Our Leaders

Rainer Blair is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Danaher Corporation. Beginning September 2020, Rainer has led Danaher’s $29.5B global, multi-industry portfolio of businesses. With the help of Danaher’s 81,000 global associates, he is focused on further strengthening Danaher’s position as a leading science and technology company. 

Rainer is a dedicated leader and practitioner of the Danaher Business System, the company’s pre-eminent operating model and cultural foundation.  He is deeply committed to the company’s Core Values and Shared Purpose: Helping Realize Life’s Potential.  He has been a principle architect of Danaher’s associate engagement strategy and Diversity + Inclusion journey. 

Rainer brings more than 30 years of deep and diverse experience to his current role. Rainer joined Danaher in 2010 and held leadership roles across several operating companies before being named Executive Vice President of Danaher’s Life Sciences platform in 2014. Through a combination of organic and inorganic growth investments, he helped Danaher build a portfolio of Life Sciences businesses uniquely positioned to reduce time to market and cost of biologic drugs. Under his leadership, the Life Sciences platform annual revenues increased five-fold to approximately $10 billion today.

Prior to Danaher, Rainer was President and CEO for MAPEI Americas, a $2.3 billion global, diversified construction chemical corporation. He previously spent 15 years with BASF Group on three continents with progressively larger leadership roles. He is U.S. Army veteran. He earned his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst and his M.S. from Boston University. Rainer and his wife Alaine live in Alexandria, VA, and have three adult children.

Mr. Dewan is currently CEO of Arena Holdings Management, a global investment business. From 2003 to 2015, he worked at Tiger Global Management, most recently as Head of Public Equities. Prior to that, Mr. Dewan was a private equity investor at Silver Lake Partners. Mr. Dewan earned his B.S. in Engineering with a Certificate in Applied and Computational Mathematics from Princeton University.

Ms. Hefner Filler served as President of Retail Products, Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Merchandising Officer of Walgreen Co., a national drugstore chain, from January 2015 to April 2017. From March 2013 until June 2014, Ms. Hefner Filler served as President, North America of Claire’s Stores, Inc., a specialty retailer; from May 2007 to June 2012, as Executive Vice President of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., an operator of retail stores and warehouse clubs, and from April 2009 to June 2012 also as Chief Merchandising Officer for Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart; and from May 2004 through December 2006, as Executive Vice President—Global Strategy for Kraft Foods Inc., a food and beverage company.

Ms. Hefner Filler has served in senior management roles with leading retail and consumer goods companies, with general management responsibilities and responsibilities in the areas of marketing, branding and merchandising. Understanding and responding to the needs of our customers is fundamental to Danaher’s business strategy, and Ms. Hefner Filler’s keen marketing and branding insights have been a valuable resource to Danaher’s Board. Her prior leadership experiences with large public companies have given her valuable perspective for matters of global portfolio strategy and capital allocation as well as global business practices.

Ms. List served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Gap Inc., a global clothing retailer, from January 2017 until March 2020. Prior to joining Gap, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Dick’s Sporting Goods, Inc., a sporting goods retailer, from August 2015 to August 2016, and with Kraft Foods Group, Inc., a food and beverage company, as Advisor from March 2015 to May 2015, as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from December 2013 to February 2015 and as Senior Vice President of Finance from September 2013 to December 2013. From 1994 to September 2013, Ms. List served in a series of progressively more responsible positions in the accounting and finance organization of The Procter & Gamble Company, a consumer goods company, most recently as Senior Vice President and Treasurer. Prior to joining Procter & Gamble, Ms. List was employed by the accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche for almost ten years. Ms. List is a member of the board of directors of Microsoft Corporation.

Ms. List’s experience dealing with complex finance and accounting matters for Gap, Dick’s, Kraft and Procter & Gamble have given her an appreciation for and understanding of the similarly complex finance and accounting matters that Danaher faces. In addition, through her leadership roles with large, global companies she has insight into the business practices that are critical to the success of a large, growing public company such as Danaher.

Mr. Lohr was a partner of Hogan Lovells, a global law firm, for over five years until retiring in June 2012, and has also served on the boards of private and non-profit organizations.

Prior to his tenure at Hogan Lovells, Mr. Lohr served as assistant attorney general for the State of Maryland. He has extensive experience advising companies in a broad range of transactional matters, including mergers and acquisitions, contests for corporate control and securities offerings. His extensive knowledge of the legal strategies, issues and dynamics that pertain to mergers and acquisitions and capital raising has been a critical resource for Danaher given the importance of its acquisition program.

Dr. Mega has served as Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Verily Life Sciences LLC, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. focused on life sciences and healthcare, since March 2015. Prior to joining Verily, she served as Cardiologist and Senior Investigator at Brigham & Women’s Hospital from 2008 to March 2015. Dr. Mega has also served as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a senior investigator with the TIMI Study Group, where she helped lead international trials evaluating novel cardiovascular therapies and directed the genetics program.

Dr. Mega oversees Verily’s clinical and science efforts, focusing on translating technological innovations and scientific insights into partnerships and programs that improve patient outcomes. Dr. Mega’s clinical background and experience re-imagining how clinical trial data is collected and analyzed offer valuable insights for Danaher, given our strategic focus on life sciences and healthcare applications. Dr. Mega was originally proposed to the Nominating and Governance Committee for election as a director by one of the Company’s management directors.

Mr. Rales is a co-founder of Danaher and has served as Chairman of the Executive Committee of Danaher since 1984. He was also President of the Company from 1984 to 1990. Mr. Rales is also a member of the board of directors of each of Colfax Corporation and Fortive Corporation, and is a brother of Steven M. Rales.

The strategic vision and leadership of Mr. Rales and his brother, Steven Rales, helped create the Danaher Business System and have guided Danaher down a path of consistent, profitable growth that continues today. In addition, as a result of his substantial ownership stake in Danaher, he is well-positioned to understand, articulate and advocate for the rights and interests of the Company’s shareholders.

Mr. Rales is a co-founder of Danaher and has served as Danaher’s Chairman of the Board since 1984. He was also CEO of the Company from 1984 to 1990. Mr. Rales is also a member of the board of directors of Fortive Corporation, and is a brother of Mitchell P. Rales.

The strategic vision and leadership of Mr. Rales and his brother, Mitchell Rales, helped create the Danaher Business System and have guided Danaher down a path of consistent, profitable growth that continues today. In addition, as a result of his substantial ownership stake in Danaher, he is well-positioned to understand, articulate and advocate for the rights and interests of the Company’s shareholders.

Dr. Sabeti has served as an Investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (“HHMI”), a non-profit medical research organization, since November 2015. Dr. Sabeti is a professor at both the Center for Systems Biology and the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University and the Department of Immunology and Infectious Disease at Harvard School of Public Health. She is an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Dr. Sabeti is a computational geneticist with expertise developing new experimental technologies and computational algorithms to investigate the genomes of humans and infectious microbes. Her expertise in infectious disease research offers significant value to Danaher as we seek to develop research tools for use in determining the causes of disease, identification of new therapies and testing of new drugs and vaccines. Dr. Sabeti was originally proposed to the Nominating and Governance Committee for election as a director by one of the Company’s management directors.

Mr. Sanders is currently Senior Vice President of Business Transformation at Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ). Since joining Verizon in 1997, he has served in a series of progressively more responsible leadership positions including as Senior Vice President of Corporate Finance from 2015 to 2020. Prior to joining Verizon, Mr. Sanders served in various finance roles at Hallmark Cards, Inc. and Safelite Glass Corporation, and began his career at Grant Thornton in 1984.  Mr. Sanders earned his B.S. in Accounting from Oklahoma City University and his M.B.A. from Rockhurst University, and he is a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Spoon has served as a consultant to Polaris Partners, a company that invests in private technology and life science firms, since January 2019, after serving as Partner Emeritus of Polaris Partners from January 2015 to December 2018, Managing General Partner from 2000 to 2010 and Partner from May 2000 to December 2018. Mr. Spoon is also a member of the board of directors of each of Fortive Corporation, IAC/InterActiveCorp., Match Group, Inc. and Cable One, Inc. The Board has concluded that Mr. Spoon’s service on the boards of four other publicly-traded companies does not interfere with his ability to serve effectively as a Danaher director. The Board took into account in particular that one of the other companies on whose board he sits (IACInterActiveCorp.) owns more than 80% of another company on whose board he sits (Match Group, Inc.).

In addition to his leadership roles at Polaris Partners, Mr. Spoon has previously served as president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer of one of the country’s largest, publicly-traded education and media companies, and has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies. His public company leadership experience gives him insight into business strategy, leadership and executive compensation and his public company and private equity experience give him insight into technology and life science trends, acquisition strategy and financing, each of which represents an area of key strategic opportunity for the Company.

Mr. Schwieters has served as Principal of Perseus TDC, a real estate investment and development firm, since July 2013. He also served as a Senior Executive of Perseus, LLC, a merchant bank and private equity fund management company, from May 2012 to June 2016 and as Senior Advisor from March 2009 to May 2012.

In addition to his roles with Perseus, Mr. Schwieters led the Mid-Atlantic region of one of the world’s largest accounting firms after previously leading that firm’s tax practice in the Mid-Atlantic region, and has served on the boards and chaired the audit committees of several NYSE-listed public companies. He brings to Danaher extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of public accounting, tax accounting and finance, which are areas of critical importance to Danaher as a large, global and complex public company.

Professor Stevens has served as Provost Professor of Biological Sciences and Chemistry, and Director of The Bridge Institute, at the University of Southern California, a private research university, since July 2014, and as Chief Executive Officer of ShouTi, a biotechnology company, since May 2019. From 1999 until July 2014, he served as Professor of Molecular Biology and Chemistry with The Scripps Research Institute, a non-profit research organization. Professor Stevens is also Founding Director of the iHuman Institute at ShanghaiTech University, and has launched multiple biotechnology companies focused on drug discovery.

Professor Stevens is considered among the world’s most influential biomedical scientists in molecular research. A pioneer in human cellular behavior research, he has been involved in the creation of therapeutic molecules that led to breakthrough drugs aimed at curing influenza, childhood diseases, neuromuscular disorders and diabetes. Professor Stevens’ insights in the area of molecular research, as well as his experience bringing industry and academia together to advance drug development, are highly beneficial to Danaher given our strategic focus on the development of research tools used to understand the causes of disease, identify new therapies and test new drugs and vaccines. His extensive experience living and working in China is also valuable to Danaher given China’s strategic significance to our business.

Dr. Zerhouni served as President, Global Research & Development, for Sanofi S.A., a global pharmaceutical company, from 2011 to June 2018. From 2008 until 2011, he provided advisory and consulting services to various non-profit and other organizations as Chairman and President of Zerhouni Holdings. From 2002 to 2008, Dr. Zerhouni served as director of the National Institutes of Health, and from 1996 to 2002, he served as Chair of the Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Vice Dean for Research and Executive Vice Dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Dr. Zerhouni, a physician, scientist and world-renowned leader in radiology research, is widely viewed as one of the leading authorities in the United States on emerging trends and issues in medicine and medical care. These insights, as well as his deep, technical knowledge of the research and clinical applications of medical technologies, are of considerable importance given Danaher’s strategic focus in the medical technologies markets. Dr. Zerhouni’s government experience also gives him a strong understanding of how government agencies work, and his experience growing up in North Africa, together with the global nature of the issues he faced at NIH and his role at France-based Sanofi, give him a global perspective that is valuable to Danaher.