GSK adds Royal Philips' Chief Executive Jakobs to board
GSK PLC on Thursday announced that Roy Jakobs, the chief executive officer of Royal Philips NV, will join its board next week as a non-executive director.
The London-based pharmaceutical manufacturer noted that Jakobs has been CEO of Royal Philips, a major health technology firm headquartered in Amsterdam, since 2022.
He has worked at Royal Philips since 2010, and has held "senior roles" at other global firms like Elsevier and Shell PLC.
GSK engaged an external executive search company to assist in candidate selection, and the board "satisfied itself that [Jakobs] had the experience and time available to carry out the role."
GSK also noted that Jakobs will need to build towards a share ownership requirement of two times his standard non-executive director's fee of £122,258 per year.
"We are delighted to welcome Roy to the board," commented GSK Chair Jonathan Symonds. "His experience as CEO of a global health technology company, specialising in innovative adjacent technologies to biopharmaceuticals including patient monitoring, imaging, and intervention, will bring valuable perspective to Luke and the board.
"Roy's values and approach to culture and purpose are highly aligned with our own, and he is well-placed to support GSK as we focus on accelerating growth and delivering better medicines for the patients who need them and greater value for shareholders."
Shares in GSK were down 1.1% at 1,957.50 pence late on Thursday morning in London.
Previously this week, biotechnology company Alector Inc announced late on Wednesday that GSK had ended a partnership deal covering two experimental antibody drug candidates. One, latozinemab, had failed last year to slow dementia progression in a late-stage trial, and an Alzheimer's-focused study of the second, nivisnebart, was discontinued in April.
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