Jeffrey Leiden

Dr. Jefferey Leiden, M.D., Ph.D. was elected as Non-Executive Chairman of the Board in January 2021.

Dr. Leiden is a physician and scientist who, for the last 40 years, has dedicated his career to improving the lives of people with serious diseases. His experience spans all aspects of the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. He is currently Executive Chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, where he was previously Chief Executive Officer and President. During his tenure at Vertex, Dr. Leiden led the company as it discovered and developed four breakthrough medicines that treat the underlying cause of Cystic Fibrosis andthe first successful human gene editing treatment for patients with Sickle Cell Disease and β-Thalassemia. Before joining Vertex, Dr. Leiden was a Managing Director at Clarus Ventures, a life sciences venture capital firm. Before that, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Scientific Officer at Abbott Laboratories, where he had responsibility for running Abbott’s global pharmaceuticals business, including developing and launching Humira, the first fully human monoclonal antibody for the treatment of multiple autoimmune diseases. Dr. Leiden held several academic appointments before joining industry, including the Rawson Professor of Medicine and Pathology and Chief of Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of Chicago, the Elkan R. Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an elected member of both the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Leiden currently serves as a director of Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, an insurance company and Chairman of the Board of Casana Healthcare, a private digital healthcare company. Dr. Leiden previously served as a director and the non-executive Vice Chairman of the board of Shire plc, a specialty biopharmaceutical company, and as a director of Quest Diagnostics, a medical diagnostics company. Dr. Leiden received his M.D., Ph.D., and B.A. degrees from the University of Chicago.