Tony Coles
Dr. N. Anthony “Tony” Coles, M.D., is a physician-businessman and board leader with more than three decades of experience launching and scaling breakthrough biopharmaceutical and life-science companies. He is currently Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of TRATE Enterprises, LLC, a privately held strategic investment firm. He most recently served as Chairperson of the Board at Cerevel Therapeutics from December 2018 until its nearly $9 billion acquisition by AbbVie in August 2024 and was the company’s Chief Executive Officer from September 2019 to June 2023, guiding a pipeline of transformative neuroscience therapies through development.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Coles co-founded and led Yumanity Therapeutics as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, advancing a novel discovery platform for neurodegenerative diseases. He previously served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairperson of Onyx Pharmaceuticals, stewarding its growth through to acquisition by Amgen. Before that, he was President, Chief Executive Officer, and Director of NPS Pharmaceuticals. He served as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; and a variety of senior leadership roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Merck. His past public-company directorships include Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, Campus Crest Communities, CRISPR Therapeutics and McKesson Corporation. He also served on the board of Johns Hopkins University, where he is an emeritus trustee, and he is a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows.
Dr. Coles currently sits on the Board of Directors of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. He chairs the Council for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, serves as a Trustee of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Nominating & Governance Committee, where he previously served as a board member. Committed to advancing economic equity, he co-founded and co-chairs the Black Economic Alliance. His contributions to science and society were recognized with election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2022.
Dr. Coles earned his bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University, his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine, and a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He completed residency and fellowship training in internal medicine and cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and was a research fellow at Harvard Medical School.