Sanofi announces changes to its Executive Committee. Houman Ashrafian is appointed as Head of Research & Development, starting September 11th, 2023. Madeleine Roach is appointed Head of Business Operations, effective October 1st, 2023. Emmanuel Frenehard is appointed Chief Digital Officer, effective immediately.

Bill Sibold, Head of the Specialty Care GBU will be leaving Sanofi to pursue an external opportunity. Brian Foard will lead the Specialty Care GBU ad interim, effective immediately.

Houman, Madeleine and Emmanuel will report to Sanofi's CEO, Paul Hudson, and will be based in Paris, France. Brian, also reporting to Paul Hudson, will be based in Cambridge, US.

As Sanofi’s new Head of Research & Development, Houman Ashrafian will be responsible for bolstering the company’s strategy to develop first or best-in-class medicines and growing the momentum of Sanofi’s pipeline in support of its emergence as a science-driven and innovation leader in the industry.

In this newly created role, Madeleine Roach will establish and lead the Business Operations Business Unit bringing together existing business service activities and driving further expansion of centralized services into a global unit with a focus on driving efficiency and productivity to fuel business growth and Sanofi’s investment in science. This new business unit will act as an enabler and operator of best-in-class business support capabilities across the company ensuring optimal cross-functional resource capacity and high-quality support across Sanofi´s full organization.

Emmanuel Frenehard, Chief Digital Officer, will lead Sanofi’s company-wide digital transformation and continue to push forward the company’s digital, data and technology strategy. Building on a solid foundation of digital tools and data, creating business value, developing the acquisition of new skills and promoting a digital and data driven culture, Emmanuel and his teams will notably support Sanofi’s goal to become the first biopharma company powered by artificial intelligence at scale, to accelerate innovation for patients and healthcare professionals.

Paul Hudson, Chief Executive Officer, Sanofi, said: “These new appointments, a healthy mix of internal promotions and a newcomer to Sanofi, bring three highly qualified global leaders with new insights and world-class expertise in their field. I am confident in their capacity to inspire our people, execute and deliver on our strategy and support our ambition to be an innovative, inclusive and scientifically driven leader.

“On the science front, we have a bold strategy of first or best-in-class medicines and vaccines to fuel the growth of our company for the years to come. With almost 80 programs in clinical development and expecting to see the results of 27 readouts of early and mid-stage molecules over the next year, I am extremely pleased to see Houman Ashrafian joining our company. He brings a wealth of expertise as a scientist and in bringing high value transformational medicines from discovery to market. With Houman’s leadership and deep understanding of science, we aspire to make our R&D transformation sustainable. This is what we were aiming for when we laid out our strategy in 2019. With 5 positive read-outs in the first six months of 2023 only, including Dupixent in COPD, our commitment to Sanofi’s scientifically-driven roadmap couldn’t be any stronger”.