Evan Morris, Roche

Evan Morris

VP, Government Affairs and Public Policy, Roche

SECRET TO SUCCESS: "It's what you know, not who you know"

SECRET: "I'm a crummy golfer"

After training at DC's policy-and-lobbying powerhouse Patton Boggs, self-described "food and drug lawyer" Evan Morris joined Roche—and the industry—in January 2005. Having watched his mom beat breast cancer, he was inspired to play on the pharma team. "That was before FDA became managed through Congress," he says by way of acknowledging his baptism by partisan fire. Morris has led Roche's Washington office in negotiating policy for flu preparedness, hep C access, and Medicare and Medicaid. The just-barely-thirtysomething Morris is already an old hand inside the beltway. A White House intern at 18, he learned a lasting lesson from his boss, the deputy chief of staff: "'Speak truth to power, no matter how powerful the individual or how ugly the truth.' At the end of the day, that's how I want to be known."

Evan Morris