Novartis tax head announces retirement

Novartis has announced the retirement of executive committee member and head of legal and tax affairs Dr Urs Baerlocher at the end of this month.

Following the retirement of Dr Baerlocher, general counsel Dr Thomas Werlen will report directly to chairman and chief executive officer of the company Dr Daniel Vasella.

Dr Baerlocher joined Sandoz, the generics subsidiary of Novartis, in 1973 before being promoted several times to a number of roles, including chief executive officer of the nutrition division at the firm and chief executive officer of Sandoz Pharma.

He was also appointed to the executive board of the firm, while being named as an executive committee member at Novartis in 1999.

Dr Vassella said: “I want to thank Urs Baerlocher for his contributions in overseeing several strong global functions for Novartis.

“He built a solid legal and tax function, and his skills were particularly helpful in several of our strategic initiatives.”

He noted that Dr Baerlocher had played a role in the implementation of the company’s robust code of conduct following its signing of the UN Global Compact.

In July 2007, Novartis announced the sale of its medical nutrition segment to Nestle for the sum of $2.5 billion (1.25 billion pounds).