CEO Today USA Awards

19 www.ceotodaymagazine.com CEO Today USAAwards 2017 CALIFORNIA of Cell Design Labs. He is also a member of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy’s Strategic Advisory Group. In addition, at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Belldegrun is Professor of Urology, holds the Roy and Carol Doumani Chair in Urologic Oncology, and is Director of the UCLA Institute of Urologic Oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Prior to joining UCLA, he was a research fellow in surgical oncology and immunotherapy at the National Cancer Institute/National Institutes of Health, working under Dr. Rosenberg. Dr. Belldegrun earned his M.D. at the Hebrew University Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem. He undertook his postgraduate studies in Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science, and his residency in Urologic Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. He has authored several books in oncology and more than 500 scientific and medical papers related to urological cancers, immunotherapy, gene therapy and cancer vaccines. He is certified by the American Board of Urology, and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Association of Genitourinary Surgeons. Upon the close of the acquisition in the fourth quarter of 2017, Kite became Kite, a Gilead Company. The company remains based in Santa Monica, California and is a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of innovative cancer immunotherapies. Kite is focused on developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and T cell receptor (TCR) engineered cell therapies designed to harness the power of a patient’s own immune system to effectively target and attack cancer cells. Kite’s dual platform has the potential to change the paradigm of cancer therapy and address both hematological malignancies and solid tumors. The company is a leader in engineered T-cell therapy with what is potentially the biggest breakthrough in cancer research since the introduction of combination therapy more than 60 years ago. Earlier this year, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Kite’s lead CAR T therapy; however, this approval was not the only highlight of 2017 for Kite. In July, the company filed the industry’s first CAR T Marketing Authorization Application to the European Medicines Agency. This milestone underscored Kite’s commitment to providing this therapy to patients worldwide. Beyond Kite’s technology and robust pipeline are the people who have made all of the company’s success a reality. Though the company was only founded in 2009, members of the Kite team have been at the forefront of cancer immunotherapy research for three decades. Top industry executives in areas across finance and operations, R&D, manufacturing and technical operations, commercialization, business development, and communications have been attracted to Kite based on the Company’s inspiring vision, senior leadership team, manufacturing prowess, technology and the potential for what’s possible. Under Dr. Belldegrun’s leadership, Kite has grown to over 750 employees from just a handful in 2014 and is helping to transform Los Angeles into a biotech hub for global cancer innovation and therapy. KITE, A GILEAD COMPANY www.kitepharma.com