Myrtle Potter
FORTUNE’s Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business
Black Health Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African Americans in Healthcare
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Wall Street Journal’s 50 Women to Watch.
Myrtle Potter is the CEO of Sumitovant Biopharma, Inc., a global biopharmaceutical company focused on rapidly developing innovative medicines. Before she joined Sumitovant, Myrtle served as Vant Operating Chair at Roivant (2018-2019). Prior to Roviant, she was CEO of Myrtle Potter & Company, a healthcare advisory firm she started in 2005. From 2000 to 2005, Potter was COO and later President of Genentech, where she achieved record sales and earnings growth and launched seven novel therapies.
During her tenure, she co-chaired the Product Portfolio Committee, which made all asset investment and prioritization decisions for Genentech’s drug pipeline, making it the most valuable pipeline in the world at that time. Prior to Genentech, she was President of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s U.S. cardiovascular and metabolic business, where she oversaw an operation of 3,500 people and which launched numerous multi-billion-dollar medicines. Potter began her biopharmaceutical career at Merck, where she started the company Astra-Merck, Inc., which, through a series of transactions, became AstraZeneca.
Potter is a graduate of the University of Chicago and serves on the university’s board of trustees. She also serves on the boards of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, Myovant Sciences (Chairwoman) and Urovant Sciences (Chairwoman). She has previously served on the boards of Amazon, Express Scripts, Medco Health Solutions, and Rite Aid.
