Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann

Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann is a physician-scientist who has spent the past four decades as an innovator and leader in life sciences.

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann most recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stepping down in January 2020 to become Senior Advisor and Board Member of the Gates Medical Research Institute. She joined the Board of Directors of Pfizer in April 2020 and began serving as a Senior Advisor at Google Ventures in May 2020. She has served as a Senior Advisor at BDT Capital, LLC, a private investment firm, since October 2017. Prior to joining The Gates Foundation in May 2014, she was the Chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) from 2009-2014 where she remains an Adjunct Professor.

From 2004 through 2009, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann served as President of Product Development at Genentech, where she was responsible for pre-clinical and clinical development, business development, and product portfolio management. She joined Genentech in 1995. Prior to joining Genentech, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann was associate director of clinical cancer research at Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute. Dr. Desmond-Hellmann previously served as a member of the board of directors of Facebook 2013-2019 and The Procter & Gamble Company 2010-2016. Dr. Desmond-Hellmann holds a B.S. in Pre-Med and an M.D. from the University of Nevada, Reno, and an M.P.H. from the University of California, Berkeley. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology.