Gustavsen, Ken
Executive Director, Corporate Responsibility, Merck & Co., Inc.
Ken Gustavsen is Executive Director, Corporate Responsibility at Merck & Co., Inc. and Senior Vice President of the Merck Foundation (Merck operates as MSD outside of the US and Canada). He is responsible for a range of developing world health programs that involve innovative mechanisms to expand access to medicines through a spectrum of philanthropic and commercial approaches. He manages Merck’s MECTIZAN Donation Program to eliminate two tropical diseases, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis elimination. He also oversees the company’s corporate responsibilty communications through www.merckresponsiblity.com. Ken started at Merck on the procurement team of the manufacturing division.
Before joining Merck in 2000, Ken led a post-war relief and development program in Kosovo for the non-profit organization World Relief, with approximately 100 local and international team members engaged in housing reconstruction, microfinance banking, and general commodity support. Prior to World Relief, Ken served as a Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy in a variety of domestic and overseas assignments. He holds an MBA in finance and global business from Rutgers University and a BS in oceanography from the United States Naval Academy.