Kathy Giusti is a business leader and a healthcare disrupter. She is a two-time cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with multiple myeloma and breast cancer. Kathy co-founded the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) where she served as CEO and President for nearly two decades. She also co-chaired the HBS Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator, which she helped found as a Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School.
Kathy is recognized as a pioneer in precision medicine, having seen its vast potential in oncology and other diseases. She uses her patient experience and business acumen to drive science faster with innovative models across registries, big data, clinical trials, and venture. Kathy is a champion of patient engagement, encouraging each patient to take initiative to optimize their own care.
Kathy has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and was ranked #19 on Fortune’s list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and Fast Company, and on the Today Show, Bloomberg, and CNN.
In 1998, soon after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma and given three years to live, Kathy founded the MMRF with her identical twin sister, Karen Andrews. At the time, there were no new treatments in the multiple myeloma pipeline. Having worked in leadership positions in the pharmaceutical industry, Kathy understood the industry’s scientific capabilities. But as a patient, Kathy had experienced the broken, dysfunctional healthcare system-and was motivated to use her knowledge and experience to change it. Read our Founders' story: themmrf.org/about/our-founders/
Under Giusti, the MMRF raised more than $500 million to fund research and has established partnerships and collaborative research models in precision medicine, including the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium (MMRC), which has conducted nearly 100 trials, the MMRF CoMMpass™ study, CureCloud®, the Right Track, and the Myeloma Investment Fund. Since the MMRF was founded, 15+ drugs have been approved to treat multiple myeloma and many clinical trials are underway. These efforts have accelerated the pace at which treatments are brought to patients and have more than tripled patients’ survival.
As Co-Chair of the Harvard Business School Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator, a $20 million program endowed by Robert Kraft and the Kraft Family Foundation, Kathy convened more than 300 leaders from throughout the healthcare ecosystem. She identified and published best practices for accelerating cures and created The Kraft Accelerator Playbook for Cures to help organizations across all disease states develop strategies to accelerate cures. Kathy continues to work with CEOs from disease-focused organizations to address their most important challenges and share solutions.
Kathy was appointed to President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group and served as an advisor to the Biden Moonshot program. She was named to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB), and the National Cancer Policy Board (NCPB). Kathy serves on the Board of Directors for EQRx and the MMRF. She serves on the Verily Advisory Board, the FasterCures Non-Profit Council, and the Harvard Business School Health Advisory Board. She is highly published with articles in the Harvard Business Review, Time, Forbes.com, STAT, and Nature.
Kathy received her MBA in general management from Harvard Business School and holds a BS and an honorary doctorate from the University of Vermont.