Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Baylor Research Institute

Bernard Brigonnet is vice president and chief operating officer of Baylor Research Institute.

His primary responsibilities include pursuing the development of unique research technologies in areas such as immunology, transplantation, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease and colon cancer, to name a few.

Additionally, Brigonnet oversees the institute’s more than $40 million a year budget which has grown in just ten short years to become a major clinical research program.

Brigonnet has more than 30 years of experience in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries where he has served in a senior leadership capacity for a number of international organizations.

Most recently as CEO of Medicen Paris Region, he helped create one of the largest collaborations of research institutes, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as public and private universities following an initiative by the French government to support world-competitive clusters for innovation in life sciences. Prior to that, he served as president and CEO of Serono France S.A., a leader in the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceutical treatments.

As executive vice president and chief operating officer of Immuno-Designed Molecules S.A., he negotiated one of the largest partnerships with a global pharmaceutical company in Europe and subsequently opened the company’s headquarters in the U.S.

He also has held executive positions with internationally-known pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers-Squibb and Merck & Co., Inc. Because of his expertise in these industries, Brigonnet has been recently called on to negotiate strategic alliances between other international corporations in the U.S. and Europe.