Michael Riordan

About Michael

Michael L. Riordan is the Chairman of Beaufort Twelve Holdings, a diversified holding company with an emphasis on emerging technology investments. Previously, he was Chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences, a California-based biotechnology company he founded and led for ten years. Gilead has created several of the principal medicines currently used worldwide to treat severe viral infections. He is a life member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and served for twelve years on the Advisory Council of the International Crisis Group. Earlier in his career, he co-authored “U.S. Naval Resources Study 1983-2010” (Volumes I and II) for the U.S. Center for Naval Warfare Studies. Riordan received degrees from The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (MD), The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MIPP), Harvard (MBA), and Washington University in St. Louis (BS Chemical Engineering and BA Biology summa cum laude). He was born and raised in Wichita, Kansas.

Riordan’s assignment as a Luce Scholar 1979-80 was primarily with the Ministry of Health of the Philippines, working in malnutrition clinics and public health projects in northern Luzon, the Visayas, Mindanao, and Manila. The 1979-80 Luce Scholars’ year began with seminars at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and ended with meetings in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Wuxi, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other locations.