Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla receives Israel's Genesis Prize for 2022
Bourla is the ninth Genesis Prize Laureate, last year's winner being director and producer Steven Spielberg
The Genesis Foundation announced Wednesday that Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, is the winner of its annual prize for 2022.
Dubbed the "Jewish Nobel," the award honors "extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values" with a prize of $1m.
Bourla is the ninth Genesis Prize Laureate, last year's winner being director and producer Steven Spielberg.
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Israel's President Isaac Herzog will present the award to Bourla at a ceremony in Jerusalem planned for June 29.
Bourla said upon receiving the award, "I accept it humbly and on behalf of all my Pfizer colleagues who answered the urgent call of history these past two years and together bent the arc of our common destiny."
"I was brought up in a Jewish family who believed that each of us is only as strong as the bonds of our community; and that we are all called upon by God to repair the world. I look forward to being in Jerusalem to accept this honor in person, which symbolizes the triumph of science and a great hope for our future.”
Bourla chose to donate his winnings, asking The Genesis Prize Foundation to direct the $1m prize award to projects aimed at preserving the victims of the Holocaust, with an emphasis on the tragedy suffered by the Greek Jewish community.
Previous winners include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, actor Michael Douglas, and actress Natalie Portman, who snubbed the prize ceremony because she did not want to endorse then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.