Susan Desmond-Hellmann

Gates Foundation

The Gates Foundation (then the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) announced that Susan Desmond-Hellmann would be its CEO in late 2013 and in May 2014 she began working in that position. ⁴

Desmond-Hellmann’s tenure coincided with the Gates Foundation’s first major anti-poverty initiative in the United States. ⁴ While at the foundation, she also helped researcher Penny Heaton launch the Gates Medical Research Institute to reduce malaria and other illnesses in low-income countries. ⁵

In 2016, Desmond-Hellmann wrote an open letter about the work the foundation had done to reduce smoking in the Philippines, fight polio, and prevent childhood deaths in Africa. During her tenure, the Philippine government had increased taxes on tobacco and the Gates Foundation provided legal staff and funding to litigate against legal challenges from tobacco companies. ⁶ She also noted that from 1990 to 2015, child mortality for children under age five had decreased by half, and claimed that the Gates Foundation aimed to decrease it by half again by 2030. ⁶

Desmond-Hellmann stepped down from her role as CEO in December 2019 and was replaced in February 2020 by Mark Suzman. ⁷

Academia

Susan Desmond-Hellmann was the first woman to become chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), a position she held from August 2009 until her departure in March 2014 to head the Gates Foundation.  ^{1 6} At UCSF, she was also the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor. ²

Previously, she was an associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF, and spent two years as visiting faculty at its Uganda Cancer Institute, focusing on HIV/AIDS and cancer.  ²

Genentech

Susan Desmond-Hellmann began working at Genentech in 1995, and was one of the few oncologists then on staff. She was later promoted to be in charge of clinical trials. ⁸

Desmond-Hellmann was also a member of Genentech’s executive committee, starting in 1996: the same year she was named chief medical officer. In 1999, she was named executive vice president of the firm’s development and product operations.  ²

From March 2004 to April 30, 2009, Desmond-Hellmann was president of product development at Genentech. In this role, she was responsible for the firm’s pre-clinical and clinical development; process research and development; and business development and product portfolio management.  ²

During her time at Genentech, several of the company’s patient therapeutics such as Lucentis, Avastin, Herceptin, Treva, Rituxan and Xolair were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the company became the nation’s top producer of anti-cancer drug treatments.  ²

Boards

Susan Desmond-Hellmann has been a member of the board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, the California Academy of Sciences Board of Trustees, and the board of the American Association for Cancer Research. ²

In January 2009, Susan Desmond-Hellmann joined the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’s Economic Advisory Council for a three-year term.  ²

In 2021, then-President Joe Biden appointed Desmond-Hellmann to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. ⁵

Early Life

Susan Desmond-Hellmann was born in Napa, California. ⁹ She later worked in her father’s pharmacy. ^{10  11}

From 1991 to 1993, she worked at the Lexington Oncology Association at Central Baptist Hospital. ¹² From 1993 to 1994, she was the associate director for clinical cancer research at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceutical Research Institute.  ^{13 12}