S ir Dennis Gillings is a British-American biostatistician and entrepreneur who founded Quintiles Transnational, a company that pioneered the contract research organization (CRO) industry. A former professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Gillings founded Quintiles in 1982. He identified a major opportunity to provide outsourced clinical trial and data analysis services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Under his leadership as CEO and chairman, Quintiles grew from a small statistical consulting firm into a global giant, becoming the world's largest CRO. The company played a critical role in helping drugmakers to develop and bring new medicines to market more efficiently. He took the company public twice and, in 2016, oversaw its massive merger with IMS Health to form the modern company, IQVIA. He was knighted by the Queen of England for his services to the life sciences industry. He is also a major philanthropist, particularly to his alma mater, UNC.