November 13, 2009: News & Views

John Milligan ’83

Photo courtesy of Gilead Sciences

President and COO of Gilead Sciences, John Milligan ’83, to Speak at Ohio Wesleyan
Gilead is nation’s best-performing pharmaceutical company, says BusinessWeek

This year’s Milligan “Leaders in Business” Lecture, sponsored by the Woltemade Center for Economics, Business & Entrepreneurship on November 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Benes Rooms at the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center, will feature John F. Milligan, grandson of the lecture series’ benefactor, Robert L. “Bill” Milligan ’22. But John Milligan isn’t riding in on his grandfather’s coattails. He’s one of today’s most respected executives in one of today’s most important industries—biopharmaceuticals.

Gilead Sciences, of which Milligan is president and chief operating officer, is a biotechnology company that specializes in the discovery, development, and commercialization of treatments for viral and other life-threatening diseases. The company focuses primarily on HIV/AIDS; liver disease, primarily hepatitis B, which is the leading cause of liver cancer worldwide; and cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.

BusinessWeek magazine ranked Gilead Sciences No. 1 in its 2009 listing of the 50 best-performing companies, a jump from the No. 2 spot in 2008. The magazine went on to say that “Gilead owes much of its success to making it easier for patients to comply with complex and uncomfortable drug regimens. … Today, 8 of every 10 new patients diagnosed with HIV in the U.S. start on Gilead drugs and, typically, remain on them for many years.”

Founded in Foster City, California, in 1987, the company now employs more than 4,000 people; has operations in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and several European countries; and reports annual revenues of more than $5 billion.

Milligan, whose family roots at OWU date to the 1870s, majored in chemistry and later earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Illinois. He joined Gilead Science in 1990 as a research scientist. In 1996, he served a director of project management and project team leader for the Gilead Hoffman-LaRoche Tamiflu® collaboration. Before being named president in 2008, Milligan was chief financial officer and chief operation officer. In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Institutional Investor magazine named him its top biotechnology industry CFO.

In a May 2009 article in the San Francisco Business Times, Gilead CEO John Martin said, “As someone who has worked in many different parts of the company, [Milligan] is able to look at our business from multiple angles. John doesn’t make assumptions about what is or isn’t possible.”

Milligan’s lecture, titled “The Story of Gilead Sciences: Building a Business That Transformed a Disease” will be streamed live at stream.owu.edu/broadcasts/lecturesEvents/091117_milligan.html.

– Gretchen Hirsch