The past month saw several big pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Merck and Pfizer, move to change their leadership teams.
Businesses put the spotlight on the synthesis of their boards of directors, appointing people to bring insights and expertise from various fields, as the industry becomes broader and interest in novel technologies increases.
The past month saw several big pharmaceutical companies, including GSK, Merck and Pfizer, move to change their leadership teams.
Businesses put the spotlight on the synthesis of their boards of directors, appointing people to bring insights and expertise from various fields, as the industry becomes broader and interest in novel technologies increases.
The CEO of GlaxoSmithKline, Emma Walmsley, was nominated as a member of the board of directors for tech giant Microsoft, a role which needs to be confirmed by a shareholder’s vote at a meeting on December 4.
John Thompson, Microsoft’s independent board chair, said in a statement that Walmsley “led major advances in R&D at GSK and will bring her significant insights and global experience to Microsoft.”
Walmsley’s experience in the pharma industry is expected to assist Microsoft’s life sciences business, which has grown significantly over the past years, with the technology company working on the development of digital healthcare solutions, as well as building relations with big pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly, Merck, and Allergan.
If elected, Walmsley will be the fifth female member of Microsoft’s board. The 50-year-old executive joined GSK in 2010 as president of Consumer Healthcare for Europe and became the company’s CEO in 2017, taking on the role from Andrew Witty, who ran the company from 2008. Prior to GSK, Walmsley worked for 17 years in L’Oreal, where she held general management and marketing roles.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announced that its executive chairman of the board, Ian Read, has chosen to retire at this year’s end, with his position succeeded by the company’s CEO, Albert Bourla, who will also retain his current position.
66-year-old Ian Read has been with Pfizer since 1978, when he was hired as an operational auditor. He was named CEO the company in 2010, and chairman of the board of directors in 2011.
In a statement, the executive said “It’s been my greatest privilege to serve alongside Pfizer colleagues for the past 41 years,” and added, “I have tremendous confidence in Albert, the board and our colleagues, and believe that Pfizer’s best days are yet to come.”
On his side, Albert Bourla, who began his career at Pfizer starting by the company’s animal health division in 1993, commented on the transition as an ‘opportunity of a lifetime’ and added that Read led the company to become a ‘stronger and more stable’ institution with his ‘unrelenting’ focus on culture, creating value and developing talent.
“His leadership and counsel have been invaluable to the company, and more personally, I have benefited greatly from Ian’s advice, guidance and friendship,” Bourla said about Read.
MSD, known as Merck in North America and Mexico, announced the appointment of David Peacock as managing director for the UK and Ireland, effective as of October 1.
During the past 20 years, Peacock has climbed through many different roles in Merck and MSD in the US and Asia, while most recently he served as the chief of staff to Merck’s CEO, Kenneth Frazier. Furthermore, the executive has also previously held the positions of MSD’s CFO and managing director of Hong Kong and Macau.
Peacock will be succeeding Louise Houson, who has held the post of MD for MSD in the UK and Ireland for the past three years. The company announced that Houson will be taking on ‘a leadership role’ in MSD’s global vaccines business in the US.
Αs Celgene’s acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb moves to completion, the former company’s president of Global Inflammation and Immunology, Terrie Curran, was announced as the CEO of the biopharmaceutical company, Phathom Pharmaceuticals.
Phathom is a developer of treatments for gastrointestinal diseases, founded earlier this year through a collaboration between Takeda and the venture capital firm, Frazier Healthcare Partners. The company plans to initiate Phase III clinical studies for its candidate, vonoprazan, later this year.
Curran will take on her new role, succeeding Phathom’s current CEO, David Socks, after the completion of Celgene’s acquisition, expected by the end of the year, while she will also join Phathom’s board of directors. Following the transition, Socks, who is also one of Phathom’s co-founders, will become the company’s interim CFO.
Prior to joining Celgene in 2013, Curran was the SVP and general manager of Global Women’s Health at Merck. The executive currently also serves on the board of Myovant Sciences, while she has previously served on the board of H. Lundbeck.
Swiss pharmaceutical Vifor Pharma announced the appointment of Klaus Henning-Jensen as the CMO and member of the company’s executive committee.
Henning-Jensen joins Vifor from Sanofi, where he was most recently the global therapeutic area head, responsible for diabetes, cardiovascular and metabolism development. In his new role at Vifor, Henning-Jensen will be responsible for clinical development, drug safety and medical affairs.
Prior to Sanofi, Henning-Jensen spent 11 years with Novo Nordisk, where he held positions of global medical director, VP of global medical affairs, and head of clinical, medical and regulatory operations.
Stefan Schulze, the company’s COO and president of executive committee, commented that Henning-Jensen will bring “a wealth of experience from leading global clinical development and medical affairs functions.”
At the same time, the company announced that it is in search for a successor of Dario Eklund, its former chief commercial officer who left the company at the end of September, after he “decided to pursue opportunities outside of Vifor,” the company stated.
Eklund joined the company in 2014 as head of global business operations, before becoming CCO in 2017.
