At the forthcoming Annual Shareholders Meeting on 4 March 2014, the Roche Board of Directors will propose Christoph Franz to be elected as Chairman of the Board. Christoph Franz is thus nominated to succeed Franz B. Humer, who announced at the last shareholder meeting that he would not be standing for re-election. Christoph Franz will not renew his contract as CEO of the Lufthansa Group, which expires on 31 May 2014.
Commenting on the nomination of Christoph Franz, Roche Chairman Franz B. Humer said: "With Christoph Franz, Roche is getting a chairman with outstanding personal qualities and an impressive record as head of a major global company. I am sure that his extensive experience, exceptional global network and strong links to Switzerland will be great assets."
Christoph Franz said: "I am delighted that the Board of Directors has nominated me to become the next chairman of the Roche Group. Roche is an outstanding company. As a board member I have had ample opportunity to get to know and admire its strong business performance and corporate culture. Strategically, Roche is in very good shape, and I am looking forward to taking on this opportunity."
About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, infectious diseases, inflammation, metabolism and neuroscience. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche's personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2012 Roche had over 82,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 45.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.