CEO Today USA Awards

CALIFORNIA 17 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today USAAwards 2017 Dr. Arie Belldegrun is the founder of Kite Pharma, and served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Kite until its $11.9 billion acquisition in October 2017 by Gilead Sciences - the industry’s largest ever pre-commercial acquisition. He founded Kite with a singular vision: to cure cancer. Through his perseverance and ability to think in terms of possibilities rather than limits, he has led a revolution that brought an entirely new type of medicine to the market while overcoming scientific and commercial challenges. This new type of cancer treatment, a type of immunotherapy known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR T) therapy, was once seen as a research curiosity, not a viable therapy option. But Dr. Belldegrun, a surgeon, entrepreneur, risk-taker and visionary, believed that the impossible was possible and saw the broad potential of the technology. His persistence pushed this innovative therapy forward, and his vision was ultimately realized in October 2017 when the US Food and Drug Administration approved Kite’s therapy – the first CAR T therapy for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma after two or more lines of systemic therapy. Dr. Belldegrun’s interest in CAR T therapy was first sparked when he served as a post-Harvard fellow under Dr. Steven Rosenberg at the National Cancer Institute. Applying his passion for the therapy, Dr. Belldegrun founded Kite, investing his personal resources to develop and grow the company from belief to what it is today – a company that is changing the paradigm of cancer treatment. ARIE BELLDEGRUN M.D., Founder of Kite Pharma ABOUT DR. ARIE BELLDEGRUN “But Dr. Belldegrun, a surgeon, entrepreneur, risk-taker and visionary, believed that the impossible was possible and saw the broad potential of the technology”