INNOVATION

Albert Bourla

CEO, Pfizer

The coronavirus breakthrough that everyone had been waiting for during 2020 was finally announced at the beginning of November by Dr. Albert Bourla. The CEO of international pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, it was Bourla who confirmed that the company’s trial of a coronavirus vaccine had met with a 90 percent success rate. Born in 1961 in Thessaloniki, Greece, Bourla was raised in a Sephardic Jewish family and studied in Athens. In 2020, he was ranked as America’s top CEO in the Pharmaceuticals sector by Institutional Investor magazine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government signed an agreement with Pfizer to purchase 8 million vaccines, remarked after their meeting that Bourla “is very proud of his Greek heritage and his Jewish heritage.” (Photo: Greek Reporter / Screenshot)