Commencement Speaker
Co-founder and Former Chief Executive Officer
Quintiles Transnational
Dr. Dennis Gillings is recognized as a visionary in the contract research organization industry. He is co-founder and former executive chair of Quintiles Transnational, the world’s largest biopharmaceutical services company.
Dr. Dennis Gillings
In 2014, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron appointed Gillings as World Dementia Envoy. In this capacity, Gillings chaired the World Dementia Council, an organization that seeks to stimulate innovation to treat cognitive decline, and worked with governments around the world to address economic, regulatory and social barriers to innovation in dementia prevention, treatment and care.
Gillings has seen firsthand the devastating effects of dementia and lack of effective treatment, as his mother lived with the condition for 18 years until her death in 2013. Although he stepped down from the role as envoy in January 2016, he remains an active member of the Council.
Gillings, who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics (first-class honours) from the University of Exeter, a diploma in mathematical statistics from Cambridge University, and a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Exeter, has received several honorary degrees, including from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Prior to founding Quintiles, Gillings was a biostatistics professor at UNC’s public health school for more than 15 years. Among his honors is being awarded the Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2004 for services to the pharmaceutical industry. In 2012, he received the SCRIP Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of contributions to pharmaceuticals.
Gillings continues to be involved in private equity through NovaQuest and GHO Capital and in philanthropy through the Dennis and Mireille Gillings Foundation.
In groundbreaking studies of HIV/AIDS, the patients themselves were activists for more and better research. That can’t be the case with people who have dementia. I call upon families and communities to be advocates for their elders. One way to do this is by ensuring that people with dementia are enrolled in clinical research trials. Then, when safe drugs are found, we can introduce them earlier – and to a wider population.
– Dr. Dennis Gillings
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