Robert Bradway

Overview

Robert Bradway
Born	c. 1963 Columbus, Ohio, U.S.
Citizenship	United States
Education	Biology
Alma mater	Amherst College (BA), Harvard Business School (MBA)
Occupation	Business executive
Employer	Amgen
Known for	Chairman and CEO of Amgen
Title	Chairman and chief executive officer
Term	2012–present (CEO); 2013–present (chairman)
Predecessor	Kevin Sharer
Board member of	Amgen; Boeing; University of Southern California; Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; W. M. Keck Foundation
Spouse	Michelle Bradway
Children	2
Awards	Honorary Doctor of Applied Life Sciences, Keck Graduate Institute (2025)

🧬 Robert Bradway (born c. 1963) is an American business executive who has served as chairman and chief executive officer of biotechnology company Amgen since 2012 and 2013 respectively. A former healthcare investment banker at Morgan Stanley, he joined Amgen in 2006 and moved through senior operating roles before succeeding Kevin Sharer as chief executive. During his tenure Amgen has expanded into new therapeutic areas, pursued several large acquisitions and more than doubled its annual revenue, establishing itself as one of the world’s largest independent biotechnology companies.

💊 Growth and diversification. As chief executive, Bradway has pursued a strategy of cost discipline alongside increased investment in research and development, backing acquisitions such as deCODE Genetics, Onyx Pharmaceuticals and a minority stake in Chinese drugmaker BeiGene to strengthen Amgen’s oncology and genetics capabilities. He later agreed Amgen’s largest transaction, the US$27.8 billion acquisition of Horizon Therapeutics, which was cleared in 2023 after a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that imposed limits on the bundling of certain drugs. By 2024 Amgen reported a record research and development budget and 14 products each generating at least US$1 billion in annual sales, reflecting Bradway’s emphasis on a broad portfolio rather than reliance on a small number of “blockbuster” medicines.

⚖️ Public profile and scrutiny. Bradway’s leadership has combined strong shareholder returns with growing public scrutiny of pharmaceutical pricing and corporate tax practices. His total compensation reached US$24.4 million in 2024, placing him among the highest-paid chief executives in the biopharmaceutical industry, while congressional hearings have highlighted Amgen’s pricing of drugs such as Enbrel and its use of so-called “shadow pricing” strategies. In parallel, a shareholder lawsuit filed in 2023 accuses Amgen and senior executives, including Bradway, of failing to disclose a US$10.7 billion tax dispute with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, allegations the company denies. Beyond Amgen, Bradway serves on the boards of Boeing and several academic and philanthropic institutions, giving him a wider role in American business and civic life.

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Early life and education

🎓 Ohio upbringing. Bradway grew up in Columbus, Ohio, where he attended the private Columbus Academy. In a speech to the school’s alumni, he later recalled that classmates were “brought together by one common thread” – families who placed a high value on education and were prepared to make sacrifices of “time and treasure” to secure it. This emphasis on academic achievement and community is often cited as an early influence on his leadership style and his continued interest in supporting educational institutions.

🏈 Science and sport. An able student and athlete, Bradway studied biology at Amherst College, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1985, and played American football for the college team. He has been described as someone who “excelled in, and loved playing, every sport”, an enthusiasm that later shaped his family’s philanthropic focus on youth athletics. After Amherst he pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School, which he completed in 1990, combining formal training in finance and management with his scientific background.

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Career

💼 Investment banking. Following business school, Bradway joined Morgan Stanley, embarking on what would become an 18-year career in investment banking focused on healthcare clients. He rose to managing director and was based for a period in London, advising major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies on mergers, acquisitions and financings, and developing familiarity with both the scientific and financial dimensions of the industry.

🧪 Joining Amgen. In 2006 Bradway left banking to join Amgen as vice-president for operations strategy, an unusual move for a senior Wall Street banker that reflected his desire to participate directly in building a biotechnology company. The following year Amgen’s chief financial officer resigned amid a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into the timing of safety disclosures for one of the firm’s drugs, and Bradway, then in his early forties, was appointed chief financial officer to help steer the company through the crisis. Commentators noted that he not only took responsibility for finance but also became involved in operational and infrastructure decisions, as Amgen faced falling sales of its anemia medicines and pressure to control costs.

📈 Elevation to chief executive. Bradway was promoted to president and chief operating officer in 2010, a role that effectively positioned him as heir apparent, and in May 2012 he succeeded Kevin Sharer as chief executive officer. In January 2013 he also became chairman of Amgen’s board, consolidating his leadership at the Thousand Oaks-based company. His early years as CEO were marked by efforts to stabilise earnings after patent expirations on key products and to improve the company’s operating efficiency, which some investors had criticised as lagging behind peers.

⚙️ Restructuring and pipeline building. In 2014 Bradway announced a major restructuring that included eliminating around 2,900 jobs—about 15 percent of Amgen’s workforce at the time—and closing several research and manufacturing sites in the United States. The plan, framed as a way to “rein in costs and focus on new drugs”, was welcomed by investors and accompanied by a short-term increase in Amgen’s share price, but provoked concern in communities affected by the closures. At the same time, Bradway directed resources towards research and development, with Amgen’s annual R&D budget eventually reaching around US$6 billion by 2024. To complement internal research he pursued acquisitions, including the 2012 purchase of genomics specialist deCODE Genetics, the 2013 acquisition of Onyx Pharmaceuticals for US$10.4 billion, and a 2020 deal to acquire a significant stake in BeiGene to expand Amgen’s presence in oncology and in China.

💊 Horizon Therapeutics and regulatory settlement. In December 2022 Amgen agreed to buy Horizon Therapeutics, a Dublin-based rare-disease specialist, for US$27.8 billion in what became the largest transaction of Bradway’s tenure. The deal drew an antitrust lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission in 2023, which argued that Amgen might leverage its portfolio to disadvantage competitors to Horizon’s drugs. After months of litigation, Amgen and the FTC reached a settlement under which the company committed not to bundle certain Horizon products with its own medicines in negotiations with health plans and to accept monitoring designed to preserve competition, clearing the way for the acquisition to close.

📊 Financial performance and shareholder returns. Over the first decade of Bradway’s leadership, Amgen’s revenue increased from roughly US$17 billion in 2012 to around US$33.4 billion in 2024, while its market capitalisation rose from about US$60 billion to nearly US$180 billion. Bradway has emphasised diversification, noting that by 2024 Amgen had 14 “blockbuster” products each generating at least US$1 billion in annual sales, including drugs for cardiovascular disease, inflammation and oncology. He has also made Amgen more “shareholder-friendly” by initiating and then steadily increasing dividends—raised annually for 13 consecutive years—as well as authorising share repurchase programmes.

💸 Compensation and personal stake. Bradway’s success at Amgen has been reflected in his remuneration and equity ownership. In 2024 he received total compensation of US$24.4 million, including a base salary of about US$1.87 million, an annual bonus of US$3.84 million and long-term equity awards valued at around US$18 million, a package partly linked to delivering strategic priorities such as the Horizon acquisition. According to public filings, he owns approximately 0.11 percent of Amgen’s shares—around 593,000 shares as of late 2025—giving him an estimated paper net worth of more than US$200 million at prevailing share prices. In addition to his Amgen income he has received director fees and stock awards from outside board roles, including as a director of Boeing.

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Board memberships and philanthropy

🏛️ Corporate and institutional boards. Beyond his duties at Amgen, Bradway has accumulated a range of board and advisory positions. He joined the board of Boeing in 2016, bringing experience in managing complex, highly regulated global businesses to the aerospace company. He has served as a trustee of the University of Southern California and as a board member of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the main U.S. trade association for brand-name pharmaceutical companies, giving him a role in higher education governance and industry policy discussions.

❤️ Health and science organisations. Bradway has been active in health-related nonprofit initiatives. He has chaired the CEO Roundtable on Cancer, a coalition of corporate leaders committed to reducing the burden of cancer, and has participated in the American Heart Association’s CEO Roundtable, which focuses on cardiovascular health and workplace wellness. He is also a trustee of the W. M. Keck Foundation, a major U.S. philanthropy that supports medical research, science and engineering, and undergraduate education, reflecting a long-standing interest in promoting scientific innovation and education.

🏅 Recognition and honorary degree. Bradway’s prominence in the Los Angeles business community has been recognised by local publications; the Los Angeles Business Journal has repeatedly included him in its “Valley 200” list of influential figures in the San Fernando Valley region. In 2025 Keck Graduate Institute, a member of the Claremont Colleges consortium, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Applied Life Sciences degree in recognition of his leadership in biotechnology and his advocacy for science education.

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Personal life and leadership style

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family and sports philanthropy. Bradway is married to Michelle Bradway, and the couple have two children. The family are closely associated with school sports: in 2025 Robert and Michelle made a major gift to Viewpoint School in Calabasas, California, to fund the Bradway Family Peak Performance Center, an athletics training facility intended to promote health and safety in youth sports. The donation was described by the school as reflecting the family’s long-standing enthusiasm for athletics and their desire to support student-athletes across generations.

🏠 Work–life balance. Despite his senior corporate role, Bradway has cultivated a relatively low-key public persona. During the COVID-19 pandemic he wrote a light-hearted essay on working from home, describing the challenges of sharing space with his wife, two school-age children and the family German Shepherd and adjusting to the sounds of school “recess” during conference calls. The piece was intended to humanise corporate leaders and resonated with many employees facing similar circumstances.

🧠 Management approach. Colleagues and observers often characterise Bradway as an analytically rigorous “numbers” executive who is also comfortable discussing the science behind Amgen’s products, drawing on his undergraduate training in biology. Rather than presenting himself as a scientist-founder, he has generally adopted a collaborative style that relies on senior researchers for scientific depth while insisting on clear business cases for research and development investments. His public remarks frequently focus on resilience and long-term preparation; during the pandemic, for example, he highlighted Amgen staff’s “resilience” and the company’s ability to maintain supplies of its medicines to patients worldwide.

🌍 Social issues and personal interests. Bradway tends to avoid overt partisan positions but has occasionally spoken out on broader social questions. In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, he issued a statement to Amgen employees condemning the killing as “senseless” and urging progress toward racial equality, drawing a parallel with scientific progress that accumulates through incremental advances. He has also used the Amgen Foundation and other philanthropic channels to support STEM education for under-represented communities. Outside work, acquaintances have noted his interest in history and classical music, including attendance at concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, traits that complement his reputation as a studious and understated leader.

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Controversies and challenges

💊 Drug pricing debates. As chief executive of a major biopharmaceutical company, Bradway has been a central figure in U.S. debates over drug pricing. In October 2020 he testified before a U.S. House of Representatives hearing examining the prices of drugs sold by Amgen and other manufacturers, where lawmakers criticised the cost of the arthritis drug Enbrel and highlighted differences between U.S. and European prices. Representative Ro Khanna pressed him to commit that American patients would not pay more than Europeans and at one point challenged him with the question, “Are you an American, sir?”, underscoring political frustration over pricing practices. Another member of Congress, Representative Katie Porter, used a whiteboard presentation to contrast Amgen executives’ pay—estimated at US$124 million between 2017 and 2019—with company price increases, asking why Bradway “deserved” such compensation; he defended the company’s pricing as necessary to fund research and development.

⚖️ Tax dispute and shareholder litigation. In March 2023 a group of investors filed a class-action lawsuit alleging that Amgen and senior executives, including Bradway, had misled shareholders by failing to timely disclose a long-running dispute with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS claimed that Amgen owed around US$10.7 billion in back taxes and penalties for the period 2010–2015, arguing that the company improperly shifted profits to a subsidiary in Puerto Rico; the suit contends that Amgen’s failure to highlight the potential liability earlier left its share price artificially inflated before the dispute became public. Amgen has stated that it “strongly disagrees” with the IRS’s position, regards the claims as without merit and believes that it has made appropriate tax disclosures, and it is contesting both the tax assessments and the shareholder allegations in court.

🏭 Layoffs and restructuring criticism. Bradway’s 2014 restructuring programme, though applauded by many investors, drew criticism from employees and local officials in communities where Amgen closed facilities. The company’s decision to shutter operations in Washington and Colorado and to cut as much as 20 percent of its global workforce over 2014–2015 raised concerns about the loss of high-skilled jobs and the erosion of regional biotechnology ecosystems. Bradway argued that the changes were necessary to shift resources toward promising new products and pledged that departing employees would be treated with respect, but the episode contributed to his image as a tough cost-cutter. Amgen’s headcount later grew again as new facilities, including a manufacturing plant in Ohio, were opened and acquisitions brought in additional staff.

🌱 Compliance and environmental, social and governance issues. Bradway inherited several compliance matters from prior leadership, including U.S. Department of Justice investigations into the marketing of certain drugs, one of which resulted in a US$762 million settlement in 2012 shortly after he became chief executive. He has since overseen efforts to strengthen Amgen’s internal controls and corporate compliance programmes. Environmental advocates have also pressed the company to reduce its carbon footprint, given the energy-intensive nature of pharmaceutical research and manufacturing; Amgen has announced goals for carbon neutrality and reductions in water use and waste, though some critics argue that progress has been uneven. On social issues, Bradway has generally been more vocal, promoting workforce diversity and inclusion and championing STEM education initiatives through the Amgen Foundation and other channels.

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Legacy

🏆 Reputation in biotechnology. Over more than a decade at the helm of Amgen, Bradway has come to be regarded as one of the longest-serving leaders among large global biopharmaceutical companies. Supporters point to his role in transforming Amgen from a company heavily reliant on a small number of mature products into a diversified biopharmaceutical group with a broad portfolio of therapies and a significant pipeline of biosimilars and innovative biologics. Critics, meanwhile, focus on high drug prices, aggressive tax planning and workforce reductions during his tenure, illustrating the wider tensions facing the industry.

🌐 Ties to hometown and broader influence. Bradway’s career has also maintained links to his midwestern origins. In a speech at Columbus Academy he highlighted the emergence of Columbus as a prospective biotechnology hub, expressing optimism that “the pace of change in our field is extraordinary, and the future is really bright”, and noting Amgen’s decision to build a manufacturing facility in central Ohio. More broadly, his work on corporate and nonprofit boards, combined with public advocacy for science education and health initiatives, has made him a visible ambassador for the biotechnology sector in both business and civic arenas.

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