Bourla was born and raised in Thessaloniki, Greece. He is the son of Sephardic Jewish parents who were among the 2,000 Thessaloniki Jews to survive the Holocaust (The vast majority — 54,000 of 56,000 — did not survive.) Bourla is deeply connected to his Jewish roots and credits his parents for instilling the belief that anything is possible. Theirs is an astonishing story of survival: Bourla’s mother managed to escape a Nazi firing squad, and his father narrowly avoided being sent to Aushwitz. Bourla often shares his parents' harrowing story in order to honor their struggle and remember all the lives violently extinguished in the Holocaust. Despite the abuse they witnessed and encountered, Bourla's parents taught him to celebrate life, emphasizing the importance of forgiveness rather than revenge.

Bourla, now age 60, lived in his hometown of Thessaloniki until 1993, when Pfizer recruited him to work as the technical director in its animal medicine division. As animal medicine receives considerably less financial backing, he had to think creatively to find alternative solutions. In his almost 30-year tenure at Pfizer, Bourla has revolutionized the customer care experience and also encouraged the massive company to shift to a more hands-on approach to medicine. He then played a major role in one of the most incredible private sector achievements in modern history, the COVID-19 vaccine.

Bourla insists that the speedy development of Pfizer's effective COVID-19 vaccine was due to the sheer determination and perseverance of the company’s approximately 80,000 global researchers, scientists, doctors and manufacturers. He listened carefully to the advice of his researchers and scientists on the front lines. Despite the naysayers and colossal pressures, the vaccine continues to save lives. “Growth never just happens, it’s created,” says Bourla.

Bourla is a self-described risk-taker. In 2001, following a series of promotions, he immigrated to the U.S., where he spent years in various managerial leadership roles for Pfizer. In 2014, he became the head of Pfizer’s global vaccines, oncology and consumer healthcare division. He then served as the group president of Pfizer Innovative Health, before becoming chief operating officer (COO) on way to his current CEO position. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, he oversaw the reduction of the many bureaucratic steps needed for approval in the vaccine process without affecting the integrity of the procedure. About the vaccine's rapid development, he says it was incredible to witness, adding, “I realized that it would happen only after it happened.”

Soon after first surfacing, COVID-19 was raging across the globe. Bourla knew there was a limited amount of time to create an effective vaccine before the second wave of the pandemic struck (it was the second wave of the 1918 influenza pandemic that had proved so massively lethal). Bourla credits his parents for teaching him to persevere in the face of adversity. This lesson guided him to his long-term success. A proud Greek American, he praises both countries for making him the person he is today.

Bourla studied veterinary medicine in his hometown of Thessaloniki and then went on to receive his Ph.D. in biotechnology of reproduction. Resilient and persistent while growing up, these traits endured into adulthood.

Bourla is convinced that the challenges to developing the COVID-19 vaccine were necessary to obtain the desired result. And in order to create a more transparent development process, he welcomed open exchanges, discussions and questions.

March 2022 saw the publication of Bourla's book, “Moonshot: Inside Pfizer’s Nine-Month Race to Make the Impossible Possible,” which focuses on the historically swift process in which Pfizer created, developed and rolled out the vital global vaccine. This book also gives insight into reforming the methods of future vaccine development.

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Bourla’s leadership at Pfizer is one that puts patients and their health first and foremost. He created a transformational system that allows people to navigate Pfizer’s customer care platforms more efficiently, which vastly improves patient outcomes. He has also pushed his company to invest in ingenuity, investigation and effective development.

The way Pfizer is operating under Bourla's leadership has set an example for how to contend with future pandemics and pharmaceutical advances in general. He does not look at science from a one-dimensional, sterile approach. Bourla constantly considers the human aspect of the company’s work; the one where people's lives are changed thanks to creativity and innovation in the field of medicine.

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