Mary Ann Leeper, MS, MBA, Ph.D.

President and Chief Operating Officer

The Female Health Company

Chicago, USA ● London, UK

 

Dr. Leeper is a leader in the development of pharmaceuticals and products that address global women’s health issues.  She is an authority on international public health issues, particularly in the developing world.  Dr. Leeper is an entrepreneur who has launched several companies, including the publicly traded (OTC BB: FHCO) Female Health Company.  She also has extensive experience in regulatory affairs, not only in dealing with the U. S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but also with various health agencies around the world. Dr. Leeper directed the global development and launch of The Female Condom and has extensive research, development and marketing experience with several major pharmaceutical companies. 

Dr. Leeper is president and chief operating officer of the Chicago-based Female Health Company, which owns certain worldwide rights to The Female Condom™ – the first and only barrier contraceptive device under a woman’s control approved by the FDA for protection against sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS as well as unintended pregnancy.                         

Dr. Leeper is responsible for the introduction of The Female Condom through HIV and STD prevention programs in the United States and internationally.  Under her leadership, The Female Health Company has focused its marketing efforts on establishing a presence in major world markets and building relationships with key world health agencies and programs.  The Female Condom has been introduced in Japan, Africa, Latin America, the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe.  The Female Health Company now has relationships with the World Health Organization, the Joint United Nations Global Programme on HIV/AIDS, the U.S. Agency for International Development, International Planned Parenthood Federation, Family Health International, Population Services International, ministries of public health in numerous countries throughout the world – particularly in developing countries – the FDA and many U.S. city and state public health agencies. 

Prior to being named president of The Female Health Company in 1996, Dr. Leeper was senior vice president and director of Wisconsin Pharmacal.  For more than 10 years, she was responsible for all product research and design and development programs related to receiving FDA approval for The Female Condom.  Dr. Leeper participated in expanding Wisconsin Pharmacal into the global and publicly traded Female Health Company in 1996

Before joining Wisconsin Pharmacal, Dr. Leeper was vice president of market development for G.D. Searle, a leading pharmaceutical company now owned by Pharmacia Upjohn.  In the early 1980s, she was responsible for developing immediate to long-range strategic plans for Searle’s $650 million pharmaceutical business and directed worldwide marketing initiatives, licensing and acquisitions and product line development.  Dr. Leeper was the highest-ranking woman at Searle and the first female member of the company’s elite Pharmaceutical Group Executive Committee. 

In 1997, Dr. Leeper founded The Female Health Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving women’s health.  The Foundation helps identify needs and supports the development of programs that help women all over the world to better care for their own health and for the health of their families.  Dr. Leeper is chair and a board member of the Foundation. 

 Dr. Leeper currently serves as vice president and partner in Phoenix Health Care, Inc. (PHC), a small investment and development company specializing in unique health care products, which Leeper helped found in 1987.  PHC has completed development of two companies – Wisconsin Pharmacal, a specialty consumer products company and Inhalon Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a start-up generic specialty pharmaceutical company.

  Dr. Leeper began her career as a biochemist for McNeil Laboratories.  After positions withWyeth Laboratories and New England Nuclear Corporation, Dr. Leeper was an assistant professor for radiopharmaceutical and pharmaceutical chemistry in the School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy at Temple University.