5th GLOBAL BIOPHARMA CEO / TOP EXECS VIRTUAL PRESS BRIEFING – COVID-19 (8 December 2020)

David A. Ricks

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, , Eli Lilly and Company & President of IFPMA

David A. Ricks
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Eli Lilly and Company, President of IFPMA
Dave Ricks is chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company. He was elected chairman of the company"s board effective June 2017.
A Lilly veteran for more than 20 years, Dave served as president of Lilly BioMedicines from 2012 to 2016. Previously, he was president of Lilly USA, the company's largest affiliate, from 2009 to 2012. He served as president and general manager of Lilly China, operating in one of the world's fastest-growing emerging markets, from 2008 to 2009. And he was general manager of Lilly Canada from 2005 to 2008, after roles as director of pharmaceutical marketing and national sales director in that country. Dave joined Lilly in 1996 as a business development associate and held several management roles in U.S. marketing and sales before moving to Lilly Canada.
Dave earned a bachelor of science degree from Purdue University in 1990 and a master of business administration degree from Indiana University in 1996.
Dave is president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations IIFPMA. He serves as chairman-elect of the board of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America PhRMA. Dave is also on the boards of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership and Adobe. He chairs the Riley Children 's Foundation Board of Governors.

Dr Paul Stoffels

Vice-Chairman of the Executive Committee and Chief Scientific Officer, Johnson & Johnson

Paul Stoffels is a visionary leader who inspires and drives transformational innovation to bring years of life and quality of life to millions of people around the world.
Paul spearheads the Johnson & Johnson research and product pipeline by leading teams across all our sectors to set the companywide innovation agenda, discovering and developing transformational healthcare solutions. He also is responsible for the safety of all products of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies worldwide, and steers the company’s global public health strategy to make innovative medicines and technologies accessible in the world’s most vulnerable communities and resource-poor settings.
Paul’s commitment to fueling innovation and finding the best science, wherever it exists, is the driving force behind the launch of Johnson & Johnson Innovation in 2013, which he now leads to foster science and technology through strategic partnerships, licensing and acquisitions. Paul also oversees JJDC, the oldest corporate venture fund in the life science industry.
Previously, in his role as Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals, Paul led the transformation of the pharmaceutical research and development pipeline for Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, driving a fundamental shift in the R&D paradigm that is now a model in the industry for productivity and innovation. Under his leadership, Janssen rejuvenated its pipeline, launching multiple new medicines and making a difference for people all over the world.
Prior to this, Paul held various R&D leadership roles within the pharmaceutical sector of Johnson & Johnson. He joined Johnson & Johnson in 2002 with the acquisition of Virco and Tibotec, where he was Chief Executive Officer of Virco and Chairman of Tibotec, and led the development of several breakthrough products for the treatment of HIV that helped to transform this devastating disease from a death sentence to a chronic and treatable condition.
Paul studied Medicine at the University of Diepenbeek and the University of Antwerp in Belgium and Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium. He began his career as a physician in Africa, focusing on HIV and tropical diseases research.

Dr Albert Bourla

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer

Dr Albert Bourla is Chairman and CEO of Pfizer. Before becoming CEO, he was COO, overseeing commercial strategy, manufacturing, and global product development. Previously, he was group president of Pfizer Innovative Health, including Consumer Healthcare, Inflammation & Immunology, Internal Medicine, Oncology, Rare Disease and Vaccines business groups. He also created the Patient and Health Impact group, dedicated to increasing patient access, demonstrating the value of Pfizer’s medicines, and business model innovation. Prior, he was president of Established Products business. He is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and joined Pfizer in 1993 in the Animal Health division. In 2020, Dr. Bourla was ranked America’s top CEO in the pharmaceuticals sector by Institutional Investor magazine. He is on the executive committee of the Partnership for New York City, a trustee of the US Council for International Business, and a director on multiple boards, including Pfizer Inc., the Pfizer Foundation, PhRMA, and Catalyst.

Dr Severin Schwan

Chief Executive Officer, Roche Group & Vice-President IFPMA

Dr Severin Schwan
Chief Executive Officer, Roche Group, Vice-President of IFPMA
Severin Schwan, Roche CEO since 2008, brings a relentless drive for innovation and a passion for personalized healthcare to his role. He joined Roche as a trainee in 1993 and has stayed with the company ever since. He is fascinated with Roche because “we can literally save millions of lives and improve the quality of life of millions of patients and their families”.
Severin Schwan was born in 1967 and is an Austrian citizen. After obtaining a degree in economics and a doctorate in law, Schwan began his career in 1993 at Roche Basel as a finance officer.
Following various management postings to Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, he moved to Singapore as regional head of the Roche Diagnostics business for Asia-Pacific in 2004. In 2006 Severin Schwan became CEO of Roche Diagnostics, the Roche Group’s global diagnostics business.
In March 2008 he was appointed CEO of the Roche Group and he became a member of the Roche Board in 2013.

Thomas Cueni

Director General, IFPMA

Thomas B. Cueni is Director General of IFPMA, the global association of pharmaceutical research companies, based in Geneva and is Secretary of the global Biopharmaceutical CEO Roundtable (BCR). In this capacity, Thomas Cueni was instrumental in creating the AMR Action Fund. A ground-breaking partnership, launched in 2020, that has raised nearly $1 billion to bring 2-4 new antibiotics to patients by 2030. These treatments are urgently needed to address the rapid rise of antibiotic-resistant infections – also called antimicrobial resistance, or AMR.
Thomas Cueni represents the innovative biopharmaceutical industry on the ACT Accelerator, the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, a unique global collaboration to accelerate development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines.
Thomas Cueni is Chair of the Business at OECD Health Committee, and also serves on the Board of Directors of the City Cancer Challenge (CCan), an initiative aiming to improve cancer care in major cities in low- and middle-income countries. Cueni also serves as Industry Co-Chair of the APEC Biopharmaceutical Working Group on Ethics. Furthermore, he is Chair of the Board of the cross-sectoral AMR Industry Alliance, a group committed to tackling the threat of antimicrobial resistance, which includes more than 100 companies and associations representing Rx pharma, generics, biotech, and diagnostics.
Prior to joining IFPMA he was Secretary General of Interpharma, the association of pharmaceutical research companies in Switzerland, and for many years was a member of the Board and Chair of a key committee of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.
Prior to his appointment with Interpharma, Thomas Cueni had a career as a journalist, inter alia as London correspondent for the “Basler Zeitung” and “Der Bund”, and he served as a Swiss career diplomat with postings in Paris (OECD) and Vienna (IAEA, UNIDO). He studied at the University of Basle, the London School of Economics, and the Geneva Graduate Institute for International Studies, and has Master degrees in economics (University of Basel) and politics (London School of Economics, LSE).

Rasmus Bech Hansen

CEO & Founder, Airfinity

Rasmus is globally recognised expert on scientific information and knowledge dissemination. He has a background as Fortune500 strategist. He is a strong believer in the power of accurate information and new ideas - he founded his first, short lived, newspaper at the age of 13 - a passion that drove him to much later in life found Airfinity. As CEO of Airfinity he is often quoted in leading media companies such as the Financial Times, Bloomberg, CNN and the New York Times. He is a board member of a European newspaper, Information.dk. He holds a B.Sc. in Political Science, a MPA from Harvard University and is a recipient of the Crown Prince Frederic award for excellent scholarship. He lives in London.