Joseph Romanelli

Joseph Romanelli joined Tessera in 2026 as President and Chief Executive Officer at Tessera and CEO-Partner at Flagship Pioneering. Joseph brings more than 25 years of global biopharmaceutical leadership and a proven track record of scaling international commercial operations and delivering more than a dozen successful product launches, including Keytruda and Gardasil. 

Prior to joining Tessera, Joseph served as President of Human Health International at Merck & Co., Inc. (MSD) from 2022 to 2026, where he had P&L responsibility for MSD's more than $25 billion international human health business and led a team of 14,000 colleagues across more than 75 markets outside the U.S. 

Before that, Joseph served as Chief Executive Officer of JiXing Pharmaceuticals, a China-based biopharmaceutical company committed to bringing innovative science and medicines to underserved Chinese patients with serious and life-threatening diseases. Earlier in his career, he led MSD's business in China for more than four years, during which China became MSD's second-largest market by revenue. Joseph also served as Vice President of Investor Relations from 2013 to 2015. Joseph joined MSD in 1996 and held roles of increasing strategic and operational responsibility throughout his nearly 30-year tenure. 

Joseph holds a B.A. from the University of Delaware and an MBA from Fordham University's Gabelli School of Management. In addition to serving on the Board of Tessera as a director, Joseph also serves on the Board of Directors of Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB).