GSK announces non-executive director appointment

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced the appointment of Professor Sir Roy Anderson as a non-executive director of the firm, with this move taking effect from today.

Professor of infectious disease epidemiology at Imperial College, Professor Anderson was previously employed as chief scientific advisor to the Ministry of Defence in the UK.

A fellow of the Royal Society, Professor Anderson will be named Rector of Imperial College next summer, succeeding Sir Richard Sykes in this role.

During his career, Professor Anderson has published over 450 scientific papers relating to infectious disease agents, exploring their epidemiology, evolution, population biology and control.

Professor Anderson joins eight other independent non-executive directors at the company, including Dr Stephanie Burns, H Lawrence Culp, Sir Crispin Davis, Sir Deryck Maughan, Dr Daniel Podolsky, Dr Ronaldo Schmitz, Tom De Swann and Sir Robert Wilson.

Sir Christopher Gent, chairman of GSK, expressed his pleasure with the appointment of Professor Anderson to the position of director.

“In addition to fulfilling the usual responsibilities of a non-executive director, he will spend time within our research and development organisation and,with his experience, will provide the board with valuable insights to scientific developments outside GSK,” he said.

In March 2007, GSK announced the appointment of Zhi Hong to its newly-established research unit dedicated to the discovery of treatments for infectious diseases.