Edward Bjurstrom
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
Ed Bjurstrom is the President & Co-Founder of CompassioNow along with his wife, Wendy. Ed and Wendy determined to establish CompassioNow in 2006 after visiting a number of rural villages in Africa during life changing trips there in 2002 and 2004. On their visits, they found many people not only suffering from HIV/AIDs, but many who were in great need of the most basic healthcare services. As Ed has worked in the pharmaceutical industry for many years, he was moved by seeing people suffering for lack of simple medicine and basic first aid.
Today, Ed is serving as the Vice President of Operations at Gilead Sciences, a global pharmaceutical company that specializes in treatments for infectious disease, HIV AIDS and cancer treatments. He has a unique perspective of the healthcare needs of developing countries and has traveled to Africa over a dozen times in the last 15 years.
In addition to serving as the Chairman of the CompassioNow Board, he is a Board member of the Compassion Tea Company, the International Leadership Foundation and Blackaby Ministries International. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from California State University at Long Beach and completed the Executive Business Program at the University of Michigan.