Reshma Kewalramani

Reshma Kewalramani is the Chief Executive Officer and President at Vertex, a Fortune 500 global biotechnology company. She is the first female CEO of a large US biotech company.

Kewalramani trained in internal medicine and nephrology before entering the biopharmaceutical industry, where she has dedicated her career to discovering and developing new medicines. She joined Vertex in 2017, served as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Vice President of Global Medicines Development and Medical Affairs and became CEO in 2020.

In this period, Vertex expanded its success in treating cystic fibrosis (CF), with medicines that hold the potential to treat patients as young as one month old and as many as 90 percent of all patients diagnosed with CF. Building on that work, Vertex’s R&D pipeline has treatments in multiple disease areas and across multiple modalities including small molecule, mRNA, cell and gene therapies. Since 2017, Vertex has doubled its employee base and the number of medicines it offers, significantly expanded its clinical-stage pipeline, and augmented its footprint in Boston’s Seaport and around the world. All the while, Vertex continues to foster its strong culture of belonging, diversity and equity. Continuing the tradition of excellence in the workplace, Vertex has consistently been recognized as a best place to work, including by Science magazine, The Boston Globe, Newsweek and Fortune.

Kewalramani is committed to supporting biomedical innovation, the next generation of scientists, and her community. She serves on Year Up's national board of directors, the Biomedical Science Careers Program’s board of directors, the Massachusetts General Hospital board of trustees and the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Dean’s Advisory Board. She also serves on the Ginkgo Bioworks board of directors, where she chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.

She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and her fellowship in nephrology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital combined program. She received her medical degree, with honors, from the seven-year medicine program at the Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of the American Society of Nephrology. She is an alumna of the Harvard Business School, having completed the General Management Program.

Kewalramani has received a number of distinguished honors and awards for her leadership and contributions to science and innovation, including the Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Medicine, the International Institute of New England Golden Door Award, the New England Council New Englander of the Year award, and the Asian American Business Development Center Pinnacle Award. She has been named one of Fortune's Most Powerful Women, one of Boston Business Journal's Power 50, one of Boston magazine's most influential Bostonians, and one of Business Insider's 10 People Transforming Healthcare.