Susan Desmond-Hellmann

Susan Desmond-Hellmann is the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Over her impressive career, she also served as the Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, where she also held the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Chair 2009-2014). An oncologist and biotechnology leader, she previously was president of product development at Genentech (2004-2009), where she was credited for her role in the development 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, beginning in 1996. Desmond-Hellman is recognized as a clinician and leader in cancer research known for commitment to high-quality patient care. She was the first person to apply the personalized medicine concept in fight against cancer, an area that is rapidly expanding. In addition to her clinical accomplishments, Desmond-Hellmann is a leader on issues of higher education, public health, drug development, regulatory innovation and health policy. Her publications on these issues have appeared in journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, Science, and Sciences Translational Medicine. Desmond-Hellmann was named to the Biotech Hall of Fame in 2007 and as the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Woman of the Year for 2006. She was listed among Fortune magazine’s “top 50 most powerful women in business” in 2001 and from 2003 to 2008. In 2005 and 2006, the Wall Street Journal listed Desmond-Hellmann as one of its “women to watch.”  She sits on the boards of Procter & Gamble, Facebook, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, the California Academy of Sciences, the National Cancer Advisory Board, and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco's Economic Advisory Council.