Martine Rothblatt Ph.D., J.D., M.B.A.
Founder, Chairperson, and Chief Executive Officer
Background
Dr. Rothblatt founded United Therapeutics in 1996 and has served as Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Previously, she created the satellite radio company SiriusXM. She is an inventor or co-inventor on ten U.S. patents, with additional applications pending. Her pioneering book, Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can Resolve the Conflict Between Private and Public Interests in Xenotransplantation, anticipated the need both for global virus bio-surveillance and a greatly expanded supply of transplantable organs.
Dr. Rothblatt has also analyzed the socio-ethical issues of human-like cyber competencies, as are emerging from large language models, in her 2014 book Virtually Human.
In 2018, Dr. Rothblatt received the UCLA Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2021, she received the National Business Aviation Association Meritorious Service to Aviation Award. In 2023, the American Philosophical Society awarded her the Benjamin Franklin Medal for Distinguished Achievement in the Sciences. More recently, in 2026 she was appointed the National Academy of Engineering, which is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer, and was named No. 8 on Forbes’ inaugural Innovator 250 List, which recognizes the 250 living Americans who “best embody the nation’s creative spirit.”
Dr. Rothblatt received her bachelor’s degree in communications, her M.B.A., and her J.D. from UCLA, and her Ph.D. in Medical Ethics from the University of London.
Other Current Public Company Boards
BETA Technologies, Inc.