Dr. Mahkam (Maky) Zanganeh
CEO, President & Director
Dr. Maky Zanganeh, DDS, is a recognized leader in the healthcare industry and is currently Chief Executive Officer, President, and member of the Board of Directors of Summit Therapeutics. Dr. Zanganeh was recognized in the “CEO appointments – 21 women who made CEO in 2022”article published in Business Chief Leadership & Strategy, August 2022. It was noted in this article that “…women represent just 15% of chief executives employed by Fortune 500 companies, equaling 74 female chiefs, while globally, just 5% of chiefs are female.”
Dr. Zanganeh is the recipient of many awards and honors including:
- Honored speaker at the United Nations 7th International Day of Woman & Girls in Science Assembly conference, during the Esteemed Closing Ceremony, in February 2022.
- Honored as one of the Top 10 Influential Chief Operating Officers of 2021 by Industry Era magazine.
- Invited to be a keynote speaker to share the stories in her book at multiple companies and conferences including Medable, an elite company named to the CNBC 2022 Disruptor List, and the Iranian American Women Foundation (IAWF) Leadership Conference, held in October 2022.
- Earned the Fierce Biotech “Top Women in Biotech 2013” award.
- Finalist for the Ernst & Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” award in 2013.
- Board member of two public companies.
One of her greatest leadership accomplishments occurred when Dr. Zanganeh, as Chief Operating Officer at Pharmacyclics, Inc., led a team to develop and commercialize a game-changing treatment, ibrutinib, for a wide range of blood cancers. She led this struggling biotech company to a multimillion-dollar collaboration and license deal for ibrutinib with Johnson & Johnson in 2011 and the subsequent sale of the company for $21 billion in 2015 to AbbVie Inc., which was the second largest biopharma sale ever in the industry at that time. The deal with Johnson & Johnson received the “Best Biotech Transaction” award in 2011. Under her leadership in 2015, Pharmacyclics was also awarded the prestigious Prix Galien for “Best Pharmaceutical Agent.” This award is the biomedical industry’s highest accolade and recognizes outstanding achievements in the development of new therapies.
Dr. Zanganeh was President of EMEA / Global VP of Training and Education for Computer Motion, Inc. (Pioneers in Robotic Surgery) which later merged with Intuitive, Inc. (ISRG) company in June 2003. Dr. Zanganeh was awarded her DDS (Dental Degree of Surgery) from the Louis Pasteur University, France and an MBA from Schiller International University, France. She is fluent in French, German, Farsi, and English. She is also a published author, recently releasing her book entitled The Magic of Normal.