Philips appoints new chief strategy officer

Philips has announced the appointment of Jim Andrew as its new chief strategy officer, a role which he will assume on July 15th 2011.

Mr Andrew joins the company from Boston Consulting Group and is a charter member of the US National Advisory Committee on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which advises Barack Obama's government on business strategies.

As well as strengthening the health and wellbeing firm's corporate strategy, he will also be taking responsibility for innovation issues such as corporate technologies, research and development and idea-to-market process leadership later this year.

These latter functions will be handed over by Gottfried Dutine, who is retiring from Philips on December 31st 2011.

Chief executive officer Frans van Houten said: "I'm confident Philips will benefit tremendously from Jim's experience in the domain of strategy development, innovation and business transformation."

Philips' offering in the dental care sector encompasses the Sonicare range of electric toothbrushes, including products such as HealthyWhite, CleanCare and Sonicare for Kids.