Louis Degennaro Email Address

President and Chief Executive Officer

LLS is the largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding research, finding cures and ensuring access to treatments for blood cancer patients.

Louis J. DeGennaro, Ph.D., was named president and CEO of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) in September 2014 and stewards the operations of this $400 million cancer agency. DeGennaro has been a critical member of the LLS executive leadership team since he joined LLS in 2005. He is recognized as the key architect of LLS’s cures and access agenda to help save lives of blood cancer patients and the LLS Therapy Acceleration Program® - a venture philanthropy endeavor that defined the role of nonprofit organizations in supporting drug discovery and development with the biotechnology industry. He was named LLS chief mission officer in 2009, with responsibility for leadership of LLS’s mission functions of research, patient access, education, public policy and advocacy. He continues to serve as chief mission officer along with his role as president and CEO. DeGennaro received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of California at San Francisco and did his postdoctoral research at Yale University School of Medicine. His previous academic appointments include research group leader at Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, and associate professor of neurology and cell biology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. DeGennaro has more than 25 years of research and executive management experience. His private-sector positions include senior director of molecular genetics at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, Princeton, NJ, and executive vice president for research and development, SynX Pharma, Inc., Toronto, Canada. Specialties: cancer drug discovery & development; patient support & service; policy & advocacy; non-profit fund raising