--- title: TIME100 Philanthropy: Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon description: Find out who else is on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2026 list. canonical: https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/ article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-05-14T12:02:15.135Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-14T12:02:15.359Z article:section: TIME100 og:title: TIME100 Philanthropy: Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon og:description: Find out who else is on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2026 list og:url: https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta82dfc23c3b7342e/69fe40109029926e34e8b08d/t100-philanthropy-Phillip_Ragon_Susan_Ragon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y21.77 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME100 Philanthropy: Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon og:type: article twitter:card: summary twitter:title: TIME100 Philanthropy: Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon twitter:description: Find out who else is on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2026 list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta82dfc23c3b7342e/69fe40109029926e34e8b08d/t100-philanthropy-Phillip_Ragon_Susan_Ragon.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y21.77 --- May 14, 2026 # Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon Pursuing a cure for HIV by Sandra Block  Daniel D’Attavio Phillip Ragon traces the origins of his philanthropy back to his senior year in high school in Bogotá, Colombia, when his bus ride to school took him through some of the poorest sections of the city. “I’d see all these kids outside and always wondered, why am I on this bus and they’re standing out there?” he says. Years later, after Phillip had founded Intersystems, a software company that helps banks and hospitals manage critical data, he and his wife Susan returned to Bogotá and founded schools in that same poverty-stricken community. Since 2009, the Ragons have focused their philanthropic efforts on an even bigger challenge: curing HIV/AIDS. The World Health Organization estimates that 25.6 million people on the African continent are living with HIV, which disproportionately affects young [women](https://www.npr.org/sections/goats-and-soda/2025/08/25/g-s1-84393/whatever-happened-to-the-race-to-cure-hiv-theres-promising-news). The Ragon Institute, a collaborative initiative funded by the couple’s foundation, has partnered with the African Health Research Institute and [others](https://www.ahri.org/groundbreaking-south-african-hiv-cure-trial-shows-promising-results/) to launch an HIV cure trial in Africa. In March 2025, AHRI announced that 20% of participants remained off antiretroviral therapy and the virus continued to be suppressed after 18 months. “People at \[AHRI\] are convinced we’ll be able to cure HIV,” Phillip Ragon says. In addition to an HIV vaccine, the Ragon Institute is working on vaccines for Zika virus, malaria, and tuberculosis, which remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases. “My belief is that by focusing on the hardest programs we’ll be able to focus on any infectious disease,” Phillip Ragon says. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/"},"headline":"Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon","datePublished":"2026-05-14T12:02:15.135Z","dateModified":"2026-05-14T12:02:15.359Z","description":"Find out why Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon are on the TIME100 Most Influential People in Philanthropy 2026 list.","url":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/","keywords":["list","franchise","Accolades","Magazine","Philanthropy 2026"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta82dfc23c3b7342e/69fe40109029926e34e8b08d/t100-philanthropy-Phillip_Ragon_Susan_Ragon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y21.77&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sandra Block"}],"creator":"Sandra Block","articleSection":"TIME100","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta82dfc23c3b7342e/69fe40109029926e34e8b08d/t100-philanthropy-Phillip_Ragon_Susan_Ragon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675%2Coffset-x0.00%2Coffset-y21.77&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/time100/","name":"TIME100"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collection/time100-philanthropy/2026/phillip-ragon-susan-ragon/","name":"Phillip Ragon & Susan Ragon"}}]}] ```