Roche appoints Thomas Schinecker as new chief executive officer

Roche has announced the appointment of Thomas Schinecker as its new chief executive officer (CEO), while the company’s former CEO, Severin Schwan, moves into his role as chairman of the board.

The new appointments will be confirmed at the company’s annual general meeting in March 2023,  following Christoph Franz’s decision not to seek re-election to the board, having served as chairman since 2014.

Schinecker most recently served at Roche as its chief of the diagnostics division, and during his 20-year career at the company, he held various international roles, serving as head of marketing and sales, and general manager in regional offices. He was then later appointed as Roche Diagnostics’ CEO in 2019.

Overseen by Schinecker, the diagnostics business saw a huge rise in demand for COVID-19 test kits during the course of the pandemic.

Roche’s senior executive reshuffle has meant Schwan will step down from his position as CEO, having served in the role at the company since 2008. Prior to this, he served as the head of Roche Diagnostics for two years. Schwan originally joined the company in 1993 at Roche Basel in its corporate finance division.

Schwan, who was made CEO of Roche in 2008, managed a strong share price performance as Roche steered away from its focus on oncology, which led to an offset revenue loss caused by cheap biotechnology copies of well-known oncology medicines like Herceptin, Avastin and Rituxan, that once accounted for about 50% of drug sales.

The long-term share gains enabled Schwan to confirm a milestone deal in 2021 with Novartis, which sold its nearly one-third voting stake in Roche back to its cross-town rival for $20.7bn.