Brent Saunders

Saunders was born in 1969 or 1970 to Charles and Sheila Sounders, an urologist and social worker.[1][6] He grew up in the South Whitehall area of Pennsylvania, with a twin brother Wayne and sister Reed.[1] He graduated from Parkland High School in 1988.[1] He attended the University of Pittsburgh and served as president of the Student Government Board.[1] He graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in economics and East Asian studies.[1] In 1996, he received an M.B.A. degree and a J.D. degree from Temple University.[1]

In 1996, while attending law school, Saunders started working part time at Jefferson Health as a compliance officer.[1]

In 2000, Saunders joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a healthcare compliance manager, and became partner and head of the firm's compliance business advisory services group.[1]

In October 2003, Saunders was hired as senior vice president of global compliance and business practices at pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough.[1]

In mid-2007, he became president of consumer health care at Schering-Plough, with responsibility for a business unit of products including Coppertone, Dr. Scholl's and Claritin.[1]

In 2009, while still president of consumer health care, Saunders was selected to lead the integration team of Schering-Plough's merger with Merck.[7]

In 2010, Saunders was appointed CEO of eye care company Bausch + Lomb.[8]

In 2013, as CEO of Bausch + Lomb, he oversaw its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals (now known as Bausch Health) for $8.7 billion.[7] He joined Valeant in an advisory role to assist with the transition.[9] In October, Saunders joined pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories as CEO.[10]

In May 2014, Saunders was named CEO of pharmaceutical company Actavis, after that company acquired Forest Laboratories.[11] In November, Saunders negotiated Actavis' merger with fellow pharmaceutical company Allergan, which closed at $70.5 billion.[1] The new combined company took the Allergan name.[12]

In February 2015, Saunders appeared on the cover of Forbes, named as Wall Street's Drug Dealer.[6]

In May 2019, Saunders survived a proposal brought by hedge fund Appaloosa Management to split Allergan's chairman and CEO roles.[13] In June, pharmaceutical company Abbvie bought Allergan for $63 billion.[14]

In June 2020, Saunders joined the board of BridgeBio Pharma, a company that had an IPO in 2019.[15] In September, Saunders’ special-purpose acquisition company Vesper Healthcare Acquisition publicly launched, raising $400 million.[2] Filings indicated that Saunders owned 20% of the company after the SPAC sale.[2] In December, Saunders made his first deal with Vesper when he acquired HydraFacial, a beauty treatment company, for $1.1 billion.[7]

In May 2021, Vesper's HydraFacial deal closed, and the new company was renamed The Beauty Health Company, with Saunders taking the role of executive chairman.[3] He also served as interim CEO until February 2022.[16] In June 2022, Saunders was named to the board of medical aesthetics company Hugel America, an arm of South Korea-based Hugel Inc.[4]

In March 2023, Saunders returned to Bausch + Lomb as CEO and chairman.[17] In June, Saunders signed his first deal as CEO, agreeing to purchase dry eye drug Xiidra from Novartis for $1.75B.[18]