Angela Hwang

Angela Hwang is the advisor to the CEO and former chief commercial officer and president of the Global Biopharmaceuticals Business at Pfizer and member of Pfizer’s Executive Leadership Team. She and her organization of over 26,000 colleagues were responsible for delivering all 600 of Pfizer’s medicines and vaccines to patients in 185 countries. Under Angela’s leadership, Pfizer Biopharma generated a peak of $100 billion revenue in 2022.

Pfizer’s Biopharma business addresses major global health priorities, including cancer, COVID-19, infectious diseases, inflammation and immunology, rare diseases, cardiovascular/metabolic disorders and preventive care with vaccines. But Angela’s work goes beyond making medicines available. She is equally focused on creating and expanding collaborations with health insurers, governments, policymakers and global health stakeholders around the world to come up with new and better ways to meet health challenges and make medicines accessible and affordable for all.

In 2020, Angela and Pfizer’s Biopharma team launched the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine and, one year later, the first oral antiviral treatment. Though vaccines often take many years to develop and distribute, Angela and her team—inspired by a relentless focus on helping patients—made the impossible possible.

Angela’s commitment to health equity has deep roots. Her experience growing up as an Asian girl in South Africa during the apartheid era shaped her worldview, and it explains why throughout her 27 years at Pfizer, she continued to find purpose in bringing breakthroughs to patients, no matter who they are or where they live. Under Angela’s leadership, Pfizer launched An Accord for a Healthier World, a first-of-its-kind initiative to enable sustained, equitable access to all of Pfizer’s medicines and vaccines in 45 lower-income countries. The Accord has the potential to improve the health of 1.2 billion people and transform the healthcare ecosystem in those countries.

Beyond her work at Pfizer, Angela serves on the board of directors of UPS and is a member of Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management Advisory Council. Angela also served on the board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the U.S. China Business Council and the Pfizer Foundation.

Angela is consistently ranked among the world’s top leaders in healthcare and business.  Fortune placed her as one of the Most Powerful Women in Business four years in a row. In 2021, she received the President’s Award from the National Diversity Council for championing diversity, equity and inclusion and was also named an honoree of A100, which recognizes the most impactful Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) leaders. Cornell University named Angela a Robert S. Hatfield Economic Fellow in 2022. In 2023, she was recognized as an Ascend A-list Honoree for her professional achievements as Asian American leader, and in 2024, Angela was selected by CNBC as a Changemaker in Business.

Angela received her bachelor of science in microbiology and biochemistry from the University of Cape Town and her MBA from Cornell. Angela and her husband are proud parents of a teenage daughter and son. Angela is a fierce advocate for women’s leadership and sustainable global health equity.