Recursion Pharmaceuticals Names Najat Khan as New CEO in Leadership Transition
Key Insights
Recursion Pharmaceuticals announced that Najat Khan, Ph.D., will succeed co-founder Chris Gibson as CEO and President effective January 1, 2026, following unanimous Board approval.
Khan brings extensive experience from Johnson & Johnson where she helped triple pipeline value and built an industry-leading data science organization as Chief Data Science Officer.
Gibson will transition to Chairman of the Board while current Chairman Rob Hershberg becomes Vice-Chairman and Lead Independent Director.
Recursion Pharmaceuticals announced a major leadership transition that will see Najat Khan, Ph.D., take the helm as Chief Executive Officer and President effective January 1, 2026. The clinical-stage TechBio company's Board of Directors unanimously approved Khan's appointment to succeed co-founder Chris Gibson, who will transition to Chairman of the Board.
Strategic Leadership Transition
The planned transition reflects Recursion's commitment to continuity as it evolves its OS platform and advances its clinical pipeline. Khan, currently serving as Chief R&D and Commercial Officer and Board Member, will maintain her position on the Board of Directors while assuming the CEO role.
"The Board's unanimous decision to appoint Najat Khan as Recursion's next CEO is a clear reflection of our confidence in her strategic acumen and proven track record of converting new science into tangible value," said Dr. Rob Hershberg, Recursion's current Chairman, who will transition to Vice-Chairman and Lead Independent Director.
Gibson expressed confidence in the transition, stating: "After partnering with Najat Khan for the past 18 months, I have absolute faith that she is the right leader for Recursion's next phase. Her unique and exceptional combination of strategic insight, scientific rigor, bold vision and commitment to leveraging technology to shift the way we discover treatments for patients through our platform is what's needed for the company's evolution."
Khan's Vision and Experience
Khan brings extensive experience from both large pharma and TechBio sectors. At Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine, she served as Chief Data Science Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Head of Strategy, Portfolio & Operations for R&D, where she helped triple pipeline value and built an industry-leading data science organization. She positioned J&J as one of the first major pharma companies to strategically scale AI across its R&D portfolio.
"Throughout my career, I've always worked at the intersection of science, data, and business — building R&D portfolios, scaling AI organizations, and translating bold ideas into therapies that matter," Khan said. "This is a pivotal chapter — one that will require bold and strategic focus, thoughtful navigation of complexity, and relentless determination to fully realize our vision."
Since joining Recursion in 2024, Khan has prioritized and progressed multiple clinical programs and helped lead the company's combination with Exscientia — 2024's largest TechBio M&A deal. She has been instrumental in expanding the Recursion OS (search) 2.0 platform into an end-to-end engine for drug discovery.
Platform and Pipeline Development
Recursion operates one of the world's largest proprietary biological and chemical datasets through its Recursion OS (search) platform. The company leverages sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to distill trillions of searchable relationships across biology and chemistry, conducting up to millions of wet lab experiments weekly while operating one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.
Khan emphasized the company's differentiated approach: "Recursion has built something differentiated — a platform that unites biology, chemistry, and AI at unprecedented scale, a pipeline with meaningful near-term readouts, and a culture defined by curiosity, courage, and conviction."
Academic and Professional Background
Khan holds a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, an AI/ML Certification from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and a B.A. in Computational Chemistry from Colgate University. Earlier in her career, she was a Senior Principal and Partner with The Boston Consulting Group (search), working with leading biopharma, biotech, payer, and provider organizations.
The leadership transition comes as Recursion continues to advance its mission of decoding biology to radically improve lives, with the company maintaining its headquarters in Salt Lake City and offices in Montréal, New York, London, and the Oxford area.