UCBPH Commencement

With a medical, scientific, and philanthropic career that spans more than 30 years, Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann has devoted her life to improving the human condition through innovation. Most recently, she was the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, leading the organization’s vision for a world where every person has the opportunity to live a healthy, productive life. As CEO of the Gates Foundation for more than five years, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann led the organization’s 1,500 employees in its efforts to reduce inequity and combat infectious diseases around the world. Immediately prior to joining the foundation, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann was the first female and ninth overall chancellor of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), overseeing all aspects of the university and medical center’s strategy and operations. Before UCSF, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann spent 14 years at biotech firm Genentech, where she served as president of product development. She led the development of a number of breakthrough medicines, including two of the first gene-targeted therapies for cancer, Avastin and Herceptin.

Dr. Desmond-Hellmann has been listed among Fortune’s “top 50 most powerful women in business,” named to the NonProfit Times’ ‘Power and Influence Top 50’ list, inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and elected to the Institute of Medicine. Previously a member of the board of directors at both Facebook and Procter & Gamble, she now serves on the board of directors at Pfizer, OpenAi, and Stand Up2Cancer, and is an advisor at GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Lazard.