Lasker Foundation

Lasker Foundation

Albert and Mary Lasker founded the foundation in 1942, channeling wealth Albert created by revolutionizing the American advertising industry at Lord & Thomas. The couple directed their philanthropy toward medical research, a mission Mary Lasker championed for decades as she lobbied for massive increases in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) budget. Today the president, Claire Pomeroy, leads a grantmaking institution that remains defined more by its name-brand award program than by open disclosures about its investment activity. The foundation's $81 million endowment (Altss estimate) is deployed across a mix of fund of funds, hedge fund, and private equity commitments, with a concentrated geographic focus on North America. Its strategy spans the liquidity spectrum, from early-stage venture and seed investments to buyout and growth-stage positions, and includes a secondary-market component for acquiring limited partnership interests. Sector coverage is anchored in biotechnology, aligning the portfolio with the institution's charitable mission. The organization participates in the Science Philanthropy Alliance, a network of funders who collectively push for increased private support of basic science. Governance sits with a board chaired by Venrock partner Anthony Evnin, while Christopher Brody of Vantage Partners serves on the investment committee, bringing a venture capital and private equity lens to portfolio oversight. The foundation maintains a direct institutional collaboration with the NIH through the Lasker Clinical Research Scholars program, a joint initiative that funds early-career physician-scientists. The organization runs its operations from a commercial office condominium at 405 Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. The foundation's structure is unusual: its grantmaking and awards function is operationally separate from its endowment investment activity, yet both draw authority from a single clinic of board members who mix philanthropic science advocates with professional investors. The dual identity — healthcare advocacy organization and institutional allocator — is discussed internally in terms of a unitary mission, but it demands a governance architecture that can toggle between scientific peer review and portfolio-committee duties without bending to either.