AstraZeneca today announced that, with effect from 1 September 2019, Michel Demaré is appointed as a Non-Executive Director and a member of the Audit Committee.
Leif Johansson, Chairman of AstraZeneca, said: “We are delighted to appoint Michel Demaré as a Director. He has a great deal of industrial, financial and board-level experience across a range of sectors including science and technology, that will enable him to contribute well to the work of our Board and Audit Committee.”
Michel Demaré is a Non-Executive Director of Vodafone Group Plc and a member of the Supervisory Board of Louis Dreyfus Company Holdings BV. He is Vice-Chairman and Chairman-designate of the IMD executive business school in Lausanne, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich.
Mr Demaré was Vice-Chairman of UBS Group AG from 2010 to 2019, Chairman of Syngenta and the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture from 2013 to 2017 and Chairman of SwissHoldings from 2013 to 2015.
Mr Demaré joined ABB Ltd in 2005 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the Group Executive Committee. For most of 2008, he acted as the interim Chief Executive Officer of ABB. From late 2008 to 2011, he combined his role as CFO with that of President of Global Markets.
He joined ABB from Baxter International Inc., where he was CFO Europe from 2002 to 2005. Prior to that, he spent 18 years at the Dow Chemical Company, holding various treasury and risk management positions in Belgium, France, the US and Switzerland. Between 1997 and 2002, Mr Demaré was CFO of the Global Polyolefins and Elastomers division. He began his career as a banking officer in the multinational banking division of Continental Illinois' Belgian subsidiary.
Mr Demaré graduated with an MBA from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium, and holds a degree in applied economics from the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.
Except as set out above, no disclosure obligations arise under paragraphs (1) to (6) of LR 9.6.13 R of the UK Listing Authority's Listing Rules in respect of this appointment.