Winner
Andrew Witty
Summary of work
Andrew Witty became Chief Executive Officer of GlaxoSmithKline in May 2008. He joined Glaxo in 1985 and has held a variety of sales and marketing roles in the UK business in the intervening years.
He has worked in the company’s international new products groups, both in the respiratory and HIV/infectious disease fields and has been involved in multiple new product development programmes.
During his tenure, Andrew has also worked in South Africa, the US and Singapore where he led the group’s operations as senior vice president, Asia Pacific. While in Singapore Andrew was a Board Member of the Singapore Economic Development Board, the Singapore Land Authority and in 2003 he was awarded the Public Service Medal by the Government of Singapore.
In 2003 Andrew was appointed President of GSK Europe, and joined GSK’s Corporate Executive Team.
He has served in numerous advisory roles to governments around the world including South Africa, Singapore, Guangzhou in China and in the UK, where he is currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group and is the Lead Non-Executive Director for the Department of Business.
In January 2010, Andrew became President of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). A year later he was appointed as a Board Member of the INSEAD Business School.
Judges’ comments
“Andrew has been a leader in thinking for the evolution of life science companies. He has challenged traditional thinking and sought to test a number of initiatives. He shows that life science companies need to be global and has gained significant experience, yet remains committed to maintaining a strong UK leadership position. Andrew is also a leader in building trust and sustainability, leading initiatives such as making vital drugs more affordable and looking at innovative ways to kick start drug development by creating a patent pool of products, which are freely available for others to use in search of drugs.”
