Daniel O’Day, chief executive officer of Roche Pharmaceuticals and member of the Corporate Executive Committee, will be stepping down from his role as of 31 December 2018. He will provide support to ensure a smooth transition of activities until the end of February 2019.

William Anderson, currently chief executive officer of Genentech, will succeed Mr. O’Day effective January 1, 2019. He will be based in Basel, reporting to Severin Schwan, Roche Group chief executive officer. He will also serve as a member of the Corporate Executive Committee.

Mr. Schwan said, “Dan has had an outstanding 31-year career at Roche and has played a key role in bringing a large number of new, innovative medicines to patients. Roche today has one of the strongest pipelines of medicines in the industry and is well positioned to shape digitalization in healthcare. We are very grateful for all of Dan’s contributions. I am very pleased that with Bill Anderson we are appointing a new CEO of our Pharmaceuticals Division with an impressive track record. Bill brings both in-depth knowledge of our industry and extensive global leadership experience.”

Mr. O’Day began his career with Roche Pharmaceuticals in 1987 and held various roles in the U.S. before moving to Basel in 1998, serving in Global Marketing and then Lifecycle Management. In 2001, he was appointed Head of Corporate Planning for Roche Pharmaceuticals in Japan and subsequently became General Manager Pharma Denmark. He returned to the U.S. to head up Roche Molecular Diagnostics in 2006 before being appointed to lead the Diagnostics Division in 2010. He was appointed to lead the Pharmaceuticals Division in 2012.

Bill Anderson joined Roche in 2006 leading the Immunology Business Unit in Genentech and then took responsibility for Oncology Sales and Marketing. In 2013, he was appointed Head of Global Product Strategy based in Basel before assuming his current role as CEO of Genentech in 2017.