Investor Update
Basel, 13 December 2006
Changes
to the Roche Board of Directors and executive management
Reinforcement
and further rejuvenation of Board and top management
Roche is reinforcing
its Board of Directors with two experienced business leaders at the next shareholders' meeting and will
move younger managers into key executive positions in 2007.
Board
of Directors to be expanded
At the next annual general meeting of Roche shareholders
on 5 March 2007, the Board of Directors will propose that Pius Baschera and Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer be
elected as additional members of the Board.
Prof. Pius Baschera, a Swiss
citizen born in 1950, is currently chief executive of Hilti Corporation and designated chairman of the
Hilti board. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering and management studies at the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Baschera joined Hilti Corporation in 1979. He held a number
of positions in the United States and Europe before being appointed CFO in 1990. In 1994 Prof. Baschera
became chairman of the executive board, a position he will step down from when he becomes chairman of
the board on 1 January 2007. Baschera is an honorary professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology,
Zurich.
Dr Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, an Austrian citizen born in 1950,
is a graduate of Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Since 2002 he has been
CEO and chairman of the executive board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, in addition to heading the company's
natural gas and chemicals businesses. Ruttenstorfer joined OMV in 1976 and was appointed to the executive
board in 1992. From 1997 to 1999 he was Austria's deputy minister of finance, returning to OMV in 2000.
Ruttenstorfer is a recognised expert on the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Changes
to the Corporate Executive Committee
From 1 January 2007 Pascal Soriot, head of
Pharma Strategic Marketing, will become head of Commercial Operations, with responsibility for Roche
Pharmaceuticals' regional and country organisations and Strategic Marketing. As a new member of the
Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee, he will continue to report directly to the CEO Division Roche
Pharmaceuticals, William Burns.
Eduard Holdener, head of Global Pharma
Development, will retire at the end of 2007. He will be succeeded by Jean-Jacques Garaud, who joins
Roche on 1 January as a new member of the Pharma Executive Committee, reporting to William Burns. Until
the end of the year, Ed Holdener will take over the function of Chief Medical Officer, with direct responsibility
for Drug Safety and Quality Audit and for establishing a new development centre in Shanghai. All other
Pharma Development functions will report to Jean-Jacques Garaud as of 1 January 2007.
Claude
Schreiner, head of Roche Pharmaceuticals' Western Europe Region, will retire at the end of May 2007
after more then 40 years of service in key functions at Roche. He will be succeeded by Peter Hug, currently
head of Pharma Partnering.
Roche would like to express its deep gratitude
to Claude Schreiner and Eduard Holdener for their long and very valuable contributions to the company's
success and wish them all the best for the future.
Announcing the changes,
Roche Chairman and CEO Franz B. Humer said, "These new appointments continue the process we initiated
a few years ago of systematically strengthening the Group's top echelons and bringing in new blood.
It's been our policy for a good many years to promote young executives from within the company and to
strengthen our organisation by recruiting recognised experts from outside. In terms of managerial and
professional expertise, age structure and international experience, the Board, the Corporate Executive
Committee and the top management of both divisions are now very well equipped to meet the challenges
of the future."
About
Roche
Headquartered
in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the
fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the
early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range
of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics,
the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In
2005 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 27.3 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division
posted sales of 8.2 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 70,000 people in 150 countries and has
R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests
in Genentech and Chugai. Additional information about the Roche Group is available on the Internet (www.roche.com).
Roche
Board of Directors and Corporate Executive Committee