Our Team

Francisco Gutierrez, MD, MBA, MHS

Head of Medicine & Health

Dr. Gutierrez has over 23 years of experience in the healthcare field and more than 16 in health professions education. In his most recent role, he was responsible for setting the strategic direction and conducting the business operations of the medical and health sciences field of Laureate Education. Under Dr. Gutierrez’s leadership for over 10 years, Laureate became the largest educator of health professionals in the world with over 255,000 students in more than 40 different degree programs. The span of Health Sciences reached 18 countries, 37 institutions, and 158 campuses. 

In this role, Dr. Gutierrez oversaw 26 medical schools, including 19 that he created from the ground up, 22 dental schools, and 17 veterinary medicine programs. He guided Laureate to become a global leader in nursing education with more than 61,000 nursing students, from technical to PhD level. Other large health sciences programs included Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Psychology, and Nutrition. The achievements in numbers were parallel with the quality outcomes of the health schools, with high levels of accreditation, superb scores in national exams, and certifications. 

Prior to Laureate, Dr. Gutierrez led a specialized consulting firm in health and before that was Director of the International Healthcare Practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Washington DC. He also served as a Vice President of the Harris Methodist Health System in Texas. He has held senior management positions at several hospitals and outpatient care facilities and has had a private clinical practice as well.  

He received Medical Doctor and MBA degrees from the prestigious Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) and a Masters’ in Health Finance from Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

 He is an advanced member of the American Association for Physician Leadership, and a regular lecturer at Harvard University and several renowned medical institutions and universities around the world.