​President Trump has named former Eli Lilly and Co. executive and former HHS official Alex Azar as his pick for Health and Human Services Secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Alex Azar will oversee a $1 trillion department responsible for major health insurance programs, medical research, food and drug safety and public health.

Azar received his bachelor's degree in government and economics from Dartmouth, and is a Yale law graduate who once clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He served as a top HHS official during the George W. Bush administration and developed an insider's familiarity with the complex world of federal health care regulation, serving first as the department's chief lawyer and later as deputy secretary. Azar spent the last 10 years with Lilly, rising to president of its key U.S. affiliate before leaving in January to start his own consulting firm. He's seen as an expert on government health care regulation.