Stelios Papadopoulos
Chairman of the Board of Directors of Biogen, Exelixis, and Regulus Therapeutics
Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos is Chairman of the Board of Directors of
Exelixis, Inc. and Epikast, Inc., and a member of the board of Ovid
Therapeutics, Inc. He is a co-founder of Exelixis and Epikast, as well as co-
founder and former Chairman of Anadys Pharmaceuticals (acquired by
Hoffman–La Roche in 2011) and Cellzome (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline in
2012). Until June 2023 Dr. Papadopoulos was the Chairman of Biogen and until
June 2025, he was Chairman of Regulus Therapeutics, Inc. (acquired by
Novartis in 2025) having joined both boards in 2008. In the not-for-profit
sector, Dr. Papadopoulos is co-founder and Chairman of Fondation Santé
(www.fondationsante.org), a foundation providing research support and
mentorship to biomedical research scientists in Greece and Cyprus.
Dr. Stelios Papadopoulos spent six years (2000-06) at Cowen & Co., LLC,
most recently as Vice Chairman, where as an investment banker he focused on
the biotech and pharma sectors. Prior to joining Cowen, he spent 13 years as
an investment banker at PaineWebber, Incorporated where he was most
recently Chairman of PaineWebber Development Corp., a PaineWebber
subsidiary focusing on biotechnology. He joined PaineWebber in 1987 from
Drexel Burnham Lambert where he was an analyst in the Equity Research
Department covering the biotechnology industry. Prior to Drexel, he was the
biotechnology analyst of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette.
Before coming to Wall Street, Dr. Papadopoulos was on the faculty of the
Department of Cell Biology at New York University School of Medicine. He holds
an M.S. in physics, a Ph.D. in biophysics and an M.B.A. in finance, all from New
York University.
Dr. Papadopoulos was born in Thessaloniki and graduated from E’ Arrenon
High School in 1966. He started his university studies in the Electrical
Engineering Dept. of the National Technical University (Metsovion Polytechnion)
but left for the United States in the middle of his first year to continue his
studies in mathematics and physics.