Board of Directors

Bill Burns - Chairman of the Board

Bill has spent his entire career in the healthcare sector, working for Beecham Pharmaceuticals and then with Roche Pharmaceuticals where he retired from his position of CEO, Pharma Division, at the end of 2009. He continues as a member of the Board of Roche and Chugai, the majority Roche-owned public company in Japan. Bill is also a non-executive Director on the Boards of Shire Pharmaceuticals and Biotie Therapeutics, and is Chairman of Masters Pharmaceuticals and of Okairos. He also chairs a funding committee for the Wellcome Trust.

Board Members

Ido Leffler

Ido Leffler is an entrepreneur, investor, and advisor. He is the co-founder of successful companies developed with a social mission, including Yoobi, Yes To Inc., Cheeky, Brandless, and Beach House Group. Ido is co-author of Get Big Fast and Do More Good: Start Your Business, Make It Huge, and Change the World, a guide to entrepreneurship and brand-building. He is an investor in and advisor for a wide variety of startups and established companies, and serves on the board of directors for Spark New Zealand. Ido was named by Fast Company as one of the most creative people in business and by Australian Unlimited as one of the top 50 Achieving Australians outside of Australia.

Julie Meyer

Julie Meyer is an entrepreneur, investor, business adviser, networking expert, broadcaster and business commentator. She is the founder and Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital and the Managing Partner of Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE). She is the founder of Entrepreneur Country and was the co-founder of First Tuesday which she sold in July 2000. Julie is also one of the two dragons on the BBC’s Dragons' Den online and is a regular business and economics commentator in the media. She has won awards including the World Economic Forum Global Leader of Tomorrow, the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and a place in The Wall Street Journal’s 30 most influential women in Europe.

Peter Piot

Peter Piot, MD, PhD, is a microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS. He helped discover the Ebola virus in 1976 and led efforts to contain the first-ever recorded epidemic that same year. Peter is widely acknowledged as having provided the foundations of science’s understanding of HIV infection in Africa. He was Assistant Director of the World Health Organization's Global Programme on HIV/AIDS, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary General of the United Nations. Currently Peter is Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Professor of Global Health. He has authored 16 books and over 550 scientific articles.

Ambassador Josette Sheeran

Ambassador Josette Sheeran is a global economic and humanitarian diplomat and leader. Currently she serves as President and CEO of Asia Society and is the United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti. Previously, Josette was Vice Chair of the World Economic Forum and Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme. She also served as United States Under Secretary for Economic, Business, and Agricultural Affairs, and as a deputy U.S. Trade Representative and Ambassador. She has represented the United States at high-level bilateral and multilateral meetings and has contributed as a member of numerous boards of directors. In 2011, Forbes named her the world’s 30th most powerful woman and Foreign Policy has listed her among its top 100 global 'Twitterati'.