8 multinational companies name new CEOs in Korea

Takeda and BMS complete acquisitions and welcome new CEOs for merged company

Pfizer Upjohn established splitting up from Pfizer, and overall Korean CEO ratio rises to 66%

From top left; Vice-chair Lee Youngshin, CEO Moon Hee-seok, CEO Shin Jung-beom, President Alberto Riva, CEO Kang So Young, CEO Lee Hye-young, CEO Kim Jinyoung, and CEO Kang Sangwook

Sources report eight global pharmaceutical companies have appointed new CEOs of Korean affiliates this year only.

 

Daily Pharm surveyed a roster of major 30 multinational companies’ Korean affiliate CEOs as of Dec.

 

4, and found about 28 percent of the companies have either replaced or newly appointed the top executive personnel.

 

While several companies had a regular personnel reshuffle, others had a new personnel this year for specific reasons like merger, corporate split, and disciplinary dismissal.

 

Roster of Korean affiliate CEOs of multinational pharmaceutical companies (as of Dec.

 

2019)

First, Takeda Pharmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb completed their acquisitions of Shire and Celgene, respectively, and welcomed new CEOs to their merged organizations.

 

As for Takeda Pharmaceutical Korea, when the former CEO Mahender Nayak left the position it was vacant until the former CEO of merged company Shire Korea, Moon Hee-seok took over.

 

With such development, the pharmaceutical industry had their eyes on the recently merged Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Celgene Korea’s CEO.

 

BMS ultimately chose a promotion from within.

 

BMS also had a vacant CEO position for a while as the former CEO Park Hye-sun left suddenly before her term ended in May.

 

And the former CEO of Celgene, Ham Tae-jin was re-elected for another term.

 

Although the BMS headquarters interviewed number of major candidates from Korean pharmaceutical industry, including CEO Ham Tae-jin, it appointed then acting CEO and former head of Legal and Compliance division of BMS Korea as an official CEO of the merged company.

 

Some top executives, who served their company for a long term, left the position.

 

A former general manager of Abbvie Korea, Yoo Hong-Ki had his retirement ceremony in last March after leading the company for over a decade, even before Abbvie was split from Abbott.

 

As he left the company, he appointed former vice-president Kang So Young as a new general manager of the Korean branch.

 

Menarini Korea also saw the former president Albert Kim leave last year, who served the company since before Invida was acquired by Menarini.

 

The position was replaced by Park Hyeyoung.

 

Pfizer Upjohn Korea, established with the recent Pfizer split, appointed Lee Hye-young as the first head of the company.

 

Before she was appointed as a CEO, Lee used to lead Pfizer Korea’s off-patent product division.

 

In addition, Lilly Korea appointed Alberto Riva, LEO Pharma Korea appointed former Roche personnel Shin Jung-beom, and GSK Consumer Healthcare invited former L'Oréal personnel Kang Sangwook as the new heads of their Korean affiliates.

 

The Korea Research-based Pharmaceutical Industry Association (KRPIA) also welcomed a new CEO, Youngshin Lee.

 

Meanwhile, this year’s ratio of Korean personnel, as a CEO of Korean affiliate of multinational pharmaceutical company, soared to 66 percent from 50 percent last year.

 

And overall female CEO ratio in the multinational companies reached 30 percent.