Roche announces senior management changes

Swiss drug major Roche has announced a number of changes to the senior management team and the formation of a new Corporate Executive Committee.

At the end of 2009 William Burns (current chief executive of the  Pharma division), Juergen Schwiezer (current CEO Diagnositcs division) and Jonathan Knowles (current Head Group Research) will all step down. Juergen Schwiezer and Jonathan Knowles will retire, while William Burns will be proposed as a Member of the Roche Board at the Annual Shareholder Meeting 2010.

Effective from January 1, 2010: Pascal Soriot (current CEO Genentech) is appointed chief operating officer of the Pharma Division, Jean-Jacques Garaud (now head of Pharma Development) is appointed head of Roche Pharma research and Early Development and becomes a member of the enlarged Executive Committee; Daniel O'Day (current head Roche Molecular Diagnostics) is appointed COO Diagnostics division; Ian Clark (current head of global product strategy pharma) succeeds Pascal Soriot as CEO of Genentech; and Dan Zabrowski (current head of Pharma partnering) and Richard Scheller (current head of Genentech Research and early development) are also appointed members of the Executive Committee.