Emilio A. Emini

As CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute, Emilio A. Emini, Ph.D. leads Gates MRI’s research and development of novel products and interventions for diseases disproportionately impacting the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Before joining Gates MRI, Emilio served as director of the HIV and Tuberculosis program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he led the foundation’s efforts focused on accelerating the reduction in the incidence of HIV and TB in high-burden geographies, with the goal of achieving sustained epidemic control. Over the course of his previous 30-year career in the biopharmaceutical industry, Emilio led teams involved in the research and development of novel anti-infectives and vaccines. From 1983 to 2004, he led research at the Merck Research Laboratories involved in the development of one of the first highly active antiretroviral therapies for HIV and, as senior vice president of vaccine research, the successful development of a number of vaccines including vaccines for human papillomavirus and rotavirus.

He later served as senior vice president of vaccine development at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. From 2005 to 2015, he was senior vice president of vaccine R&D at Pfizer Inc., leading the development of Prevnar 13^® for prevention of pneumococcal disease.

Emilio was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in 2006. He is a former trustee of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a former member of the National Preparedness & Response Science Board, an advisory committee to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, International Society for Vaccines, and The College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He received his Ph.D. in Microbiology, Genetics, and Biochemistry from the Weill Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences.