Despite August being a traditionally quiet month for news, there have been some major moves to bring in new faces to the largest companies in the industry. Notably, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb have all refreshed their C-suites with new hires.
Despite August being a traditionally quiet month for news, there have been some major moves to bring in new faces to the largest companies in the industry. Notably, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb have all refreshed their C-suites with new hires.
in-PharmaTechnologist gives you an overview of some of the notable hires that have taken place in the last month.
GSK has announced that it will appoint Iain Mackay as its new chief financial officer. Mackay will arrive to the company from outside of the pharmaceutical industry, having worked as CFO for HSBC for the last 11 years. However, he had previously worked for three years at soon-to-be independent GE Healthcare.
Emma Walmsley, CEO of GSK said of the appointment: “I’m delighted to welcome Iain to GSK. As a proven CFO of a complex, regulated global organisation, he brings tremendous finance experience and will be a great addition to the team. He is a strong leader with a track record of driving cost, cash and capital allocation discipline to deliver strategy. These capabilities will be vital as we continue to implement our Innovation, Performance and Trust priorities for the benefit of patients and shareholders.”
Mackay will begin working at GSK on January 14, 2019, replacing the outgoing CFO, Simon Dingemans, who will retire from the company in May 2019. Mackay had been identified as a replacement after Dingemans made the announcement he would retire in May 2018. Dingemans had performed the role of CFO from 2011.
At the time, Dingemans explained his decision to leave after eight years in a company statement: “It has been a privilege to be part of GSK and to have had the opportunity as CFO to lead many key initiatives to drive the company forward and make it fitter for the future. With the new strategy set, we have established strong foundations to deliver improved business and financial performance and I believe now is the right time for me to take this decision.”
Klaus Moosmayer will step into the recently created position of chief ethics, risk and complication officer at Novartis. The position has existed at the company since 2014, but recently expanded in April 2018 to include risk management. In this role, Moosmayer will also sit on the executive committee.
Moosmayer will join Novartis after having spent 18 years working at Siemens as its chief compliance officer, taking up his new position on December 1, 2018. Notably, Moosmayer is the chair of the anti-corruption taskforce at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
The appointment has been announced in the same year that Novartis came under scrutiny for employing President Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, as a consultant to the company. It led to the company publically acknowledging that it had “made a mistake entering into the contract with Michael Cohen”.
Moosmayer said of his appointment: “It is a great honour for me to be given the opportunity to join Novartis. Society has high expectations of the pharmaceutical industry and rightfully so. I am pleased to see that there is already a strong focus on driving personal accountability for behaviours, and generating learnings that can be applied across the organisation within Novartis. I look forward to building on this strong foundation to create a truly world-class risk and compliance function.”
Allergan has rung the changes at the company by announcing that another member of its board of directors would be stepping down. The company has stated that the action was taken as “part of the company’s ongoing board refreshment process”.
The member of the board in question is Paul Bisaro, who has held a position at the company for over a decade. For a time, Bisaro held the position of executive chairman before pursuing other ventures alongside his board positon. He is currently the CEO of Impax, a generics company that recently merged with Amneal Pharmaceuticals.
“Paul Bisaro is a transformational leader who created the building blocks necessary to bring this company from a mid-sized US generics company to a global branded pharmaceutical leader. I deeply appreciate Paul's business insight and will miss having him as a board colleague,” said Brent Saunders, Allergan's chairman and CEO.
Allergan noted that due to Bisaro stepping away from the board, there are now 11 members on the board and 10 of these are independent from the company. In addition, it noted that the average length of time each existing member has sat on the board is less than five years.
Bristol-Myers Squibb has promoted Christopher Boerner from within the company to take the position of executive vice president and chief commercial officer.
Boerner takes on the roles immediately, after having worked as head of international markets for the last year. He has been with BMS for close to four years. Prior to his position at BMS, he held various commercial roles at Seattle Genetics and Genentech.
“I’m very excited to lead such a talented and diverse commercial team globally. Along with my commercial colleagues, I look forward to continuing to help BMS deliver on our mission of bringing transformational medicines to patients,” said Boerner.
Explaining the decision to elevate Boerner to a new position, CEO Giovanni Carforio said: “Chris brings a deep knowledge of specialty care markets, a clear focus on innovation, and a proven track record of successful execution. Since joining BMS, he has successfully led our commercial organization across the US and international markets”.
Eisai has brought in Stephen Davies as vice president of Eisai Strategic Information Systems. In this role, Davies will be responsible for leading the IT functions across the Americas, as well as playing a role within global clinical, and regulatory, solutions. He will join the executive committee for the Americas, and the company’s global IT steering committee.
Prior to joining Eisai, he held a number of positions across the life sciences – most notably, a 15-year period at Boehringer Ingelheim.
Shaji Procida, president and chief operating officer at the company, explained the appointment of Davies: “Given his extensive experience as a global enterprise IT leader in the life sciences industry, Stephen will be a tremendous asset for Eisai. We are breaking through in all areas of our business, and innovative technology solutions will play a vital role in helping to propel Eisai into our next phase of expected growth.”