Dennis Gillings

Dennis Gillings, CBE, PhD

Co-founder and Former Executive Chair, Quintiles Transnational (IQVIA)

Dennis Gillings, CBE, PhD's Bio

Dennis Gillings began providing statistical consulting and data management services to pharmaceutical clients in 1974 during his tenure as professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He founded Quintiles in 1982, which grew out of his consulting activities with the pharmaceutical industry. He took Quintiles public on NASDAQ in 1994 and led its privatization in 2003. Today, Quintiles is the largest global provider of clinical trials and commercial marketing services to the pharma and biotechnology industry

With more than 30 years of experience in drug development applications and theory, Gillings has provided expert consultation to numerous companies and health organizations, including the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Dental Research and the Institute of Medicine. He has served on several advisory boards and councils, including the Cambridge Judge Business School Advisory Board, the Scottish Enterprise Advisory Board and the International Advisory Council in Singapore. He also was founding chairman of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group formed in 2002.

He served for more than 15 years as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received an honorary doctor of science in May 2001. In September, 2008, the School of Public Health at UNC Chapel Hill was named the Gillings School of Global Public Health. Its mission is to improve public health, promote individual wellbeing and eliminate health disparities across North Carolina and around the world.

Born and educated in the United Kingdom, Gillings was honored by the Queen as Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2004 for services to the pharmaceutical industry. He was appointed pro-chancellor of Southampton University in 2006. In June 2008, he was made honorary fellow of Queen Mary, University of London, and was awarded an honorary DSc at the University of Southampton. In July, 2011, he received an honorary DSc at the University of Exeter.

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