CEO Roundtable on Cancer, Inc.

In 2001, former President George H.W. Bush asked Robert A. Ingram, then the CEO of GlaxoWellcome, to form an organization comprising action-oriented chief executives and challenged them to “do something bold and venturesome about cancer within your own corporate families.

President Bush also requested that Dr. Martin J. Murphy take the role as Founding CEO of the Roundtable on Cancer, a position that he held until January 2020.

Today, the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, Inc., chartered as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, works to develop and implement initiatives that reduce the risk of cancer, enable early diagnosis, facilitate access to the best available treatments, and hasten the discovery of novel and more effective anti-cancer therapies to help eliminate cancer as a personal disease and public health problem.

Two ways the CEO Roundtable on Cancer is advancing this vision is with the CEO Cancer Gold Standard™, an employer-led, wellness accreditation program addressing prevention, diagnosis and quality treatment of cancer, and with the CEO Roundtable on Cancer-China, a non-governmental organization (NGO), bringing this employer-led health and wellness model to China.

Each November, the CEO Roundtable on Cancer convenes its annual meeting at SAS headquarters in Cary, NC. In 2018, at CEO Roundtable VXII, Project Data Sphere held a first-ever breakout session as part of the meeting, giving attendees the option of learning more about PDS' myriad collaborations, research programs, and platform enhancements.

CEO Roundtable on Cancer Board of Directors
Belén Garijo
Belén Garijo, MD
Board Member
Chair, Executive Board, and CEO, Merck KGaA, Darmstad, Germany
Major General Elder Granger, MD
Board Member
President and CEO, THE 5 Ps, LLC
Robert Ingram
Robert Ingram
Founding Chairman
General Partner, Hatteras Venture Partners
Peter Pisters
Peter Pisters, MD
Board Member
President, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
David M. Reese, MD
Board Member
Executive Vice President of Research and Development, Amgen
Christopher Viehbacher
Christopher Viehbacher
Past Chairman
Founding Partner, Gurnet Point Capital
Scott White
Board Member
Company Group Chairman, North America Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson
CEO Roundtable on Cancer Emeritus Directors
Robert A. Bradway
Director Emeritus
Chairman and CEO, Amgen
Martin J. Murphy
Director Emeritis
CEO Roundtable on Cancer
William C. Weldon
Director Emeritus
CEO Roundtable on Cancer

Life Sciences Council

The Life Sciences Council (LSC) was formed in 2005 to bring together representatives of oncology pharmaceutical / biotechnology companies to advise the CEO Roundtable on Cancer about ways to enable research and development to deliver more effective oncology therapies to patients faster.

That advice led the CEO Roundtable on Cancer to create the independent, non-profit Project Data Sphere (PDS) in 2014 to provide a digital library-laboratory to share, integrate and analyze clinical trial data.  

The LSC continues to advise the Roundtable and Project Data Sphere on  issues common to companies engaged in cancer drug discovery and development that cannot be solved by any company alone.

Those issues include how to:

  • Improve clinical trial delivery
  • Help streamline the regulatory process
  • Create a pre-competitive pool of intellectual property that all may use for discovery and development
Life Sciences Council
Jean-Charles Soria, MD, PhD
Life Sciences Council Co-Chair
Head of Oncology Development, Amgen
Sean Khozin, MD, MPH
Life Sciences Council Member
Chief Executive Officer, CancerLinQ
Maria Rivas, MD
Life Sciences Council Member
Chief Medical Officer, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
Eliav Barr, MD
Life Sciences Council Member
Head, Global Clinical Development, and Chief Medical Officer, Merck
Craig L. Tendler
Life Sciences Council Co-Chair
Vice President, Clinical Development and Global Medical Affairs, Oncology, Janssen Research & Development, LLC