Brent Saunders

Brent Saunders (born 1970) is an American biopharma executive and entrepreneur who is the chairman and CEO of the health company Bausch & Lomb. He helped lead various mergers and acquisitions, including the mergers between Merck and Schering-Plough, the acquisition of Bausch + Lomb by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and the $63 billion acquisition of Allergan by Abbvie. He grew up in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, with a twin brother, Wayne, and sister Reed,

He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he was president of the student government board, In 1996, he received MBA and J.D. degrees from Temple University in Philadelphia. That year, he was also appointed to the Federal Reserve advisory board. In 2013, as CEO of Bausch + Lomb, he oversaw its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, now known as Bausch Health, for $8.7 billion. He joined Valeant in an advisory role to assist with the transition. In October, Saunders joined pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories as CEO. Ten months later, Saunders was named chief executive officer of Actavis, a pharmaceutical company, after the company acquired Forest Laboratories. In November 2014, Saunders negotiated Actavis' merger with Allergan, a pharmaceutical company, for a reported $70.5 billion.

Saunders appeared on the February 2015 cover of Forbes magazine, where he was named "Wall Street's Drug Dealer". In June, pharmaceutical company Abbvie acquired Allergan for $63 billion.

In June 2020, Saunders joined the board of BridgeBio Pharma, a company founded in 2019. In September, Saunders’ special-purpose acquisition company Vesper Healthcare Acquisition publicly launched, and raised $400 million. Filings indicated that Saunders owned 20% of the company after the SPAC sale. Vesper's HydraFacial deal closed in May 2021, and the new company was renamed The Beauty Health Company, with Saunders taking the role of executive chairman. He also served as interim CEO until February 2022.

In June 2022, Saunders was named to the board of medical aesthetics company Hugel America, an affiliate of South Korea-based Hugel Inc.

In March 2023, Saunders returned to Bausch + Lomb as CEO and chairman.