Sen. Bill Frist, M.D.

Sen. Bill Frist, M.D., is a nationally recognized heart and lung transplant surgeon and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader. He is a founding partner of Frist Cressey Ventures, special partner and chairman of the Executives Council of the health service investment firm Cressey & Company, and currently chairs the Global Board of The Nature Conservancy, the world’s largest conservation organization. He is actively engaged in the medical, humanitarian, and philanthropic communities.

As a U.S. senator representing Tennessee from 1995 to 2007 (the first practicing physician elected to the Senate since 1928), Dr. Frist was elected Majority Leader of the Senate, having served fewer total years in Congress than any person in history chosen to lead that body. His leadership was instrumental in the passage of the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act that established Medicare Advantage, and the historic PEPFAR legislation that has provided life-saving treatment globally to 25 million people.

Sen. Frist graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Medical School and completed surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford. As founder of the Vanderbilt Multi-Organ Transplant Center (today the busiest heart transplant center in the world), he performed over 150 heart and lung transplants, authored over 100 peer-reviewed medical articles, and published seven books. He is board certified in both general and heart/lung surgery. 

As a leading authority on health care, Sen. Frist speaks nationally on health policy, global health, and education reform. He is the founder and chairman of community health collaborative NashvilleHealth, the Tennessee-based State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE), and global health nonprofit Hope Through Healing Hands. 

Sen. Frist and his wife, Tracy, live on their historic farm, Old Town, in Franklin, Tennessee.