San Diego Medtech Entrepreneur Peter Farrell Elected to Scripps Research Institute Board of Trustees

Peter Farrell, chairman and chief executive officer of San Diego-based ResMed, has been elected to The Scripps Research Institute’s Board of Trustees.

LA JOLLA, CA, June 1, 2012 – Peter Farrell, chairman and chief executive officer of San Diego-based ResMed, has been elected to The Scripps Research Institute’s Board of Trustees.

“We would like to offer Peter a warm welcome,” said Dick Gephardt, President/CEO of Gephardt Government Affairs and lead trustee of the Scripps Research Board of Trustees. "We are confident his contributions to the board will help foster the Institute's continued preeminence in biomedical research and graduate education."

“We are honored to have Peter join our board,” said Scripps Research President and CEO Michael A. Marletta. “He brings to the Board a background in science and engineering in addition to his broad business and entrepreneurial experience. He will be a great help to us as we move ahead, and all of us enthusiastically look forward to working with him.”

“I am delighted to be associated with Scripps Research,” said the ResMed CEO. “ [The institute] has a thoroughly deserved international reputation for its research in the biomedical sciences. In fact, it is at the forefront of finding cures for many of the most debilitating diseases which afflict mankind and it is a pleasure to be a partner in this pursuit.”

Farrell founded ResMed—a developer, manufacturer, and marketer of products for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep-disordered breathing—in June 1989. He has been chairman and a director of the company since its inception, and served as chief executive officer from July 1990 until December 2007, resuming that role in February 2011.

Prior to founding ResMed, Farrell was vice president of research and development at various subsidiaries of Baxter International, Inc. He also served as the managing director of the Baxter Center for Medical Research. From 1978 to 1989, he was the foundation director of the Graduate School for Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales (Australia), where he is currently a visiting professor.

Farrell received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with honors from the University of Sydney, a master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a PhD in chemical engineering and bioengineering from the University of Washington. He was awarded a DSc from the University of New South Wales for his research in the field of treatment with the artificial kidney.

Farrell was named San Diego Entrepreneur of the Year for Health Services in 1998, Australian Entrepreneur of the Year in 2001, and U.S. National Entrepreneur of the Year in Health Sciences in 2005. Among a number of honorary fellowships, he was recently named a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Among his professional activities, Farrell serves on three faculty advisory boards at the University of California, San Diego (Rady School of Management, Jacobs School of Engineering, and Health Sciences) and is chairman of the Executive Council of the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine. Farrell was president of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Arts, San Diego, from 2009 to 2011. He is also active in philanthropy, primarily through the Farrell Family Foundation.

Also joining the Scripps Research Board of Trustees this month is Richard Sloane, a managing partner in Ocean Via Reality of Palm Beach, Florida. Over the last 40 years, Richard Sloane has been involved in numerous industries in addition to real estate, including technology distribution, technical support centers, ocean transportation, and Internet information and commerce sites.

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