Dr. Albert Bourla was born in 1961 in Thessaloniki, Greece, into the city’s Sephardic Jewish community. His parents were among the 2,000 of 50,000 Jews in Thessaloniki to survive the Holocaust. Dr. Bourla’s love for both animals and medicine led him to the Veterinary School of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to pursue both a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) and a Ph.D. in the Biotechnology of Reproduction. In 1993, he was hired by Pfizer to be part of the company’s animal health division, and in 2001, Dr. Bourla and his wife immigrated to the United States from Greece following a promotion.
Today, Dr. Bourla is Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies. He is noted for making the company a leader in oncology and vaccine research. The later efforts were of global significance during the COVID-19 pandemic; Dr. Bourla’s vision was instrumental to the lightspeed development of Pfizer’s revolutionary Covid-19 vaccine. In January 2022, he was recognized for his outstanding pandemic leadership by being named the 2022 Genesis Prize Laureate. Additionally, in 2021, Dr. Bourla was recognized as CEO of the Year by CNN Business and was one of four executives honored as Business Insider’s “Most Transformative CEOs of 2021”.
Dr. Albert Bourla is a 2021 National Hellenic Society Excellence Award winner.
