Giovanni Caforia has spent 15 years at BMS
Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) has named Giovanni Caforia to take over from Lamberto Andreotti as CEO in May 2015.
The appointment is an internal one as Caforia has been with the company for 15 years and currently serves as chief operating officer. This echoes Andreotti’s route to leadership of BMS, as he was also chief operating officer before being appointed CEO in May 2010.
Andreotti will remain in a leadership role at BMS by becoming executive chairman of the board of directors in May. He will replace James Cornelius who retires from the board.
Cornelius praised the two men who will guide the pharma company as it looks to grow with a pipeline led by products such as cancer immunotherapies Opdivo (nivolumab) and Yervoy (ipilimumab) and oral anticoagulant Eliquis (apixaban).
“With Giovanni’s appointment as CEO and Lamberto’s appointment as chairman, we ensure the continuation of both the leadership and strategy that have made BMS successful,” said Cornelius, who himself served as CEO at BMS from 2006 and 2010 and as non-executive chairman since 2008.
The internal appointments are a sign from BMS that it believes is going in the right direction and does not require a shake-up from an external source.
Caforia, a trained physician, knows the company inside out having worked his way up through the corporation from his first position in 2000 as general manager of its Italian operations having joined the company from Abbott.
Since then he has served in several senior roles and helped develop the company’s presence in the immuno-oncology market as senior VP for US oncology and later senior VP, global commercialisation, oncology and immunology.
In 2013 he was appointed chief commercial officer at the company before taking over as chief operating officer a year later. For the past four years he has served on the senior management team and has been a member of the board of directors since 2014.
On his appointment Caforio said: “I look forward to working with our very talented team of people at BMS to build on what we’ve accomplished, to deliver on the promise of our innovative portfolio and to continue to make a real difference for our patients.”