About our Board of Directors
Exelixis’ Board of Directors brings together an accomplished group of advisors and industry veterans from the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, clinical medicine and healthcare policy. Their diverse yet complementary experiences contribute invaluable, time-tested perspective to Exelixis’ global business strategy.
Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board, Exelixis, Inc.
Stelios Papadopoulos, Ph.D., a co-founder of Exelixis, has been a director since December 1994 and the Chair of the Board since January 1998. Dr. Papadopoulos retired as Vice Chairman of Cowen & Co., LLC in August 2006 after six years as an investment banker with the firm, where he focused on the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors. Prior to joining Cowen & Co., he spent 13 years as an investment banker at PaineWebber, Incorporated, where he was most recently Chairman of PaineWebber Development Corp., a PaineWebber subsidiary focusing on biotechnology. He joined PaineWebber in April 1987 from Drexel Burnham Lambert, where he was a Vice President in the Equity Research Department covering the biotechnology industry. Prior to Drexel, he was a biotechnology analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Before coming to Wall Street in 1985, Dr. Papadopoulos was on the faculty of the Department of Cell Biology at New York University Medical Center. Dr. Papadopoulos was a co-founder of Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to improving patient care by developing novel medicines for the treatment of hepatitis C, acquired by Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. in November 2011. Dr. Papadopoulos served as a member of the board of directors of Anadys Pharmaceuticals from 2000 to 2011 and as its chairman in 2011, prior to its acquisition.
Dr. Papadopoulos has also served as a member of the board of directors of four other publicly held companies: Biogen, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the treatment of serious diseases, since 2008 and as its chairman since 2014; Regulus Therapeutics Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of medicines targeting microRNAs, since 2008, and as its chairman since 2013; Eucrates Biomedical Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses, and as its chairman, since 2020; and BG Medicine, Inc., a diagnostics company focused on the development and commercialization of cardiovascular diagnostic tests, from 2003 until 2018. Dr. Papadopoulos was also co-founder and member of the board of directors of Cellzome Inc., a privately held drug discovery company acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in May 2012.
In the not-for-profit sector, Dr. Papadopoulos is a co-founder and Chairman of Fondation Santé, a member of the board of visitors of Duke Medicine, and a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Duke Institute for Health Innovation. Dr. Papadopoulos holds an M.S. in Physics, a Ph.D. in Biophysics and an M.B.A. in Finance, all from New York University.
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Maria C. Freire, Ph.D.
Director
Maria C. Freire, Ph.D., has been a director since April 2018. Since November 2012, Dr. Freire has served as President and Executive Director and as a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health. From March 2008 to November 2012, she served as President and as a member of the board of directors of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. Prior to joining the Lasker Foundation, Dr. Freire served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development from 2001 to 2008 and Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at the National Institutes of Health from 1995 to 2001.
Dr. Freire has served on the board of directors of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. a publicly held urban office real estate investment trust uniquely focused on collaborative life science and technology campuses, since April 2012, and has previously served on the boards of numerous national and international organizations, including the Science Board of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the World Health Organization Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health and the United Nations Secretary General’s High Level Panel on Access to Medicines. Dr. Freire is also a member of the National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations, and she is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2017 Gold Stevie Award for “Woman of the Year,” the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Arthur S. Fleming Award and the Bayh-Dole Award. Dr. Freire holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia and a B.S. from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru.
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Alan M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D.
Director
Alan M. Garber, M.D., Ph.D., has been a director since January 2005. He became Provost of Harvard University, Mallinckrodt Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, and a Professor in the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and in the Department of Economics at Harvard in September 2011. Before moving to Harvard, from 1998 until August 2011, he was the Henry J. Kaiser Jr. Professor, a Professor of Medicine, and a Professor (by courtesy) of Economics, Health Research and Policy, and of Economics in the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Dr. Garber also served as the Director of the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research and the Center for Health Policy at Stanford. During his tenure at Stanford University, Dr. Garber also served as a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and as a staff physician at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. Dr. Garber has served as a member of the board of directors of Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a publicly held biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing therapies for the treatment of cystic fibrosis, since June 2017.
In addition, Dr. Garber is a one of several co-founders and serves as the chair of the board of directors for the Center for Advanced Biological Innovation and Manufacturing, a public benefit limited liability company in the Boston metro area created to encourage collaboration among multiple institutions, with the ultimate aim of promoting the development and production of cell and gene therapies, biologics, immunotherapies and other emerging technologies that can benefit patients. Dr. Garber is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Royal College of Physicians and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Garber is also a Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research and served as founding Director of its Health Care Program for nineteen years. He has also served as a member of the National Advisory Council on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, as a member of the Board of Health Advisers of the Congressional Budget Office and as Chair of the Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Dr. Garber previously served on the editorial board of a number of acclaimed scientific journals and has received numerous awards and honors. Dr. Garber holds an A.B. summa cum laude, an A.M. and a Ph.D., all in Economics, from Harvard University, and an M.D. with research honors from Stanford University.
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Michael M. Morrissey, Ph.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer
Michael M. Morrissey, Ph.D., has served as a director and as Exelixis’ President and Chief Executive Officer since July 2010. Dr. Morrissey has held positions of increasing responsibility at Exelixis since he joined the company in February 2000, including serving as President of Research and Development from January 2007 until July 2010. From 1991 to 2000, Dr. Morrissey held several positions at Berlex Biosciences, last holding the position of Vice President, Discovery Research. Earlier in his career, Dr. Morrissey served as a Senior Scientist and Project Team Leader in Medicinal Chemistry at CIBA-Geigy Corporation. Dr. Morrissey has served as chair of the board of directors of Vera Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly held, clinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing transformative treatments for patients with serious immunological diseases, since April 2022, and as a member of the board of directors of XWPharma Ltd., a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel therapeutics, since December 2020. He is the author of numerous scientific publications in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery and an inventor on 70 issued U.S. patents and 25 additional published U.S. patent applications. Dr. Morrissey holds a B.S. (Honors) in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Harvard University.
George Poste, DVM, Ph.D., FRS
Director
George Poste, DVM, Ph.D., FRS, has been a director since August 2004. Since February 2009, Dr. Poste has been the Chief Scientist at Complex Adaptive Systems Initiative and Regents’ Professor and Del E. Webb Professor of Health Innovation at Arizona State University. From May 2003 to February 2009, Dr. Poste served as the director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. Dr. Poste has served as the Chief Executive Officer of Health Technology Networks, a consulting company that specializes in the application of genomic technologies and computing in healthcare, since 2000. From 1992 to 1999, he was the Chief Science and Technology Officer and President, R&D, of SmithKline Beecham Corporation, a pharmaceutical company (later merged into GlaxoSmithKline plc).
Dr. Poste served on the Defense Science Board of the U.S. Department of Defense from 2001 to 2010 and is a member of other organizations dedicated to advancing defenses against bioweapons and biowarfare. Dr. Poste has served as a member of the board of directors of Caris Life Sciences, a privately held medical diagnostics company, since 2009. Previously, Dr. Poste served as a member of the board of directors of Monsanto Company, a publicly held provider of agricultural products and solutions, from February 2003 until its acquisition by Bayer Aktiengesellschaft in June 2018, and as the Non-Executive Chairman of Orchid Cellmark, Inc., a publicly held DNA forensics company, from April 2000 until its acquisition by the Laboratory Corporation of America in August 2009. Dr. Poste is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and various other prestigious organizations and has been awarded honorary doctorates from several universities. Dr. Poste holds a DVM in veterinary medicine and a Ph.D. in Virology from the University of Bristol, England and Board Certification in Pathology from the Royal College of Pathologists.
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Julie Anne Smith
Director
Julie Anne Smith has been a director since September 2016. Since August 2018, Ms. Smith has served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of ESCAPE Bio Inc., a privately held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing novel, precisely targeted therapeutics for genetically defined neurodegenerative diseases. From July 2017 until June 2018, Ms. Smith served as President and Chief Executive Officer and as a member of the board of directors of Nuredis, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company. Prior to Nuredis, she served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Raptor Pharmaceutical Corp., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing transformative treatments for people affected by rare and debilitating diseases, from January 2015 until the company’s acquisition by Horizon Pharma plc in October 2016, where she also served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 2012 to 2014.
From 2008 to 2012, Ms. Smith served as Chief Commercial Officer of Enobia Pharmaceuticals prior to the company’s acquisition by Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Previously, Ms. Smith served as Vice President of Commercial at Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc from 2006 to 2008, as Vice President, Global Marketing at Genzyme General from 2001 to 2005, and helped to establish the operations and business development function for the biotech start-up, Novazyme Pharmaceuticals, from 2000 to 2001. Ms. Smith began her industry career at Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in 1996. Ms. Smith has served as a member of the board of directors of Stoke Therapeutics, Inc., a publicly held biotechnology company pioneering a new way to treat the underlying cause of genetic diseases by precisely unregulating protein expression, since June 2020. Previously, Ms. Smith served as a member of the board of directors of Audentes Therapeutics, Inc. a publicly held, clinical -stage biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing gene therapy products for patients suffering from serious, life-threatening rare diseases caused by single gene defects, from December 2016 until its acquisition by Astellas Pharma Inc. in January 2020, and as a Director on the Health and Emerging Companies Sections of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) board. Ms. Smith holds a B.S. in biological and nutritional sciences from Cornell University.
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Jacqueline (Jacky) Wright
Director
Ms. Wright has been a director since December 2021. Since November 2019, Ms. Wright has served as Corporate Vice President & Chief Digital Officer, U.S. Business, of Microsoft Corporation, a multinational technology company. Previously, she served as Chief Digital & Information Officer for HM Revenue & Customs, the tax department of the United Kingdom Government, under a secondment arrangement from October 2017 to November 2019, and as Vice President, IT Strategic Enterprise Services of Microsoft Corporation from September 2011 to October 2017. Before joining Microsoft, Ms. Wright served in chief information officer roles for multiple large companies, including BP plc and General Electric Company. Ms. Wright has served as a member of the board of directors of nVent Electric plc, a publicly held provider of electrical connection and protection solutions, since March 2020, and as a member of the board of directors of Russell Reynolds Associates, Inc. a privately held global leadership advisory and search firm, since June 2021. In the not-for-profit sector, she is a member of the industry advisory board of the Institute of Coding and the data analytics advisory board of Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York, having previously served on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College. Ms. Wright holds a B.B.A. in Computer Information Systems & Accounting from Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York.
Jack L. Wyszomierski
Director
Jack L. Wyszomierski, has been a director since February 2004. From June 2004 to June 2009, Mr. Wyszomierski served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of VWR International, LLC, a supplier of laboratory supplies, equipment and supply chain solutions to the global research laboratory industry. From 1982 to 2003, Mr. Wyszomierski held positions of increasing responsibility within the finance group at Schering-Plough Corporation, a health care company, culminating with his appointment as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 1996. Prior to joining Schering-Plough, he was responsible for capitalization planning at Joy Manufacturing Company, a producer of mining equipment, and was a management consultant at Data Resources, Inc. Mr. Wyszomierski has served: as a member of the board of directors of XOMA Corporation, a publicly held biotech royalty aggregator, since August 2010; as a member of the board of directors of Athersys, Inc., a publicly held company engaged in the discovery and development of therapeutic product candidates, since June 2010; as a member of the board of directors of Solenis LLC, a privately held manufacturer of chemical products, since August 2014; and as a member of the board of directors of SiteOne Landscape Supply, Inc., a publicly held company that distributes landscape supply products, since April 2016.
Mr. Wyszomierski previously served as a member of the board of directors of: Unigene Laboratories, Inc., a publicly held biopharmaceutical company, from April 2010 to July 2013; and AssuraMed Holding, Inc., a privately held distributor of home healthcare products, from January 2011 until its acquisition by Cardinal Health Inc. in March 2013. Mr. Wyszomierski holds a M.S. in Industrial Administration and a B.S. in Administration, Management Science and Economics from Carnegie Mellon University.