Matthew Speers will next year take the helm at the Proprietary Association of Great Britian (PAGB), the UK trade association for over-the-counter medicines and food supplements.
Speers was most recently general manager for the UK and Ireland at UCB Pharma, a role he held for five years until April this year.
Prior to this he spent nearly two years as a regional general manager at UCB and before that was CEO of a biotech, a management consultant and served at GlaxoSmithKline in a variety of roles.
He will join the PAGB on January 6, 2014, and take up the CEO post on February 1, 2014, when current chief executive, Sheila Kelly, steps down.
Speers said: “I am hugely excited to be appointed to the role of chief executive at PAGB. The Association has been very successful in helping to drive change in the regulatory environment and in creating the very positive climate for self-care that we enjoy in the UK.
“I am looking forward to working with our member companies and the stakeholders we partner with to build on that so the consumer healthcare sector can develop and thrive.”