Roche announces board and management changes

Roche has announced a reorganisation of its board of directors and executive management that it describes as a “reinforcement and further rejuvenation”. The company is planning to add two directors to its board and promote junior managers into more important roles.

The company proposes that Pius Baschera and Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer be elected to its board of directors at the annual general meeting on 5th March 2007.

Professor Pius Baschera is presently chief executive of Hilti and chairman of its board. Dr Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer is chief executive officer and chairman of the executive board of OMB Aktiengesellschaft.

The company also announced the promotion of Pascal Soriot from head of pharma strategic marketing to head of commercial operations. It also announced the replacement of Eduard Holdener by Jean-Jacques Garaud as head of global pharma development and of Claude Schreiner by Peter Hug as head of the company’s western Europe region.

Franz B Humer, chairman and chief executive officer of Roche, said: “These new appointments continue the process we initiated a few years ago of systematically strengthening the group’s top echelons and bringing in new blood.”

He added that the changes would help the company “meet the challenges of the future”.

In October, Science Magazine ranked Roche as the third top employer in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.