Print“My hope is that my leadership can contribute to creating a more equitable world,”
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has picked University of California, San Francisco chancellor and pioneering oncologist Sue Desmond-Hellmann as its next CEO.
Desmond-Hellmann is the first person from outside Microsoft to head the charitable foundation, which in 2012 issued more than $3 billion in grants to support groups seeking to improve global health and ameliorate poverty. She'll leave her post at UCSF in March 2014, taking over from retiring Gates Foundation CEO Jeff Raikesstart in May 2014.
Desmond-Hellman says the foundation’s credo, that every person deserves the chance to lead a healthy and productive life, resonates with her own life-long philosophy. "My hope is that my leadership can contribute to creating a more equitable world," she says. She plans to remain on the university's faculty and continue to serve the school.
An oncologist by training, Desmond-Hellmann is a recognized leader on issues of higher education, public health, drug development, regulatory innovation, and health policy. She has led UCSF since August 2009, when she became the first woman to serve as the university's chancellor, overseeing the university and medical center's strategy, academic programs and operations. She has extensive experience in product development, with a deep understanding of how to bridge applied research to delivery of product. Prior to her tenure at UCSF, she was President of Product Development at Genentech, where she led the development and introduction of two of the first genetically-targeted therapies for cancer, Avastin and Herceptin.
"Sue's background in public health policy, research and development, and higher education, make her an exceptional fit for this role," says Bill Gates, co-chairman of the foundation. "She impressed us as an innovator and an outstanding leader and manager."
Gates' wife and co-chair of the foundation, Melinda Gates, said that Desmond-Hellmann's scientific knowledge and deep technical expertise on the foundation's issues also contributed to the hire.
"I am honored by the opportunity that Bill and Melinda have extended to me, Desmond-Hellmann says. "I'm excited to join such a dynamic and ambitious organization, with such a clear and focused mission improving the lives of the world's most vulnerable."
December 20, 2013
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-ucsf_chancellor_leaving_to_head_gates_foundation.html
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