Director
Emilio A. Emini, PhD is the CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. He joined the Institute following a six-year tenure at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as the Director of the foundation’s Tuberculosis and HIV Program. Dr. Emini joined the foundation in 2015 following a greater than 30-year career in the biopharmaceutical industry during which he held multiple senior positions in anti-infectives and vaccines R&D. At the Merck Research Laboratories, from 1983 to 2004, Dr. Emini led the biological research that developed the first of the highly active antiretroviral therapies for HIV and led multiple vaccine research teams that participated in the successful development of a number of vaccines, including vaccines for human papillomavirus and rotavirus. Following a two-year leave from the industry at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Dr. Emini joined Wyeth/Pfizer as the Senior Vice President of Vaccine R&D where he led the development of the Prevenar 13® vaccine for prevention of pneumococcal disease.
Dr. Emini is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences. He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He is a former Trustee of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and served as a member of the National Preparedness & Response Science Board, an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services.