St. Jude appoints Charles Roberts as CEO, heralds breakthrough era in childhood cancer care

Charles W. M. Roberts has been appointed president and chief executive officer of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, taking over from James R. Downing, who will transition to a faculty role in the hospital’s Global Pediatric Medicine department. Roberts, formerly director of St. Jude’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and an executive vice president, will start on Jan. 1 and intends to keep an active research program, including work on tumor-suppressing genes.

He described the current moment as a "dawn of a new era" driven by converging technologies that improve cancer killing while sparing patients, and noted the potential to extend these advances to other severe pediatric diseases. Board chair Judy Habib praised his combination of scientific rigor, clinical empathy, and dedication to the mission as essential to his selection after a worldwide search. The hospital will continue offering free treatment, relying on philanthropic support from ALSAC, which raised an average of $2.3 billion annually between 2021 and 2023, to fund expansion and offset limited pharmaceutical investment in pediatric oncology.