Dr. Garo H. Armen co-founded Agenus in 1994 and has served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since founding; he became a director in 1999 and served as President from founding through December 2019. In January 2026 he was also appointed the company's interim Principal Financial Officer, and as an employee-director he receives no additional board compensation.
From mid-2002 through 2004 he was Chairman of the Board of Elan Corporation, plc, which he helped restructure. He began his research career at Brookhaven National Laboratory before moving to Wall Street as an analyst and investment banker at EF Hutton and then Dean Witter Reynolds (now Morgan Stanley). He holds a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from the City University of New York and is founder and Chairman of the Children of Armenia Fund.