L’Oreal names Merck Serono chief executive as new board member

L'Oreal has announced the appointment of Belen Garijo, the president and chief executive officer of Merck Serono, as a new member of its board of directors.

Ms Garijo was appointed as an independent director for a period of four years, a move that was approved by shareholders at the personal care company's 2014 annual general meeting in Paris last week.

A medical doctor who specialises in clinical pharmacology and internal medicine, she joined the firm in 2011 and has held diverse senior functions in a number of countries over the course of a 25-year career.

Ms Garijo worked for six years as a practising physician prior to joining the pharmaceutical industry, before working in research for eight years, then transitioning over to commercial functions of increasing responsibility.

Her appointment comes after L'Oreal announced sales of 5.64 billion euros (4.65 billion pounds) for the first quarter of 2014. This represented a 3.5 percent like-for-like increase on Q1 2013, with its Luxe, active cosmetics and professional products divisions all seeing improvements.