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UCB (EBR:UCB) * Mark McDade appointed Executive Vice President Global Operations succeeding Bill Robinson, to retire
* Michele Antonelli, Executive Vice President Technical Operations & Quality Assurance, appointed member of the Executive Committee
Brussels, Belgium, September 16, 2008 at 7:00 AM (CEST) - press release, regulated information - UCB announced today the appointment of Michele Antonelli, Executive Vice President Technical Operations & Quality Assurance and Mark McDade, Executive Vice President Global operations as new members of UCB's Executive Committee with effect. Mark McDade is taking over the position from Bill Robinson who has announced he will be retiring on December 31, 2008.
Roch Doliveux, Chief Executive Officer of UCB said "Michele and Mark, with their leadership and proven experience in business and operations, will certainly contribute to UCB's success". He further commented, "I would also like to pay particular tribute to Bill Robinson whose contribution to the transformation of UCB's operations has been remarkable and of great value. He has led UCB's business operations with three years of growth, outperforming the market and successfully preparing our new products launches, while further strengthening UCB's Leadership Team. We wish him happiness and success in his well earned retirement".
Bill Robinson joined UCB in April 2005, supporting the strategic move of UCB to become a pure biopharmaceutical company. In November 2005, he was appointed member of the Executive Committee.
Mark McDade joined UCB in April 2008 as Executive Vice President Corporate Strategy & Business Development, reporting directly to Roch Doliveux and working in close collaboration with Bill Robinson. Mark, after a Bachelor degree in History, worked in the retail industry, then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, and for the past 25 years, has worked within pharmaceutical and biotech companies including Sandoz (now part of Novartis), Boehringer Mannheim Therapeutics (as COO), and Corixa Corporation (as co-founder and COO). Most recently, from 2002 to 2007, he was the CEO and a director of PDL Biopharma, a publicly traded biotech company based in Redwood City, California. Michele Antonelli joined UCB in June 2008 as Executive Vice President Technical Operations and Quality in replacement of Michel Lurquin who retired on June 30, 2008. Michele has a degree in Plant Biology from the University of Bari, Italy, and qualified the ENI's post graduate programme in Biotechnology and in Advanced Genetics (Molecular and Somatic cell Genetics) at the Catholic University of Piacenza and the Iowa State University of Ames, USA.
From 1985 to 1992, he worked at Enichem, in Italy, as Research Fellow and then Head of the Molecular and Cell Biology Unit. In 1992 he joined Serono where he held several senior managerial positions, gathering about 15 years experience in the Quality Assurance and Biotech Manufacturing fields. His last position there was as Senior Vice President Biotech Manufacturing Process Development, for Merck Serono based in Geneva.
As of today, UCB's Executive Committee, chaired by Roch Doliveux, Chief Executive Officer, will have the following members: Michele Antonelli, Fabrice Enderlin, Melanie Lee, Iris Löw-Friedrich, Mark McDade, Bill Robinson (until December 31st, 2008), Detlef Thielgen and Bob Trainor.
Further information Antje Witte, Vice-President Corporate Communications & Investor Relations, UCB Group T +32.2.559.9414, Antje.witte@ucb-group.com
About UCB UCB, Brussels, Belgium (www.ucb-group.com) is a global leader in the biopharmaceutical industry dedicated to the research, development and commercialisation of innovative medicines with a focus on the fields of central nervous system and immunology disorders. Employing around 12 000 people in over 40 countries, UCB achieved revenue of 3.6 billion euro in 2007. UCB is listed on Euronext Brussels (symbol: UCB). Forward looking statement This press release contains forward-looking statements based on current plans, estimates and beliefs of management. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those that may be implied by such forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Important factors that could result in such differences include: changes in general economic, business and competitive conditions, effects of future judicial decisions, changes in regulation, exchange rate fluctuations and hiring and retention of employees.
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