Brent Saunders (1969 or 1970) is an American biopharma executive and entrepreneur who is the chairman and CEO of the health company Bausch & Lomb. He helped lead various mergers and acquisitions, including the mergers between Merck and Schering-Plough, the acquisition of Bausch + Lomb by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and the $63 billion acquisition of Allergan by Abbvie.^[6][7] He is the founder of special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Vesper Healthcare Acquisition.^[2] Saunders is also executive chairman of medical aesthetics companies The Beauty Health Company and Hugel America.^[3][4]

Saunders was born in 1969 or 1970 to Charles and Sheila Saunders, a urologist and social worker.^[1][6] He grew up in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, with a twin brother Wayne and sister Reed,^[1] and graduated from Parkland High School in South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania in 1988.^[1]

He attended the University of Pittsburgh, where he was president of the student government board,^[1] and graduated in 1992 with a bachelor's degree in economics and East Asian studies.^[1] In 1996, he received MBA and J.D. degrees from Temple University in Philadelphia.^[1]

In 1996, while attending law school, Saunders started working part time at Jefferson Health as a compliance officer.^[1]

In 2000, Saunders joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a healthcare compliance manager, and became partner and head of the firm's compliance business advisory services group.^[1] In October 2003, Saunders was hired as senior vice president of global compliance and business practices at Schering-Plough, a pharmaceutical company.^[1] In mid-2007, he became president of consumer health care at Schering-Plough, with responsibility for a business unit of products including Coppertone, Dr. Scholl's, and Claritin.^[1] In 2009, Saunders led the integration team of Schering-Plough's merger with Merck.^[7]

In 2010, Saunders was appointed chief executive officer Bausch & Lomb, an eye health company.^[8] In 2010 he was appointed to the Federal Reserve advisory board.^[9] In 2013, as CEO of Bausch + Lomb, he oversaw its acquisition by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, now known as Bausch Health, for $8.7 billion.^[7] He joined Valeant in an advisory role to assist with the transition.^[10] In October, Saunders joined pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories as CEO.^[11]

In May 2014, Saunders was named chief executive officer of Actavis, a pharmaceutical company, after the company acquired Forest Laboratories.^[12] In November, Saunders negotiated Actavis' merger with Allergan, a pharmaceutical company, for a reported $70.5 billion.^[1] The new combined company took the Allergan name.^[13]

In February 2015, Saunders appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine, where he was named as "Wall Street's Drug Dealer".^[6] In May 2019, Saunders survived a proposal brought by hedge fund Appaloosa Management to split Allergan's chairman and CEO roles.^[14] In June, pharmaceutical company Abbvie acquired Allergan for $63 billion.^[15]

In June 2020, Saunders joined the board of BridgeBio Pharma, a company founded with an IPO in 2019.^[16] In September, Saunders’ special-purpose acquisition company Vesper Healthcare Acquisition publicly launched, and raised $400 million.^[2] Filings indicated that Saunders owned 20% of the company after the SPAC sale.^[2] In December, Saunders made his first deal with Vesper, acquiring HydraFacial, a beauty treatment company, for $1.1 billion.^[7]

In May 2021, Vesper's HydraFacial deal closed, and the new company was renamed The Beauty Health Company, with Saunders taking the role of executive chairman.^[3] He also served as interim CEO until February 2022.^[17]

In June 2022, Saunders was named to the board of medical aesthetics company Hugel America, an affiliate of South Korea-based Hugel Inc.^[4]

In March 2023, Saunders returned to Bausch + Lomb as CEO and chairman.^[18] In June, Saunders signed his first deal as CEO, purchasing dry eye drug Xiidra from Novartis for $1.75 billion.^[19]