Julien Willard, M.D., M.P.H., is a strategist in the health and pharmaceutical sector. He brings is a pediatric eye surgeon, economist, and management consultant. Willard is a Partner at IBM Consulting. He leads business, data and technology strategy work with biotech and pharmaceutical clients. Willard is the IBM’s advisor on drug discovery and clinical trials.
Dr. Willard has held several leadership roles in global institutions. He was a head of health policy at Oxfam GB and a senior economist at the World Bank. Later, he served as chief of staff at PwC’s Public Sector group. Before IBM, he led a technology strategy group at Accenture serving top pharmaceutical clients.
During his global career, Dr. Willard helped countries improve their healthcare systems. He worked with country leaders to support their journey to universal healthcare. Those leaders were from the US, UK, Germany, Africa, Middle East and Asia regions. He assisted health ministries in creating drug policies, public health programs, and addressing national drug challenges. He worked with the South Africa leaders to ensure a stable drug supply chain. He took part in aiding a public-private dialogue on HIV medicines in Africa.
Dr. Willard has written for Harvard Business Review, World Economic Forum, and World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund proceedings, and research journals like the Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice.
Julien Willard received the World Bank President’s Excellence Award. He serves as a visiting professor at George Washington and Harvard Universities. He earlier represented Oxfam at G20 and the United Nations General Assembly. In 2024, he was a U.S. Ambassador to the World Business Angels’ forum on biotech investments.
