Anthropic adds ex‑Novartis CEO

Anthropic said April 14 that Vas Narasimhan, the chief executive of Novartis, has joined its board through the company’s Long-Term Benefit Trust. (anthropic.com) Narasimhan is a physician-scientist who has led Novartis since February 1, 2018, and Novartis says he oversees a company with more than 77,000 employees operating in about 120 countries. Novartis says its medicines reached more than 300 million patients in 2025. (novartis.com) Anthropic said Narasimhan has overseen the development and approval of more than 35 novel medicines, and Reuters reported he is the first pharmaceutical-industry executive to join the artificial intelligence company’s governing body. (anthropic.com) (thehindu.com) The board seat also changes Anthropic’s internal balance of power. Anthropic said Trust-appointed directors now make up a majority of the board after Narasimhan’s appointment. (anthropic.com) That matters because Anthropic built the Long-Term Benefit Trust to give an independent group a growing role in board selection, separate from investors with direct financial stakes. In a 2023 post, the company said the trust’s authority would expand over time until it could appoint a majority of the board. (anthropic.com) Anthropic said the trust’s members have no financial stake in the company, and the structure sits alongside Anthropic’s status as a Public Benefit Corporation, a legal form that allows a company to pursue a stated public mission as well as profit. (anthropic.com) The appointment lands as Anthropic gets much larger and more expensive to govern. The company said on February 12 that it raised $30 billion in Series G funding at a $380 billion post-money valuation. (anthropic.com) Anthropic framed Narasimhan’s addition around healthcare and life sciences, saying those fields are among the areas where artificial intelligence could improve disease research and medicine design. Narasimhan said in Anthropic’s announcement that artificial intelligence is already helping scientists study disease biology and design better medicines. (anthropic.com) Narasimhan’s résumé is heavy on regulated industries and public-health work. Novartis says he previously worked on human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, malaria, and tuberculosis programs in India, Africa, and South America, and that he is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine in the United States. (novartis.com) Anthropic’s board now includes Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Yasmin Razavi, Jay Kreps, Reed Hastings, Chris Liddell, and Narasimhan. The company’s latest move shows that one of the world’s most valuable private artificial intelligence firms is adding more experience from medicine and heavily regulated global businesses as its trust takes majority board control. (anthropic.com)