Robert Plenge, MD, PhD, is executive vice president, chief research officer and head of Research at Bristol Myers Squibb. He leads scientific activities across eleven research sites around the world all focused on transforming patients’ lives through science.

Prior to his current role, Dr. Plenge served as head of Discovery & Translational Sciences at Bristol Myers Squibb, which spanned all therapeutic areas at the company. He joined BMS as part of the acquisition of Celgene in November 2019. At Celgene, he served as vice president, Immunology & Inflammation portfolio, Research & Early Development. Prior to joining Celgene, Dr. Plenge was vice president and Head of Translational Medicine at Merck.

Dr. Plenge received his MD and PhD from Case Western Reserve University and holds a BS from the University of California, San Diego. He completed his internal medicine residency as a molecular medicine fellow at the University of California, San Francisco. He served as rheumatology fellow at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and postdoctoral research fellow at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. He was an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute while practicing clinical rheumatology and running a research laboratory at Brigham & Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Plenge is an author of more than 125 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, and frequently posts updates to his personal blog, Plenge Gen, commenting on critical discovery moments with a focus on the resulting patient impact. He is a recipient of several academic and corporate awards and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the PhRMA Foundation.