Gilead Sciences Chief Commercial & Corporate Affairs Officer and 2026 CNBC Changemaker Johanna Mercier on ending HIV epidemic, life hacks, and her leadership superpower

In this week’s episode of the CNBC Changemakers and Power Players podcast, CNBC Senior Media and Tech Reporter Julia Boorstin spoke with Johanna Mercier, Chief Commercial & Corporate Affairs Officer at Gilead Sciences and a 2026 CNBC Changemaker.

Mercier discusses Gilead’s groundbreaking HIV prevention innovation (a twice-yearly injection with 99.9% efficacy) and how her team moved within months of U.S. approval to expand access across Sub-Saharan Africa, where the need is greatest. She shares why impact (not title) drives her leadership, how personal loss reshaped her sense of purpose, and what it takes to lead through global health crises.

Listen to the full episode here. New episodes drop every Tuesday.

All references must be sourced to CNBC Changemakers and Power Players podcast.

MERCIER ON ENDING HIV EPIDEMIC

JULIA BOORSTIN: Tell us about your work over the past couple of years, expanding access to HIV prevention and why this is so important to you.

JOHANNA MERCIER: Oh, absolutely. It’s a pleasure to talk about this. I work at Gilead Sciences. It’s a company that’s been focused on HIV for the last 20 years plus, and it’s an organization that we’ve always been focused on trying to end the HIV epidemic, and now we actually have the potential to do just that with an innovation that is basically every six months Sub-Q injection of Lenacapavir to prevent HIV. So for anybody who’s at risk of HIV, they could get an injection every six months and be 99.9% infection free. And so incredible efficacy, incredible safety, and, more importantly, an opportunity to actually have a direct impact on global public health. And so it’s incredibly energizing for me to represent the incredible team behind this that has worked so diligently to ensure that not only do we have the great scientists for this innovation, but also making sure this innovation gets to the people who need it the most. And we can talk more about that, but it’s not just in the United States. It’s well beyond the US, namely Sub-Saharan Africa, where two thirds of HIV exists today, and where there’s a real opportunity to make a difference. So I’m happy to be a part of that, a small piece of the puzzle to drive the opportunity that we have with Lenacapavir, but more importantly, to drive the opportunity to end this epidemic of the last 45 years.

MERCIER ON HER LEADERSHIP SUPERPOWER

BOORSTIN: What are your leadership superpowers?

MERCIER: I think I have a few superpowers, but I also know the ones I don’t have. And I think it’s important as a leader to make sure that you’re not leading alone, and that you’re surrounding yourselves with the right people at the right time to gain the information and make sure that you’re getting the right advice along the way, and people that aren’t shy to contradict what the leader is saying as well. And so all those pieces kind of come into play. From a superpower standpoint, I think I’ve always had some agility to make sure that I can simplify very complex situations. So as much as some folks sometimes over complicate situations the more they talk, for me, it’s about simplifying it, being clear, being concise, and then trying to get us to a solution as quickly as possible. So if you frame the problem, sometimes we put a lot of other pieces in that problem that don’t need to be included. And if you frame it in a simple way, then you can become a lot more pragmatic in the solution that you might offer with the right team around you as well.

MERCIER ON IMPACT AND PURPOSE

BOORSTIN: It’s incredible looking at the work you’ve done. I mean you’ve been at Gilead Sciences, you’re Chief Commercial & Corporate Officer. Before that, you were at Bristol Myers Squibb for 25 years. But hearing you talk about this role in a massive business, you seem very purpose driven. How do you think about what your role is in the organization, but also what your purpose is as a leader?

MERCIER: Yeah I think that’s one of the reasons I joined Gilead to be honest with you. It’s probably one of the reasons I joined industry to begin with. I think for me, it’s always been about, how do I have impact? How does that impact multiply, and how do we think globally about it? And so, as I joined Gilead, the mission at Gilead has always been very, very clear around, you know, developing innovative medicines for really tough to treat diseases or ending potentially epidemics like hepatitis C, let alone now HIV potentially. And so that is something that really attracted me. So that was an easy decision to join Gilead, and then with the science that our R&D teams have been developing over the years, and the opportunity then to make sure it got to the people who needed it the most, I mean, that was a gift. It was such an opportunity to have global public health impact. I’ve had incredible opportunities, but never to this level where you could actually potentially end HIV in our generation, and that is something that excites me, it inspires me, and it energizes me to do everything else. So for me, it’s about making sure that there is purpose.

MERCIER ON LIFE HACKS

BOORSTIN: So curious if you have any life hacks?

MERCIER: One of them is how I manage my energy is probably something that is something that’s really important to me. And it’s, it’s the way I think about it is almost like, you know, you got to put pennies in the piggy bank, and some of them come out, and some, you know, along the week, and by the weekend, you got to put them back in so that you’re ready to go again on Monday. So that is something I think about and and so the energy balance for me is really important. And so I will tell you on Friday night, I’m a bit useless. I can’t even make a decision for where do we go for food, or what I’m going to eat off the menu. But by Saturday, I’m starting to come back, I think walks on the beach with my dog, the Peloton is a great one for me. Anything I can do with my kids, and they don’t really want to do that many things with me anymore, to be totally frank with you, so I have to be quite creative and to spend a little bit of time with them. But you know, if it’s shopping, even though they’re boys, they will go shopping with me. So if I’m if I’m the one buying, but I’ll find anything or sports that they do. We’re going skiing this weekend in Tahoe. It’s for me, it’s about spending quality time with my family, and, of course, my husband.

BOORSTIN: And that refills the piggy bank?

MERCIER: That totally does for me, and it reminds me what’s important in life, right? As we think about what’s going on in the world and all around us. For me, my number one priority is my family, and I want to make sure I stay true to that. So that’s what grounds me.