John Martin
- TitleCEO
- CompanyGilead
During Martin’s 19-year tenure as CEO, Gilead’s shares have risen 100-fold (including a 157% gain in the past two years). In recent years the company’s growth has been of the organic variety, with the development of two blockbuster drugs that are currently on track to exceed $15 billion in combined sales by the end of 2015. Those two hits, Sovaldi, a hepatitis C treatment said to cure 90% of patients, and its successor, Harvoni, have propelled Gilead to record prosperity: The company, which has a market value of $149 billion, saw sales double and profits quadruple last year. Over the past 12 months, the company’s profit margins have exceeded 50% and earlier this year, Martin surprised analysts by announcing he was “taking suggestions on companies to buy.”