Expansion and early succession planning in the Executive Committee of the Galenica Group

Press release
Wednesday, 19 July 2023

Effective from 1 October 2023, Arianne Hasler will become Head of People & Culture and a member of the Executive Committee of the Galenica Group. Marianne Ellenberger, Head of Human Resources since 2021, has decided to pass on the HR leadership to a successor to take on a new role at Galenica in the future.

As part of early succession planning, Iris Müller will join the Galenica Group in January 2024 and take over as Head of Corporate Communications following the publication of the annual results in March. Christina Hertig, who has been responsible for communications at Galenica since 2006, has decided to take early retirement in 2024 after this long and very intensive period. Iris Müller will become a member of the extended Executive Committee.

People & Culture is now represented on the Galenica Group Executive Committee

By appointing the Head of People & Culture (previously Human Resources) as a member of the Executive Committee, the Board of Directors is highlighting the strategic relevance of Human Resources and its central role in actively shaping the company’s transformation and the associated cultural development. This includes issues critical to success such as the positioning of Galenica as an attractive and modern employer – not only in the context of the shortage of skilled workers, but also in terms of its attractiveness for young talents and employees – promoting and using new methods and ways of working, targeted and sustainable development of employees, strengthening diversity and inclusion and achieving efficiency gains through the digitalisation of HR processes.

New skills and experience in transformation and culture

Arianne Hasler (1979) brings several years of experience in the areas of strategy, development and operational implementation of transformation and cultural development and will be an excellent addition to the Executive Committee with her exceptional know-how.

Over the past few years, Arianne Hasler has acquired broad specialist knowledge and leadership skills in various HR roles and has dealt with the issues of transformation and culture in a focused and intensive manner. As a member of the Executive Board, she built up the “Transformation” department at Raiffeisen Switzerland and was later co-responsible for the Group strategy as stream leader. She was responsible for the topics “Transformation & Culture” and “Sustainable Cooperative” and headed the strategic development and operational implementation of cultural development and agile transformation.

Early succession planning Head of Corporate Communications

Iris Müller (1983), an experienced expert in communications for listed companies, will join Galenica in 2024. She will start at Galenica in January 2024 and will take up her new role as Head of Corporate Communications and member of the extended Executive Committee of the Galenica Group following the publication of the annual results in March.

Over the past eight years, Iris Müller has helped set up the BKW Group newsroom and held various management positions in the Communications department. She specialised in strategic topics such as business reporting, corporate transformation, leadership development and cultural change. At the same time, she supported BKW in communications during a phase of intensive expansion and will also contribute her experience in the acquisition and integration of new companies and business areas to Galenica.

Thanks to two long-standing leaders

Marianne Ellenberger joined the Galenica Group in 2001 and played a key role in the establishment and further development of the former Retail Service Unit as Head of HR until the end of 2020. In 2021, she took on the then newly created position of Head of Human Resources at the Galenica Group and has since helped to define and establish the realignment of HR as a central Service Unit. Under her leadership, significant changes were introduced that have helped Galenica move towards becoming a modern and attractive employer.

Christina Hertig joined the Galenica Group in 2006 as Head of Corporate Communications and has supported the company over the past 17 years during periods of substantial growth and intensive expansion, with a particular focus on the international pharmaceuticals business up to 2017. In 2017, she was responsible for communications related to the IPO of the former Galenica Santé and has since held the position of Head of Corporate Communications of the current Galenica Group. Following the IPO, she helped to define and develop the positioning and strategy of the “new” Galenica, continuously modernised Galenica’s image and further developed its digital implementation. Under her leadership, Galenica’s new corporate identity and logo were also developed, thus making a lasting and visually striking statement for the transformation.

The Board of Directors and CEO of Galenica would like to thank Marianne Ellenberger and Christina Hertig for their outstanding commitment to the company over the years. They have both played a key role in driving the Group’s transformation and, together with their teams, modernised HR and communications and led them in new directions.

Member of the Galenica Group Executive Committee as of October 2023, born in 1979, Swiss citizen.

Career highlights

After completing her studies in 2006, Arianne Hasler began her professional career as an HR specialist at UBS Ltd. From 2007-2014, she worked as a senior sales and segment manager for Swiss private customers at UBS Ltd. and Zürcher Kantonalbank. During this time, she was responsible for various strategic sales projects. On moving to Raiffeisen Switzerland in 2014, Hasler assumed line management responsibilities, focusing on the formation and development of new topics and teams in the areas of staff development and HR. She began putting together the "Transformation" department within HR in 2020 and became responsible for the topics of "Transformation and Culture" and "Sustainable Cooperative" as part of the group strategy.

Qualifications

  • EMBA HSG in Business Engineering, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen (graduated 2021)
  • MAS Coaching and Organisational Consulting, ZHAW – School of Applied Psychology, Zurich (graduated 2015)
  • M.A. HSG exchange programme Master Affaires Internationales, Sciences Po, Paris (2005-2006)
  • M.A. HSG in International Affairs and Governance, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen (2004-2005)
Arianne Hasler
Arianne Hasler

Member of the Extended Corporate Executive Committee of the Galenica Group as of April 2024, born 1983, Swiss citizen

Career highlights

After having completed her studies, Iris Müller started in 2012 as communication consultant in the Swiss telecommunication company Swisscom AG. In 2015, she became head of internal communica-tion in BKW AG. From 2015 to 2023 she has held several management positions in corporate com-munications at this Bernese energy and infrastructure service provider. As of 2024, Iris Müller will be Head of Corporate Communication of the Galenica Group and member of the Extended Corporate Executive Committee. During her studies, from 2006 to 2011, Iris Müller was responsible for internal and external communication for the financial software house Allocare AG.

Qualifications

  • International Executive MBA (IEMBA) of the University of St. Gallen (2018-2020)
  • Bachelor and Master in Communication of the University of Lugano (2002-2005; 2008-2010)
Iris Müller
Iris Müller

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