Sanofi bags GSK's Anne Whitaker for US role

Sanofi has appointed Anne Whitaker president of its US pharmaceutical operations.

She joins the company from GlaxoSmithKline, where she served as senior VP and business head of its cardiovascular, metabolic and urology unit.

Anne started at GSK in 1992 as a sales representative and held various positions in sales and training. In 2001, she became VP of critical and supportive care before being appointed senior VP of leadership and organisation development, based in London, from 2008 to 2009.

Hanspeter Spek, president of global operations at Sanofi, said: “The knowledge and experience Anne has gained through her previous roles in sales, marketing and leadership development in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in the United States, make her ideally suited to drive the renewed growth of our pharmaceutical operations in North America.”

Anne takes up the New Jersey-based role on 1 September, when she will also join Sanofi’s global management committee.

Meanwhile, Sanofi has also promoted Greg Irace to the newly-created role of senior VP of global services.

In this role Greg will lead the company’s global information systems function and play a key role in the development of a global strategy for shared services.

He was previously president of Sanofi’s president and chief executive of Sanofi’s US operations.