Our Leadership Team

Geoffrey McDonough
Chief Executive Officer

Born 1970. Employed since 2011. Medical doctor, M.D., Harvard Medical School, B.Sc. in Biology and B.A. in Philosophy from University of North Carolina

Previous positions: Has held various senior positions within Genzyme Corporation since 2002, latest as President of Europe, Middle East and Africa. Before that, Geoffrey has also worked as Paediatrician and was the President and Co-founder of Catalyst Medical Solutions Inc.

Alan Raffensperger
Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer

Born 1960. Employeed as of January 2012. B.Sc.in Health Service Management, University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA

Previous positions: CEO of Benechill Inc.,USA, Executive Director, Head of Nephrology at Amgen 2008-2010, General Manager of the Nordic and Baltic region at Amgen 2005-2008, Sales and Marketing Director at Roche Pharmaceuticals, Sweden 1999-2004, Vice President, Global Marketing Diabetes Care, Roche Diagnostics 1996-1998, Business Director Europe, Diabetes Care at Boehringer Mannheim 1994-1996. He has also held leading positions within Pharmacia in Sweden and USA.

Mats-Olof Wallin
Acting Chief Financial Officer

Born 1951. Acting CFO as of April 8, 2013. B.Sc. at the Universtiy of Uppsala. 

Previous positions: VP Finance and Administration and CFO Biotage AB (publ) and Ortivus AB (publ) respectively as well as various  executive positions within Pharmacia.

 

Birgitte Volck
Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer

Born:1962. Employed since August 2012. MD, PhD, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Previous positions: Various senior positions within Amgen since 2007, latest as Executive Development Director, Bone, Neuroscience & Inflammation at Amgen Limited in Uxbridge, UK. Prior to Amgen she was Nordic Medical Director & Project Director at Genzyme A/S in Denmark 2004-2007, and Vice President, Clinical Development & Medical Affairs at Pharmexa A/S in Denmark 2001-2004. During 1991-2000 she had various clinical and scientific assignments, mainly within rheumatology, at the Copenhagen University Hospitals. 

Wills Hughes-Wilson
Vice President External Affairs, Chief Patient Access Officer

Born in 1971. Employed as of February 2012, Honors graduate in Law from University of Durham in the UK.

Previous positions: Genzyme Corporation, now part of the French Sanofi Group, where she was Vice President Health/Market Access Policy, Europe. She joined Genzyme in 2005. Prior to Genzyme she was Executive Director of Emerging Biopharmaceutical Enterprises (EBE), a specialized group of the European Federation of Pharmaceuticals Industries & Associations (EFPIA) representing the interest of biotechnology companies in Europe. She has also worked in the animal health/veterinary medicines industry and at Ernst & Young Consulting.

Fredrik Berg
Vice President, General Counsel and Head of Legal & Intellectual Property, Risk- Safety and Environment Management

Born 1955. Employed since 2001. Master of Law.

Previous positions: Started his legal career at the law firm Tisell & Co. 1988 - 1996 various positions as company lawyer and head of legal services at KabiVitrum, Procordia, Kabi Pharmacia and Pharmacia & Upjohn. 1996-1997 law firm Lindahl, 1997 - 2001 Head of Legal/Intellectual Property at Pharmacia AB and General Counsel for Pharmacia Europe, Middle East, and Africa.

Maria Berggren
Vice President, Head of Human Resources

Born 1961. Employed since 2005. Behavioural science degree

Previous appointments: People Relationship Manager for Technology Services at Cap Gemini Sverige AB, People Relationship Manager for the Nordic activities within Cap Gemini Ernst & Young Telecom & Media and various senior human-resources positions within Ericsson AB. Maria Berggren had also her own business and worked as consultant in human resources and management development

Anders Edvell
Vice President, Head of Product Area Partner Products

Born 1969. Employed since 2006. 

M.D., Ph.D., MBA from Stockholm School of Economics,degree in launching strategy from SIMI (Copenhagen)and degree in pharmaceutical medicine from ECPM University (Basel).

Other appointments: Board member of LFF Service AB

Previous positions: Country Manager in Swedish Orphan International, Northern European Regional Director at Sobi and a number of international and national positions within Swedish and foreign pharmaceutical companies.

Stefan Fraenkel
Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Development

Born 1972. Employed since 2009. Ph.D. in International Economics & Management, MBA from Copenhagen Business School and BSc engineering degree from Chalmers University of Technology

Previous positions: A number of international senior positions within Wyeth 2001–2009 (including Global Brand Director and Business Operations Director and Business Development). Prior thereto active as a management consultant.

Cecilia Förberg
Vice President, Head of Project and Portfolio Management

Born 1956. Employed since 2001. M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering and Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Previous positions: Joined Kabi Pharmacia in 1989 and has held Various project leader and management positions, primarily within biopharmaceutical process development in Kabi Pharmacia, Pharmacia and Pharmacia Upjohn.

Stephen James
Vice President, Head of Drug Design and Development

Born 1966. Employed since 2001. PhD in Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University of Leeds, UK. BSc (Hons) in Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of St. Andrews, UK.

Previous positions: A number of management positions in Research and Pre-clinical Development in Pharmacia & Upjohn, Pharmacia Corporation and Biovitrum AB. Prior to this, University of Dundee Research Fellow, UK.

Lena Nyström
Vice President, Head of Manufacturing Operations

Born 1956. Employed since 2001. M.Sc. in Chemistry at KTH in Stockholm.

Previous positions: Joined Kabi Vitrum in 1984 in the Process Development organization. From 1995 various management positions within process development and manufacturing in Kabi Pharmacia AB, Pharmacia AB and Pharmacia Upjohn.