LEO Pharma has restructured its senior leadership team in a bid to better “integrate patient and market perspectives into top management decisions” as well as making it more competitive.
The new executive leadership team comprises president and CEO Gitte Aabo, the heads of the company’s three new regional organisations, its global R&D leader and an incoming finance chief.
The company was previously organised into six regional units – USA, LAMEA (Latin America, the Middle East and Africa), ZOE (Zoe of Europe, or the smaller European markets plus Russia), Japan, EU5+ (the UK and Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, plus Canada and Australia-New Zealand) and Asia.
Taking their place is a more streamlined structure with three regional divisions – international, US and Europe+.
Leading these as executive vice presidents (EVP) will be Joergen Damsbo Andersen (international) and Barbara Osborne (US), while Lars Minor will serve as an interim EVP for the Europe+ region.
Sitting alongside them on the new leadership team are EVP for global research and development Kim Kjoeller and new global finance, IT and legal head Anders Kronborg.
He takes up his role on 1 October and comes from Kinnevik Investment, where he was chief operating officer.
Gitte Aabo, LEO Pharma president and CEO, said: “We want to help more than 70 million people in 2020, and the changes announced today will support our efforts. LEO Pharma’s markets and innovation are now directly represented in the executive leadership team. By bringing these insights into the executive leadership team, LEO Pharma is better positioned to understand the needs of people with skin diseases.
“We’ve also made changes to our global structure so that we can become even more agile and innovative – and ultimately deliver better care. The changes demonstrate our commitment to helping more people while continuing to run a competitive and sustainable business.”
The changes to its structure see LEO integrate its core functions on a global basis to “increase collaboration, innovation and empowerment at all levels”.
The new global functions and their leaders are: global people and communications, senior vice president (SVP) Annette Sylvest Nielsen; global product supply, SVP Jim McPherson; patient solutions and strategic marketing, SVP Duncan Ferguson; and global strategy and business development, SVP Patrice Baudry.
All the executive vice presidents and senior vice presidents report to CEO Aabo.
Meanwhile, LEO has cut the position of EVP global sales and marketing and its former holder, Lars Olsen, will take up the role of chairman of the LEO Foundation in January 2016 – which owns all the shares in LEO Pharma to ensure its independence.
The company faced a ‘challenging’ 2014 – with the patent expiry on its psoriasis treatment Taclonex Ointment leading to a 21% fall in US sales. Overall net sales at the skincare-focused company rose just 2% last year to DKK 8bn (about $1.2bn).