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About
Brent Saunders, born February 6, 1970, is an American biopharmaceutical executive and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. Raised in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley region, he graduated from Parkland High School and began his career as Chief Compliance Officer for Thomas Jefferson University Health System. Earlier roles included Senior Vice President of Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory at Home Care Corporation of America, Chief Risk Officer at Coventry Health Care, Partner and Head of Compliance Business Advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP from 1999 to 2003, and President of Global Consumer Healthcare at Schering-Plough from 2003 to 2009. He led the integration of Schering-Plough with Merck & Co. and Schering-Plough's acquisition of Organon BioSciences. Saunders served as CEO of Forest Laboratories from October 2013 to July 2014, President and CEO of Actavis plc in 2014-2015, and Chairman, President, and CEO of Allergan plc from 2014 to 2020, where he successfully defended against a hostile takeover bid in 2014-2015 and oversaw Allergan's $63 billion sale to AbbVie in 2020. He has led numerous high-profile mergers and acquisitions exceeding $300 billion in value, including Forest Laboratories' merger with Actavis and Actavis' acquisition of Allergan, and is recognized for building brands like Botox, Claritin, and Coppertone. He founded Vesper Healthcare Acquisition, a SPAC. Currently, Saunders serves as Chairman and CEO of Bausch + Lomb, a global eye health company, in his second tenure after previously holding the role from March 2010 to August 2013 until its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. He serves on boards including Cisco Systems, Inc., The Beauty Health Company (as Chairman), Roam (as Chairman), ARS Pharmaceuticals, Cambrian Bio Pharmaceutics, OcuTerra, Arena AI, and The Allergan Foundation. He is also an executive trustee at Mount Sinai Medical Center and supports philanthropies like the Child Mind Institute, Community Hope, and The Michael J. Fox Foundation.