William Burns

William Burns has over 40 years of leadership in the Pharmaceutical industry with extensive experience in international R&D, commercial, business development and operations.

He served for 23 years in senior positions at Swiss global healthcare company F.Hoffman La Roche (Roche), most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Roche Pharmaceuticals. William Burns had significant involvement in the privatization of Genentech, the integration of Boehringer Mannheim and the negotiations that resulted in Roche becoming a majority owner of Chugai in Japan.

Current key appointments include: Vice Chairman of Vestergaard Frandsen (Switzerland); Vice Chairman of Mesoblast (Australia); Member of the Advisory Group of Novo A/S (Denmark); Member of the Advisory Board for BioMed Partners (Basel) and member of the International Advisory Council of Chugai, Japan.