1. Sue Desmond-Hellmann was previously Chancellor of the University of California, San Francisco, the first woman to hold the position, and Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professor, and before that president of product development at Genentech, where she played a role in the development of the first gene-targeted cancer drugs, Avastin and Herceptin.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann's father worked as a pharmacist and her mother was an English teacher.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann graduated from Bishop Manogue High School in 1975.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann is board-certified in internal medicine and medical oncology, and holds a master's degree in public health from the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann was an associate adjunct professor of epidemiology and biostatistics At UCSF.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann was named chief medical officer the following year, and in 1999 became executive vice president of development and product operations.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann left after the company was acquired by Roche Pharmaceuticals.
From 2005 to 2008, Sue Desmond-Hellmann served a three-year term as a member of the American Association for Cancer Research board of directors, and from 2001 to 2009, she served on the executive committee of the board of directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann served a three-year term on the Economic Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco beginning in January 2009.
In June 2010, one day after being questioned by The New York Times, Sue Desmond-Hellmann sold her stock in the Altria Group, which owns Phillip Morris USA and other tobacco companies, and subsequently donated $134,000 to the tobacco control center at UCSF.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann said that many of her holdings had been purchased on her behalf by her stockbroker and that she was too busy to oversee all her investments, although she had included the stock on her financial disclosure statement.
In January 2012, Sue Desmond-Hellmann proposed changing the relationship between UCSF, a health sciences university, and the University of California.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann proposed creating partnerships between UCSF and private pharmaceutical corporations and other sources of funding, in order to increase its revenues and resolve its projected financial instability.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann served as UCSF Chancellor until March 2014, holding the Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock Distinguished Professorship during her tenure.
In 2017, Sue Desmond-Hellmann became a member of the Prix Galien USA Committee, succeeding Roy Vagelos as Chair of that Committee in 2018.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann is Chair of the Prix Galien International and Member of the Prix Galien Africa Committee.
In December 2019, Sue Desmond-Hellmann announced plans to step down from her role as BMGF CEO "for health and family reasons".
In 2021, Sue Desmond-Hellmann was appointed by President Joe Biden to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, co-chaired by Frances Arnold, Eric Lander and Maria Zuber.
In 2024 Sue Desmond-Hellmann received the Clark Kerr Award for distinguished leadership in higher education from the UC Berkeley Academic Senate.