Peter C. Farrell

Peter C. Farrell, PhD, DSc, AM, Founder and Chair Emeritus

Peter Farrell is ResMed’s founder and chair emeritus. He has been a director since ResMed’s inception in May 1989, and served as the chair of our board of directors until January 2023, when he became chair emeritus. Dr. Farrell served as CEO from July 1990 until December 2007, and from February 2011 until March 2013. He served as executive board chairman from December 2007 until February 2011, and from March 2013 through December 2013. Since January 1, 2014, he has been a non-officer employee of ResMed.


Before founding ResMed, Dr. Farrell served as vice president of research and development at various subsidiaries of Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE: BAX), from July 1984 to June 1989, and managing director of the Baxter Center for Medical Research Pty Ltd., a Baxter subsidiary, from August 1985 to June 1989. From January 1978 to December 1989, he was foundation director of the Graduate School for Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales, where he currently serves as a visiting professor and was formerly chair of the UNSW Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. He served on the Visiting Committee of the Harvard/MIT Health Sciences & Technology Program from 1998 through 2018, and currently serves on the MIT Dean of Engineering’s Advisory Council.


Dr. Farrell serves on one additional public company board: Arcturus Therapeutics Ltd (NASDAQ: ARCT), a self-replicating mRNA therapeutics company, as board chair and member of its compensation and nominating and governance committees.


Dr. Farrell also serves on the board of three privately held companies: Immunicom Inc., a medtech company developing blood-filtering Immunopheresis® technology to treat cancer and other terminal diseases; ProtoStar, a medical rehabilitation company; and WaveGuide, a startup leveraging nuclear magnetic resonance technology developed within Harvard’s School of Physics, as its chair.


Finally, Dr. Farrell sits on the Board of Trustees of Scripps Research, and on two faculty advisory boards at the University of California, San Diego: the Rady Business School and the Jacobs Engineering School.


Dr. Farrell is a fellow or honorary fellow of several professional bodies. In 2012, he became an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and joined the board of trustees of Scripps Research. He was named 2005 U.S. National Entrepreneur of the Year for Health Sciences, 2001 Australian Entrepreneur of the Year, and 1998 San Diego Entrepreneur of the Year for Health Sciences. He has served on the Executive Council of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School since 1998, served as vice-chairman from 2000 until 2010, and chairman until May 2013.


Dr. Farrell has a B.E. in chemical engineering with honors from the University of Sydney, an S.M. in chemical engineering from MIT, a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and bioengineering from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a D.Sc. from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, for research contributions in the field of treatment with the artificial kidney.

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