INGELHEIM, Germany, 26 June 2008 - Dr Alessandro Banchi (62), Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors at Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH and responsible for Marketing and Sales, has decided after more than 35 years with the Corporation to retire at the end of 2008. His successor will be the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors, Dr Andreas Barner (55), who is currently responsible for Research, Development and Medicine. He will continue to lead this Corporate Board Division as Chairman of the Board of Managing Directors. The new Member of the Board of Managing Directors responsible for Marketing and Sales will be the Dutch Medical Doctor Bert Tjeenk Willink (47).
Christian Boehringer, Chairman of the Shareholders’ Committee, thanked Dr Banchi for his long and lasting contribution to the company. ”Dr Banchi has fundamentally shaped Boehringer Ingelheim’s entrepreneurial success as well as decisively driven forward its profitability and internationalisation, especially in the USA.“ Under his responsibility, important decisions were taken and successfully implemented for innovative medicines and therapies to benefit humankind with which he rendered great service to Boehringer Ingelheim.
Dr Hans-Jürgen Leuchs, the longest-serving Member of the Board of Managing Directors, has decided to leave the Board and retire, also at the end of 2008. Dr Leuchs (58) has had Board responsibility for Operations since 1994 and additionally since 1999 for the Animal Health business area. The new Member of the Board of Managing Directors, responsible for Operations and Human Resources, will be Dr Wolfram Carius (46).
Mr Boehringer expressed profound gratitude to Dr Leuchs for his contribution of many years with which he rendered great service to Boehringer Ingelheim. His sustained efforts have represented a milestone in Boehringer Ingelheim’s technological development. “Under Dr Leuchs’ leadership, the competitive preconditions in production technology and worldwide structure were established for manufacturing innovative medications at competitive cost,” Mr Boehringer said. The company’s leading position in Biotechnology and Animal Health should also be highlighted.
As previously announced, Professor Marbod Muff (66), responsible on the Board of Managing Directors for Finance and Human Resources, will after 40 years of service with Boehringer Ingelheim be retiring on 31 December 2008. Hubertus von Baumbach (40) will succeed him in the area of Finance on the Board of Managing Directors. In addition, Mr von Baumbach will be responsible for Animal Health.
On behalf of the Shareholders, Mr Boehringer thanked Prof. Muff for his long and lasting contribution to the corporation with which he rendered great service to Boehringer Ingelheim. “Prof. Muff successfully structured our financial and human resources affairs to meet the future challenges during our transformation from an internationally orientated company to a globally operating pharmaceutical group. He also kept an especially close eye on the company’s responsibility for its employees. Acting globally and being firmly rooted locally are for Prof. Muff no contradiction, but a daily reality,” said Mr Boehringer, who also drew attention to Prof. Muff’s social engagement in an honorary capacity.
Successors prepared well in advance
Mr Boehringer described the succession arrangements for the Board of Managing Directors ensure continuity in the implementation of the corporate strategy, being forward-looking oriented and in keeping with Boehringer Ingelheim’s international alignment. “We are also thereby well set up for the next decade, the unit of measure of our family-owned company.“ The new Members of the Board of Managing Directors are internationally experienced, have held responsibility in various business areas within the corporation and have been prepared for their forthcoming tasks with long-term planning.
Dr Andreas Barner, who has doctorates in medicine and mathematics, joined Boehringer Ingelheim in 1992 as head of the Medicine Division, becoming a Member of the Board of Managing Directors in 1999.
Bert Tjeenk Willink, Medical Doctor, has been Boehringer Ingelheim’s Country Manager in Mexico since 2005. With Boehringer Ingelheim since 1994, his positions have included Head of Marketing & Sales, Canada, and, from 2001 to 2005, responsibility for the Corporate Division Marketing Prescription Medicines.
Dr Wolfram Carius, a pharmacist, currently Head of the Corporate Division Pharmaceuticals Production, has held various management functions at Boehringer Ingelheim since 1987. These have included posts in Japan and Brazil and membership of the Board of Boehringer Ingelheim Germany. At the last-mentioned he was responsible for the development and production of biopharmaceuticals and for industrial customers.
Hubertus von Baumbach has been a Member of the Board of Boehringer Ingelheim Germany since 2006, with Board responsibility for Finance. Previously, after posts in the USA and at Boehringer Ingelheim in Canada, he held various positions in Finance at Boehringer Ingelheim.
Boehringer Ingelheim
The Boehringer Ingelheim group is one of the world’s 20 leading pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Ingelheim, Germany, it operates globally with 135 affiliates in 47 countries and 39,800 employees. Since it was founded in 1885, the family-owned company has been committed to researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing novel products of high therapeutic value for human and veterinary medicine.
In 2007, Boehringer Ingelheim posted net sales of 10.9 billion euro while spending one fifth of net sales in its largest business segment Prescription Medicines on research and development.
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