Executive Leadership Team

Brent Saunders

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board

Brent Saunders is a proven leader with more than 25 years of experience across the health care sector. He has served in senior executive roles at several global pharmaceutical and health care companies, where he has successfully overseen numerous value-enhancing initiatives, transactions and integrations.

He rejoined Bausch + Lomb as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors in March 2023. Mr. Saunders initially served as CEO from 2010 until 2013, when the company was acquired by Bausch Health Companies Inc. (then known as Valeant Pharmaceuticals, Inc.).

Mr. Saunders previously co-founded and served as Chairman of the Board of Vesper Healthcare Acquisitions Corp. Prior to that, he was Chairman, President and CEO of Allergan plc. until the company’s $63 billion acquisition by AbbVie Inc in 2020. Before that, he was President and CEO and a director of Forest Laboratories Inc., until that company’s $25 billion merger with Actavis plc. in 2014, when he was named CEO of the combined business. He then successfully led Actavis’ $66 billion acquisition of Allergan.

Mr. Saunders’ first role as an executive officer in the pharmaceuticals and health care space was as a member of the executive management team at Schering-Plough Corporation. While there, he led the integration of Organon Biosciences N.V., after Organon was acquired by Schering-Plough, as well as the merger between Schering-Plough and Merck & Co., Inc.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Saunders was a Partner and Head of Compliance Business Advisory at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Prior to that, he was Chief Risk Officer at Coventry Health Care, Inc., Senior Vice President of Compliance, Legal and Regulatory at Home Care Corporation of America, and Chief Compliance Officer for the Thomas Jefferson University Health System.

Mr. Saunders currently serves as Chairman of the Board of The Beauty Health Company (Nasdaq: SKIN) and as a director of ARS Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPRY). He is Chairman of the Board of Roam, a director of Cambrian BioPharma and Arena AI, and a Nextech board advisor. His prior board experience includes BridgeBio Pharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: BBIO), Cisco Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO), Glo Pharma, OcuTerra Therapeutics and Osmind. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of Mt. Sinai Medical Center.

Mr. Saunders holds a B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh, a J.D. from the Temple University School of Law, and an M.B.A. from the Temple University School of Business.