Maria C. Freire, Ph.D.

Maria C. Freire, Ph.D., joined our Board of Directors in 2021. Dr. Freire is a member of our Compensation and Management Development Committee. Dr. Freire is the Founder and Principal of The Freire Group, a consulting firm focusing on strategic alliances in the life sciences. She is currently a Director at Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Exelixis, Biogen, the Keystone Symposia and Chair of the Business Advisory Board of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, Spain (IRB Barcelona). Dr. Freire is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine and the Council on Foreign Relations. Until September 2021, Dr. Freire was the President and Executive Director, and a member of the board of directors, of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). FNIH is a Congressionally chartered independent foundation that supports the mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to her appointment to the FNIH, Dr. Freire was the President of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, which bestows the Lasker Awards in basic and clinical science and advocates for medical research. From 2001 to 2008, Dr. Freire served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance), a public-private partnership that develops drugs to fight tuberculosis. An expert in technology commercialization, she directed the Office of Technology Transfer at the NIH from 1995 to 2001.

Dr. Freire served on, and chaired, the Science Board of the Food and Drug Administration and was a member of the World Health Organization Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health. She was appointed to the United Nations Secretary General’s High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, and served as a member of the Institute of Medicine Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future. Her awards include the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service, the Arthur S. Flemming Award, the Bayh-Dole Award, the 2017 Washington Business Journal's “Women Who Mean Business” Award, the 2017 Gold Stevie Award for “Woman of the Year” and NonProfit PRO’s 2019 “Executive of the Year” Award.

Dr. Freire obtained her Bachelor of Science degree from the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, and her Ph.D. in Biophysics from the University of Virginia.