission – improving the lives of the world’s most vulnerable.”
Brett Wells
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