The Board of Directors of Sandoz announced that it will nominate Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D., and Michael Rechsteiner for election to the Board at the Annual General Meeting on April 30, 2024. At the same time, Sandoz announced that Remco Steenbergen, currently a member of the Sandoz Board of Directors, will become a member of the Executive Committee and will assume the responsibilities of Sandoz CFO effective July 1, 2024, succeeding Colin Bond, who has decided to retire. Colin will remain in his role until his successor is appointed, and will then serve as a senior advisor to the Executive Committee until his retirement. Following this announcement, Remco Steenbergen will not stand for re-election at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting on April 30, 2024.
Gilbert Ghostine, Sandoz Chairman, said: "Our company evolves, and so does our leadership team. I am pleased we can propose exceptional people in science and in business for election to the Board of Directors this year. Mathai is an experienced and mission-oriented biopharmaceutical executive, and his skills and experience will be a perfect fit into the team. Michael brings many years of management experience of publicly traded companies along with his strong Swiss roots and international experience. At the same time, I welcome Remco as our new CFO, who brings invaluable global financial expertise and familiarity with Sandoz as our fellow Board member, and will enable continuity and focus on innovation and excellence."
Remco Steenbergen (1968) is a seasoned executive with a broad range of financial and operational experience. Remco is Group Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa (2021-2024). Before joining Lufthansa, he was Group CFO of Barry Callebaut, based in Switzerland (2018-2020). Prior to that, he held various senior business and finance positions at Philips (1998-2018) and KPMG (1986-1998) in the Netherlands, the UK, Taiwan, Belgium, Ireland and the US. Remco holds a post-doctoral degree in Accounting from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and a Master of Business Administration from IMD Business School, Lausanne, Switzerland. Richard Saynor, Sandoz CEO, emphasizes: "Remco joins us at an exciting time as we enter our first full year as an independent public company. He brings outstanding business and financial experience and a proven track record of leading global public organizations. Remco is well known for his strong leadership, his drive for value creation and his ability to create high-performing teams, which will enable Sandoz to maintain its focus on innovation, growth, margin expansion and sustainable shareholder returns. I would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Colin for his outstanding tenure as CFO. He has played a crucial role in preparing Sandoz for the spin-off, setting up an independent finance organization and guiding us successfully through the separation process and into our first year as a standalone company."
Mathai Mammen, M.D., Ph.D. (1967), is CEO and Chairman of Fog-Pharma, a privately held US biopharmaceutical company focused on development-stage oncology programmes. Previously, Mathai was a member of the Executive Committee at Johnson & Johnson, where he led pharmaceutical R&D. During his tenure, he spearheaded the successful development of Janssen R&D. The team executed over 40 acquisitions and licenses and more than 350 strategic partnerships and collaborations, resulting in the global approval of eight new medicines and many additional global approvals for expanded indications of marketed products. Prior to J&J, Mathai was a Senior Vice President at Merck and Theravance. Mathai is a board member of 10x Genomics and serves as a senior executive advisor to other companies. Mathai holds an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Harvard University.
Michael Rechsteiner (1963) has been a member of the Swisscom Board of Directors since April 2019 and Chairman of the Board since March 2021. Previously, Michael was CEO of GE Gas Power Europe and Chairman of the Executive Board of GE (Switzerland) and had executive responsibility for GE Power Services Europe (2017-2021). Prior to that, Michael held a number of positions at Alstom Power, including CEO and Senior Vice President with overall responsibility for the global service business. Between 2003 and 2007, Michael was COO of the former textile machinery manufacturer Sultex. His career began in 1990 with ABB Power Generation (later Alstom), where he held various international positions. Michael is a member of the Board and Executive Committee of Economiesuisse. He holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich and an MBA from the University of St. Gallen.
With the proposed nominees, including Graeme Pitkethly announced on February 1, and subject to their election by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting, the Sandoz Board will have ten members, all of whom are independent. The new composition of the Board maintains a complementary mix of expertise and experience in areas relevant to Sandoz. The following persons are recommended for election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on April 30, 2024:
