In 2020, the global life sciences industry has been propelled to the forefront of public attention in more ways than ever before, as the world fights a common enemy with the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid all the medical professionals, research scientists, and healthcare providers, Veeva Systems is a linchpin in science and industry cohesion.
Co-founder and CEO Peter Gassner has served at Veeva’s helm since day one in 2007, and he leads with passion and optimism, two qualities that drive the company’s tremendous success. With its wide array of cloud-based products and services, Veeva enables doctors and scientists to connect and share vital information in the development of pharmaceutical therapies and research of potential vaccines.
Gassner’s company has become an ever-rising star in enterprise software and cloud-based solutions built for the life sciences industry, breaking its own financial records year after year. Veeva counts Big Pharma heavyweight Pfizer among its clientele, providing crucial connectivity of information toward the development of its coronavirus vaccine candidate, created alongside Germany’s BioNTech.
Now, at a time when its benefits are vital to advancing the common good, Gassner is exploring the idea of making Veeva Systems a public benefit corporation (PBC), potentially unifying profit with the welfare of humanity.
Perhaps unfamiliar to many, a PBC is a for-profit corporation that adopts a public benefit mandate; Gassner believes the change will align with Veeva’s mission to deliver the technology and services the life sciences industry needs most. He believes such a move reflects the company’s core value, “to do the right thing,” and will provide both social and economic benefits to Veeva’s stockholders, employees, and the public-at-large.
In the long-term, he assures that confidence in Veeva’s humanitarian focus will lead to continued success and significant innovation within and outside the company. While the company explores a potential future as a PBC, Gassner also advocates for employee diversity, fairness, and success. The executive boasts a personal fortune of roughly $5 billion, and his company is valued eight times higher, so Gassner certainly has the funds needed achieve his goals. His prime objective in taking Veeva into the public benefit sphere is to ensure his company maintains its ethical standards and corporate citizenship beyond his tenure, setting a standard he hopes other industry leaders will emulate.
