Erich Hunziker (born 1953), Chief Financial Officer, Chief Information Officer and Deputy Head of the Corporate Executive Committee has decided to retire from Roche at the end of March 2011 and plans to focus on a number of board memberships. The Board of Directors of Roche Holding Ltd thanks Erich Hunziker for his many years of exceptional service and outstanding contributions to the Group's success.
Erich Hunziker was appointed Chief Financial Officer and member of the Corporate Executive Committee in 2001, becoming Deputy Head of the Corporate Executive Committee in 2005. In 2010 he also assumed the role of Chief Information Officer. In his ten years at Roche, Erich Hunziker was one of the key architects of the Group's successful development, building a financial reporting system and an investor relations department that are widely seen as industry benchmarks. Due to his leadership and expertise, the Roche Group gained credit ratings with Standard & Poors and Moody's that enabled Erich - in the midst of the global financial crisis - to obtain favourable conditions to finance the privatisation of Genentech.
The Board of Directors has appointed Alan Hippe to succeed Erich Hunziker as Chief Financial Officer. Alan Hippe will join Roche as a member of the Corporate Executive Committee as of April 2011. Alan Hippe, who was born in 1967, served as a member of the executive board of Continental AG from 2002 to 2009. Since April 2009 he has been CFO and a member of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp AG.
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, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer 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 2009, Roche had over 80’000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.