John Damonti currently serves as Vice Chairman of the Board of the New York Academy of Medicine where he is also a Fellow, he is also Senior Advisor to the Johns Hopkins Center on Indigenous Health; the Texas Children’s Hospital Global HOPE (Hematology, Oncology, Pediatric Excellence) Sickle Cell Disease initiative in Africa and Changing our World, a philanthropic consulting company. John recently retired as President of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation which he led for 30 years and had also served as Vice President of Patient Assistance and Global Corporate Giving for the Bristol Myers Squibb Company, a global bio-pharmaceutical Company.
John has more than 40 years of experience working in the areas of health policy, government affairs and social responsibility. Under John’s leadership the BMS Foundation developed innovative approaches to reducing health disparities by strengthening community-based healthcare worker capacity, health system strengthening and by mobilizing communities to fight disease. His leadership has focused on some of the world’s most challenging health issues of our time, such as HIV in Africa, hepatitis B and C in Asia and lung cancer and clinical trial diversity in the US to name a few. John also led the $4 Billion BMS Patient Assistance Foundation which provided BMS medicines free of charge to patients who were unable to afford their medications in the US and Puerto Rico.
John began his career as Manager of Community and Government Relations for Mutual of New York. He was also Director of the Primerica Foundation (predecessor company to Citigroup) and before joining Bristol-Myers Squibb served as Director of State Government Relations for Ciba-Geigy Corporation (now Novartis).
In addition to his professional accomplishments, he also serves on the advisory boards of Share My Meals, Baylor College of Medicine and Life Story Club.
John received his master’s in social work policy from Fordham University and has also been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Fordham University and the Baylor College of Medicine. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Princeton in Africa Medal, the Council on Foundation’s Robert Scrivner Award and the Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) Charles Moore Award.
