Kathy Giusti


Kathy Giusti is the founder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and a member of its board of directors. She is the Henry & Allison McCance Family Senior Fellow at Harvard Business School, where she serves as Faculty Co-Chair of HBS Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator. She is recognized as a pioneer of precision medicine, a champion of open-access data sharing, and a strong advocate for patient engagement in their treatment and care and as part of the research process.
Giusti founded the MMRF in 1998, shortly after being diagnosed with the incurable blood cancer multiple myeloma. Since then, she has led the foundation in establishing collaborative research models in the areas of tissue banking, genomics, and clinical trials. These models have helped accelerate the pace at which treatments are brought to patients—treatments that have nearly tripled patients' survival.
In 2016, Giusti was named co-chair of the HBS Kraft Precision Medicine Accelerator, a $20M endowed program provided by Robert Kraft and the Kraft Family Foundation. The mission of HBS Kraft Accelerator is to drive innovation to speed breakthroughs in precision medicine for all cancers.
Giusti has received several awards for her leadership. Most recently, she was recognized as one of 34 leaders changing healthcare by Fortune magazine. She was also ranked #19 on Fortunes list of Worlds' 50 Greatest Leaders and was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the world. She was named an Open Science Champion of Change by the White House, and was appointed to and served on President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative Working Group.
Giusti has more than two decades of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Vermont.