Anthropic adds Novartis CEO
Anthropic appointed Vas Narasimhan, the CEO of Novartis, to its Board of Directors through its Long‑Term Benefit Trust, bringing medical and global‑health experience to the AI safety company. The appointment was announced via Anthropic’s official social channel. (x.com)
Anthropic has added Novartis Chief Executive Officer Vas Narasimhan to its board, with the seat filled by the company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust. (anthropic.com) Anthropic said the appointment was announced on April 14, 2026, and described Narasimhan as a physician-scientist as well as the head of Novartis. Novartis says he has served as chief executive since 2018. (anthropic.com) (novartis.com) The seat came through Anthropic’s Long-Term Benefit Trust, an internal governance body with five financially disinterested trustees who can select and remove a growing share of the board. Anthropic says that share is designed to become a majority over time. (anthropic.com) Anthropic set up that trust alongside its public benefit corporation structure, which lets the company pursue both shareholder interests and a stated public mission. Anthropic defines that mission as developing advanced artificial intelligence for “the long-term benefit of humanity.” (anthropic.com) Narasimhan’s appointment adds a drug-industry chief to a board system Anthropic has used to signal that safety and public-interest oversight should sit alongside investor control. Anthropic said he will bring experience in healthcare, science, and global access to medicines. (anthropic.com) The move also lands as Anthropic pushes further into business adoption. In March, the company said it was putting $100 million into its Claude Partner Network to help organizations deploy its models. (anthropic.com) Anthropic has used the same trust mechanism for other high-profile board choices. In June 2025, it said the Long-Term Benefit Trust had appointed Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings to the board. (anthropic.com) The trust itself has also changed this year. In February 2026, Anthropic said Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar had joined the Long-Term Benefit Trust, which advises leadership on how to maximize AI’s benefits and reduce its risks. (anthropic.com) For Novartis, Narasimhan’s background is rooted in medicine as well as management. The company says he trained in medicine, joined Novartis in 2005, and later led drug development before becoming chief executive. (novartis.com) Anthropic’s post framed the new board seat around healthcare and life sciences, two sectors where companies are testing artificial intelligence for research, operations, and clinical work. The appointment gives Anthropic a board member whose day job sits inside one of the world’s largest medicines companies. (anthropic.com)
