Peter Kirk

Chief Executive Officer Sermo

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Peter Kirk is Chief Executive Officer of Sermo, a physician engagement platform that gives pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare clients real-time insights from a global community of more than one million healthcare professionals. He did not found Sermo. He came to it as founder and CEO of WorldOne, a New York healthcare data collection firm he started in 2000, which bought Sermo in 2012 to add the largest online physician community in the U.S. to its research business. The combined company now trades under the Sermo name. EY named him an Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 New York award winner. Outside the business he is known for Be Your Possible, a medical research fundraising campaign he started after recovering from acute myeloid leukemia.

Career Highlights

• Chief Executive Officer of Sermo, the physician engagement platform with a community of more than one million healthcare professionals.
• Founded WorldOne in 2000 with five employees in a single office.
• As CEO of WorldOne, announced the acquisition of Sermo in July 2012, combining Sermo’s 130,000 physicians with WorldOne’s network into a community of more than 350,000 verified U.S. doctors.
• Secured a $35 million funding commitment from Deerfield Management in April 2013 to expand Sermo.
• Named an EY Entrepreneur Of The Year 2025 New York award winner in June 2025, and earlier a PM360 ELITE Disruptor of 2015 and a PharmaVoice 100 honoree.
• Founded Be Your Possible in 2022, with a goal of running 1,000 half-marathons to raise $1 million for research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Professional Journey

Kirk founded WorldOne in 2000 with five employees in one office. It was a healthcare data collection firm headquartered in New York, and he ran it as chief executive. By 2012 it described itself as the largest such firm in the world, with access to more than 1.7 million verified healthcare professionals in 80 countries and regional offices across North America, South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

In July 2012 WorldOne acquired Sermo for an undisclosed sum. Sermo had been founded in 2005 by physician Daniel Palestrant as an online community where doctors could talk openly with one another, and in six years it had signed up 130,000 physicians and worked with eight of the ten largest pharmaceutical companies. Kirk said at the time that Sermo “fits in perfectly with our strategy to extend our digital footprint across healthcare market research.” The idea was to put a busy physician community alongside a survey and data business. In April 2013 Deerfield Management, a New York healthcare investor, committed $35 million to WorldOne to fund Sermo’s growth. By the company’s account, Sermo’s reach grew from about 20% to about 40% of U.S. physicians between 2012 and 2015, and the business reached more than 300 employees in 12 offices.

The combined business now operates as Sermo and describes itself as a physician engagement platform with more than one million healthcare professionals. According to Wikipedia, it has expanded into Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain and Mexico, and in 2023 it acquired Payer Access and Charter Oak to reach payers and oncologists.

In October 2020 Kirk was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, and in June 2021 he received a blood stem cell transplant. Five months later he ran the New York City Marathon. In 2022 he launched Run With Peter, a global run that PharmaVoice reports drew 2,400 physicians from 77 countries and raised $250,000 for medical research. It grew into Be Your Possible, which aims to run 1,000 half-marathons before the tenth anniversary of his transplant and raise $1 million for research at Memorial Sloan Kettering.

Education

No education record was found in any first-party or press source reviewed.