Brenton L. Saunders


Brenton L. Saunders, also known as Brent Saunders, is the CEO of the pharmaceutical company Allergan. He was previously the CEO and president of Forest Laboratories, and the CEO of Bausch + Lomb Incorporated.

Early life

Saunders was born in Arizona on February 6, 1970, the son of Charles Saunders, a retired urologist, and his wife Sheila. He has a twin brother Wayne and a sister Reed, and they grew up on Cedarwood Road in South Whitehall, Pennsylvania. His mother co-founded Senior Solutions, the first geriatric-care management agency in Lehigh Valley. His father is chair of the board of trustees of St. Luke's University Health Network.
Saunders graduated from Parkland High School in 1988. He received a BA in economics and east Asian studies from the University of Pittsburgh in 1992, an MBA from Temple University Fox School of Business and Management in 1996, and a JD from Temple University Beasley School of Law in 1996.

Career

1995-2000

He was the chairman of the New York chapter of the American Heart Association. He was on the transition team for New Jersey Governor-elect Chris Christie. He was the chief compliance officer for Coventry Health Care and for Thomas Jefferson University and Health System. He was senior vice president of Compliance, Legal, and Regulatory at Home Care Corp. of America. He was the chief risk officer of Coventry Health Care from 1998 to 1999.

2000-2010

Saunders was a partner and head of the compliance business advisory group at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP from 2000 to 2003. He joined Schering-Plough from PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he led its compliance business advisory services group. He was a seniorexecutive of Schering-Plough from 2003 to 2010 and its president of Global Consumer Health Care. He was the head of integration for Schering-Plough's merger with Merck & Co.

2010 to present

Saunders was CEO of Bausch & Lomb from February 2010 to August 2013. While at Bausch & Lomb, he led the company to a sales growth of 9% a year and oversaw the introduction of 34 new products before its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals in 2013 for $8.7 billion. He was then CEO of Forest Laboratories from October 2013 until its merger with Actavis Plc in 2014, where he stayed as CEO until he acquired Allergan in 2015 and renamed the entire corporation Allergan Plc.He is now chairman, president and CEO of Allergan Plc. He created the "Allergan Social Contract with Patients", with the stated aim of prohibiting price gouging and offering better patient access to Allergan medicines.

Affiliations

Saunders is on the board of directors of Cisco Systems and RWJBarnabas Health, and is a member of the Business Council and PhRMA. He is the former chairman of the New York chapter of the American Heart Association. He has been a director of Actavis Plc since July 2014. He is on the board of the Overlook Hospital Foundation.

Personal life

He is married and has two daughters.