H.E. Professor Elias Zerhouni

Elias Zerhouni, M.D., is the President, Global Research & Development, and a member of the Executive Committee for Sanofi since 2011 overseeing a worldwide organisation comprised of 17,000 associates.

Dr. Zerhouni obtained his doctorate in Medicine at the University of Algiers. His academic career was spent at the renowned Johns Hopkins University and Hospital where he reached the rank of professor of Radiology and Biomedical engineering and senior adviser for Johns Hopkins Medicine. He served as Chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vice Dean for Research and Executive Vice Dean of the School of Medicine from 1996 to 2002.

He served as Director of the US National Institutes of Health from 2002 to 2008. In that position he oversaw the NIH’s 27 Institutes and Centers with more than 18,000 employees and a budget of $29.5 billion.

He served as senior fellow of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation from 2009 to 2010.

In November 2009, President Obama appointed Dr. Zerhouni as one of the first presidential U.S. science envoys.

Dr. Zerhouni has founded or co-founded five start-up companies, authored more than 200 publications, holds eight patents and helped launch in 2009 the new journal Science: Translational Medicine as its first Chief scientific advisor.

Dr Zerhouni serves on a number of Boards, including the Lasker Foundation, KAUST University and chairs the Biomedical advisory board of US Pharma and its Foundation. He is also a member of the Institute of Medicine and of the Academy of Engineering of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He received the prestigious Legion of Honor medal from the French National Order in 2008, and was elected in 2010 as a member of the French Academy of Medicine and appointed as Chair of Innovation at the College de France in 2011.