26 Facts About Jeffrey Leiden

Jeffrey Leiden is an American physician, scientist and businessman who is the executive chairman of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Jeffrey Leiden was initially appointed to the board of directors of the company in 2009 and was CEO and president from February 2012 to March 2020.

Jeffrey Leiden's mother was a primary school teacher, and his father was a clinical psychologist with a PhD in psychology.

Jeffrey Leiden attended a progressive public school in Glencoe, IL called North School which had a special self-paced learning program.

In elementary school Jeffrey Leiden skipped second grade and started the University of Chicago after his junior year at New Trier East High School, at the age of 15.

Jeffrey Leiden received his bachelor's degree in biological sciences at age 18, a Ph.

Jeffrey Leiden was elected to several honors societies, including Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha.

In 1987, Jeffrey Leiden was appointed assistant professor of medicine and assistant investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

In 1992, Jeffrey Leiden moved to the University of Chicago as the Rawson Professor of Medicine and Pathology and chief of the Division of Cardiology.

In 1999, Jeffrey Leiden was appointed the Elkin Blout Professor of Biological Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School.

Jeffrey Leiden moved to Abbott Labs in June 2000, as senior vice president and chief scientific officer.

In 2006, Jeffrey Leiden joined Clarus Ventures as a managing director.

At Clarus, Jeffrey Leiden founded and chaired the boards of Lycera Corporation and Variation Biotechnologies, and served as chairman of the board of TyRx, Inc.

Jeffrey Leiden served as chairman, president and chief executive officer of Vertex from 2012 to 2020.

Jeffrey Leiden developed stem cell-derived therapies including the experimental cell therapy for Type 1 diabetes known as VX-880.

Jeffrey Leiden wrote to the UK Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018, suggesting Vertex might consider reducing investment in the UK as a result of the lack of agreement between Vertex and the UK's National Health Service on the pricing of a five-year access agreement for Vertex drugs.

Jeffrey Leiden was succeeded by Reshma Kewalramani, who was previously the company's chief medical officer.

Jeffrey Leiden is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians.

Jeffrey Leiden currently serves as a lead independent director of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, and was the former vice chairman of Shire Pharmaceuticals and was formerly a director of PathAI, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Labs, Quest Diagnostics, and TAP Pharmaceuticals.

Jeffrey Leiden is the chairman of Casana, a home health monitoring company.

Jeffrey Leiden was named a Crain's Chicago Business 40 Under 40 in 1994; and served as a member of the NHLBI Board of Scientific Counselors between 1994 and 1999.

Jeffrey Leiden was named one of Boston Business Journal's Power 50 for several years, including most recently in 2022.

In December 2020 Jeffrey Leiden was honored with the Forbes Lifetime Achievement in BioPharma Award at the 2020 Forbes Healthcare Summit.

Jeffrey Leiden served in 2016 as co-chairman of the Massachusetts's Governor's Digital Healthcare Council; is a member of the Governor's Task Force on Artificial Intelligence; and the Governor's STEM Advisory Council.

Jeffrey Leiden is a member of the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board.

Jeffrey Leiden is a director of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and previously served as chair from January 2020 to December 2022.