Anthropic names Indian-origin Novartis chief Vas Narasimhan to board- Moneycontrol.com

Trust-appointed directors now control Anthropic's board majority

AI startup Anthropic on Tuesday added India-origin Vas Narasimhan, Chief Executive Officer of Novartis, to its board of directors, making him the first executive from the pharmaceutical industry to join the company's governing body.

Vas Narasimhan joins Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Jay Kreps, Reed Hastings and others on the board. This marks the second new board addition after the Claude chatbot developer inducted Chris Liddell in February.

Narasimhan has been appointed to Anthropic's board by the Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust, an independent body whose members have no financial stake in the company.

Anthropic is reportedly weighing an initial public offering that could take place as early as this year.

Vas Narasimhan has been appointed to Anthropic's Board of Directors by the Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust. He is a physician-scientist and the Chief Executive Officer of Novartis -- one of the world's leading innovative medicines companies -- and shares Anthropic's conviction that healthcare and life sciences are among the areas where AI has the greatest potential to improve the quality of human life.

"Vas brings something rare to our board. He's overseen the development and approval of more than 35 novel medicines for the benefit of patients around the world in one of the most regulated industries," said Daniela Amodei, Co-founder and President of Anthropic. "Getting powerful new technology to people safely and at scale is what we think about every day at Anthropic. Vas has been doing exactly that for years, and I'm grateful he's joining us."

The Trust is an independent body whose members have no financial stake in Anthropic, and it exists to keep the company's governance aligned in a responsible balance between financial success and the company's public benefit mission of developing AI for the long-term benefit of humanity. With Narasimhan's appointment, Trust-appointed directors now make up a majority of the Board. Narasimhan joins Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei, Yasmin Razavi, Jay Kreps, Reed Hastings, and Chris Liddell on the Board of Directors.

"The Long-Term Benefit Trust's role is to appoint directors who will ensure Anthropic responsibly balances its commitment to stockholders and its public benefit mission as the company grows. Vas has spent his career stewarding breakthrough science responsibly -- exactly the perspective we are excited to have on the board as we develop consequential technology. We're excited for what he'll bring to the table," said Neil Shah, Chair of Anthropic's Long-Term Benefit Trust.

"Working across medicine, innovation, and global health has shown me the transformative potential of technology when deployed responsibly. In healthcare, AI is accelerating solutions to some of the hardest scientific challenges, from deepening our understanding of disease biology to designing better medicines," said Narasimhan. "Anthropic is setting the standard for how AI should be developed to benefit humanity, and I'm honored to join the Board and contribute to its mission."

Early in his career, Narasimhan worked on HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis programmes in India, Africa, and South America, and continues to champion access and global health priorities. He is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He serves on the University of Chicago board of trustees and the board of fellows at Harvard Medical School, and previously chaired the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, where he remains on the board of directors