Zach W. Hall, PhD, is a retired neurobiologist and served as the first president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) from 2005-2007 - the state agency set up under Proposition 71 for funding stem cell research in California.

Prior to holding that position, he served as director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After leaving NIH, he was executive vice chancellor at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where his major responsibility was the development of the new 43 acre campus at Mission Bay. He was president and CEO of EnVivo Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a start-up biotechnology company for the discovery and development of pharmaceuticals for neurodegenerative disease.  In addition, Dr. Hall was senior associate dean for Academic Development and director of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in English from Yale University and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Medical Sciences) from Harvard University, Dr. Hall completed a fellowship in biochemistry at Stanford University School of Medicine.

He has served on advisory boards for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max-Planck Institutes in Germany, and the RIKEN Institute in Japan. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Neurological Association, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2003 he received the Purkynje Medal for Scientific Achievement from the Czech Academy of Science.