Daniel Vasella

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Daniel Vasella (2009)

Daniel Lucius Vasella (born August 15, 1953 in Friborg , Switzerland ; resident in Poschiavo ) is a Swiss manager . Between 1996 and 2010 he was Chairman of the Executive Board and from 1999 to 2013 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the pharmaceutical company Novartis AG.

Life

Early years

As a student, Daniel Vasella was active in the Marxist-Leninist student organization Cercle Gracchus . At the age of 13 he lost his father, the history professor Oskar Vasella . One sister died of cancer at 19, the second from an accident. After graduating from the Kollegium St. Michael in Freiburg , Vasella studied and did her doctorate in medicine at the University of Bern . His desire to become a doctor arose from early childhood when he was repeatedly seriously ill and repeatedly spent months on cure in the mountains. His last job at Bern's Inselspital was as a senior physician before moving into the business world. He completed his management training at Harvard Business School .

In 1978 he married Anne-Laurence, the niece of Marc Moret , who later became president of the Basel pharmaceutical company Sandoz , and daughter of the composer Norbert Moret . In 1988 he switched to industry and initially worked for Sandoz for four years in the USA. He then rose within Sandoz to head the Pharma Division.

When Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz merged in 1996, Vasella was elected to lead the new Novartis company . The specialty chemicals divisions of both companies were spun off as Ciba Specialty Chemicals and Clariant .

The time after 1996

After the merger, there was initially a long dry spell in which Novartis lost market share. However, since around 2000 Novartis has been one of the leading pharmaceutical companies with the highest growth rates.

Key strategic decisions made during Vasella's tenure include:

  • the spin-off of the agricultural division into the newly founded company Syngenta 2000
  • the promotion of marketing efforts, especially in the USA
  • the reorganization of the research department under the scientific lateral entrant Mark Fishman and the establishment of a new research center in Cambridge , USA
  • the acquisition of the German generics company Hexal in 2005
  • the full acquisition of the US biotechnology company Chiron in April 2006
  • the agreement with Nestlé to acquire a majority stake in the eye care specialist Alcon by Novartis in two steps between 2008 and 2010/11 for up to 39 billion US dollars.

In 2004, efforts to take over competitor Aventis as " White Knight " and to forestall a hostile takeover by Sanofi-Synthélabo failed. The campaign to join forces with local rival Hoffmann-La Roche also ran into granite from the founding family, although Novartis now owns almost a third of the voting shares in Roche.

Vasella was - for a company leader - often represented in the media, he also spoke openly about his private life. He presented himself as an ethical entrepreneur; For example, the promotion of the development of the new cancer drug Glivec as well as the provision of drugs against malaria and leprosy for use in developing countries at cost or free of charge ensured a positive image . Doctors Without Borders and other organizations criticize, however, that Novartis is massively campaigning for a tightening of Indian patent law, which would significantly restrict access to medicines.

Vasella's high salary, which was up to 42 million Swiss francs annually in 2007 (other sources give around 44 million Swiss francs) and his wealth of power, since he has also been chairman of the board of directors since 1999, caused criticism. This made Vasella one of the best-paid managers in Switzerland.

Resignation as CEO 2010; Failure to stand for re-election as Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2013 and legal dispute

On January 26, 2010, Vasella announced his resignation from the management team on February 1, 2010. His successor was the previous head of the pharmaceutical division, Joseph Jimenez . Vasella remained Chairman of the Board of Directors. At the Annual General Meeting on February 22, 2013, Vasella no longer stood for re-election to the Board of Directors. His successor on the Board of Directors and as Chairman of the Board of Directors was Jörg Reinhardt on August 1, 2013 ; until then, Vasella's previous deputy on the board of directors Ulrich Lehner took over the management of the board. Vasella has been appointed Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors.

His agreed remuneration for consultancy work and non-competition of CHF 12 million annually for six years after his departure, a maximum of CHF 72 million if the contractual conditions are complied with, caused a sensation and criticism throughout Switzerland. This became known in mid-February 2013, two weeks before the referendum on the federal popular initiative “against rip-off” . The initiative is directed against the exorbitant remuneration of individual managers in Swiss companies. After strong public pressure, Vasella waived the compensation a few days after it became known. The non-competition clause is therefore no longer applicable.

In July 2013, Novartis announced that Vasella would receive almost 5 million francs (4.4 million euros), of which 2.2 million francs in shares, between February and the end of October 2013, for “certain transitional services”. A consulting contract running until the end of 2016 guaranteed Vasella $ 25,000 per day of consulting. The minimum amount is US $ 250,000 for each of the years 2014, 2015 and 2016.

In 2014, the mood between Daniel Vasella and the new Novartis management team deteriorated. For example, Novartis moved Vasella to the cantonal court in Zug because of a dispute over a right of first refusal for a 53,000 square meter estate with a lakeside border in Risch ZG . Vasella exercised the right of first refusal for the property with manor house and farm after the pharmaceutical company dropped the project for a training center originally planned there. The parties could not agree on a sale price and so the court determined two property appraisers in its judgment of January 15, 2015 and imposed half of the court costs on each of the parties.

Attacks and vandalism

On July 27, 2009, the family grave of the Vasella family was defaced in the cemetery in Chur and his mother's urn was removed. In addition, another grave of his family was defaced. The text "Drop HLS Now" was written on the graves, HLS standing for Huntingdon Life Sciences , an animal testing laboratory from Cambridge , England, which has worked with Novartis in the past.

A week later, on the night of August 3, 2009, Vasella's holiday home in the municipality of Bach in Tyrol was also set on fire.

Private

Vasella has been married to Anne-Laurence since 1978 and has two sons and a daughter. He lived from 1999 to January 2013 in Risch, in the south of Germany . At the end of January 2013, he signed off in Risch for the United States. After stays in the USA, South America and Monaco, he has been living in Risch in Switzerland again since 2016. In 2019, his fortune was estimated by the business magazine Bilanz at CHF 375 million.

His older brother Andrea Vasella (* 1943) was a professor at ETH Zurich until 2008 .

Other mandates

Vasella is a member of the Board of Directors of PepsiCo , Inc. (since 2002), the American Express Company (since 2012) and XBiotech. He is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Peres Center for Peace in Israel, the International Business Leaders Advisory Council of the Mayor of Shanghai , and an external honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . He is also a board member of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Foundation and a member of numerous industry associations and educational institutions. He used to be a member of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse , Alcon (President) and AXA Insurance . From 2010 to 2013 he was the representative of the SGCI Chemie Pharma Schweiz on the board committee of the economic umbrella organization Economiesuisse . Vasella was a participant in all Bilderberg conferences between 1998 and 2014 except 2006.

literature

Awards (selection)

Web links

Commons : Daniel Vasella  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Daniel L. Vasella.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Infocube, accessed March 12, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / infocube.ch  
  2. ↑ Interview with OnlineReports : “I underestimated how public certain aspects of my life are”. April 12, 1998, accessed February 17, 2010 .
  3. ↑ Katharina Blansjaar: The lonely patriarch. In: nzz.ch . Aktiengesellschaft für die Neue Zürcher Zeitung, March 26, 2006, accessed on January 11, 2018 : "Daniel Vasella, who like Moret attends the Catholic high school in St-Michel , will be the head of the new group management ..."
  4. Jump up ↑ Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew N. McLean, Diana Mayer: Discovering Your Authentic Leadership . In: Harvard Business Review . February 2007. Harvard Business Publishing, Boston.
  5. ↑ a b Curriculum Vitae. Dr. Dr. hc Daniel Vasella. ( Memento of January 24, 2013 on WebCite ) In: Novartis, PDF file, archive version, as of July 2012, accessed on March 5, 2013
  6. ↑ Basler Zeitung: Vasella resigns as Novartis boss with record results. January 26, 2010, accessed January 26, 2010 .
  7. ↑ In 2012, Novartis made up for the expiry of patents with innovative strength; Start of the next growth phase expected in 2013 . (No longer available online.) January 23, 2013, archived from the original on March 1, 2013 ; Retrieved February 21, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.novartis.ch
  8. ↑ Vasella's market value under scrutiny. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung from February 19, 2013; Retrieved February 19, 2013
  9. ↑ Vasella confirms compensation in the millions. In: SRF from February 15, 2013; Retrieved February 19, 2013
  10. ↑ "I have understood" In: Tages-Anzeiger .net / Newsnet of 19 February 2013; Retrieved February 19, 2013
  11. ↑ Novartis announces definitive agreement with Dr. Daniel Vasella known.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Media release of July 17, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.novartis.ch  
  12. ↑ Novartis dragged Daniel Vasella to court. In: 20 minutes from March 22, 2015.
  13. ↑ welt.de: Daniel Vasella: Animal rights activists carry out attacks on Novartis boss - News Economy - WELT ONLINE. August 4, 2009. Retrieved September 11, 2009 .
  14. ↑ Vasella leaves Switzerland for the USA. In: Tages-Anzeiger .ch / Newsnet of March 11, 2013
  15. ↑ Peter Hossli: "It is difficult to become a symbol for everything negative." Interview in: Blick from March 15, 2013
  16. ↑ Peter Hossli: Daniel Vasella is back in Switzerland! In: Blick.ch , February 27, 2016.
  17. ↑ Daniel Vasella. Balance as of November 2019.
  18. ^ Daniel Vasella on the PepsiCo website , accessed July 4, 2013
  19. ↑ American Express Company Elects Dr. Daniel Vasella to Board of Directors. ( Memento of the original from October 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Media release of July 20, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / about.americanexpress.com
  20. ↑ Leadership In: Novartis, PDF file, archive version, as of July 2012, accessed on March 5, 2013
  21. ↑ Dr. Daniel Vasella is the new representative of SGCI Chemie Pharma Schweiz on the board committee of economiesuisse. Media release of September 3, 2010
  22. ↑ Birgit Voigt: Ethos wants to cancel the Vasella contract. In: NZZ am Sonntag of February 17, 2013 (archive)
  23. ↑ a b c Daniel Vasella , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 19/2010 from May 11, 2010 (cs). Supplemented by news from MA-Journal until week 18/2012, in the Munzinger archive , accessed on January 25, 2013 ( beginning of the article freely available)
  24. ↑ Humanitarian award for Novartis boss Vasella. In: News.ch of August 29, 2000, accessed on January 25, 2013
  25. ^ Honorary doctorate from the Medical Faculty .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Laudation in: University of Basel , accessed on March 5, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.unibas.ch  
  26. ^ Daniel L. Vasella, MD Retrieved January 25, 2013
  27. ↑ University Association honors Daniel Vasella. In: University of Marburg , May 2007 (PDF file)
personal data
SURNAME Vasella, Daniel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vasella, Daniel Lucius (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss manager
DATE OF BIRTH 15th August 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Friborg , Switzerland