Mark T. Esser PhD, MBA

Dr. Esser is Vice President of Microbial Sciences’ at AstraZeneca and is accountable for overall drug discovery, translational research, and clinical development of innovative medicines targeting the microbiome and infectious disease. Mark also serves on AstraZeneca’s Biopharmaceuticals senior leadership team shaping R&D strategy. Prior to joining AstraZeneca, he was the director of the Vaccine and Biologics Center of Excellence at Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) and prior to PPD he was at Merck Vaccines where he held positions of increasing responsibility and was instrumental in the approval of GARDASIL®. He is widely recognized for his contributions to vaccine research and global health with over 80 peer-reviewed publications.

Dr. Esser received his B.S. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University, his doctorate in microbiology and immunology from the University of Virginia, and his postdoctoral fellowship in the AIDS vaccine program at the NIH.