Anthropic adds Novartis CEO to board
Anthropic has appointed Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan to its board through its Long‑Term Benefit Trust, bringing healthcare leadership into its governance structure. The move was announced alongside messaging about longer‑term oversight rather than immediate operational change. (x.com)
Anthropic said April 14 that its Long-Term Benefit Trust appointed Novartis chief executive Vas Narasimhan to the company’s board of directors. (anthropic.com) The company said Narasimhan joins through a governance system in which Anthropic’s board is elected by stockholders and the Long-Term Benefit Trust, not by management alone. Anthropic described the trust as an independent body whose members have no financial stake in the company. (anthropic.com) Anthropic created that trust in 2023 and said it can select and remove a portion of the board that will grow over time to a majority. The company paired the structure with its status as a public benefit corporation, a legal form that adds a public-interest mission alongside profit. (anthropic.com) Narasimhan has run Novartis since February 1, 2018, and Novartis says he is a physician and former company drug-development executive. Anthropic said his experience spans research, business operations and public health. (novartis.com, anthropic.com) The appointment adds a healthcare executive to a board Anthropic has recently expanded with figures from technology and public policy. Anthropic said in June 2025 that former Microsoft and General Motors finance chief Chris Liddell joined the board, and in May 2025 it said Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings had also been appointed. (anthropic.com, anthropic.com) Anthropic has also used the trust to add outside oversight beyond the board itself. In February 2026, it said former California Supreme Court justice Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar joined the trust, and in June 2025 it appointed former Center for a New American Security chief Richard Fontaine. (anthropic.com, anthropic.com) The company has presented that structure as a way to steer decisions about increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems over long time horizons. Anthropic said the trust helps its leadership balance financial success with its stated public-benefit mission of developing advanced artificial intelligence for the long-term benefit of humanity. (anthropic.com, anthropic.com) Anthropic did not announce an operating change, product launch or management reshuffle alongside Narasimhan’s appointment. The move instead extends the company’s effort to put outside specialists into the governance layer it says is meant to shape board oversight as the company grows. (anthropic.com, anthropic.com)
