New chairman to take seat at GSK
pharmafile | September 25, 2014 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | China, GSK, RBS, gent, philip hampton
The Royal Bank of Scotland’s chairman Sir Philip Hampton has been appointed by GlaxoSmithKline to succeed Sir Christopher Gent in his role.
The news was predicted last month but now GSK has finally confirmed that Sir Philip will be joining its board as non-executive director from January next year, and will become deputy chairman three months later in April.
He is then to succeed Sir Christopher Gent fully as non-executive chairman with effect from September, or at an earlier date if released from other commitments the firm says. Sir Christopher had confirmed in May that he intended to step down at the end of 2015, with his successor at GSK to be named before the end of this year.
GSK’s senior independent non-executive director, Sir Deryck Maughan, says of the move: “We are delighted Sir Philip is joining the GSK board to succeed Sir Christopher as Chairman. GSK is well positioned for the future, with a strong R&D pipeline and the impending transformative asset transaction with Novartis announced in April. Sir Philip’s appointment provides a clear plan of succession and we welcome him to our board.”
His departure as chairman of the 81% state-owned RBS, which was expected, will intensify the search for a successor after next May’s general election according to the Financial Times.
Not averse to joining large firms during a period of disaster, Sir Philip took over as RBS chairman in 2009 following the bank’s bailout during the financial crisis.
Sir Philip had to not only steer RBS through choppy financial waters there, but also deal with the fallout of its previous chief executive Fred Goodwin (also known via the moniker ‘Fred the shred’ after making large cuts in the firm) who stepped down in early 2009, just as it was announced that the firm had lost £24 billion in 2008 under his watch.
The UK’s biggest drugmaker will certainly be hoping this level of experience can be applied by Sir Philip towards rebuilding GSK’s reputation in China following the bribery scandal of the past year, and to develop new products in order to offset the decline of its best-selling asthma drug, Advair, as part of his new remit.
GSK would also have been attracted to Sir Philip’s string of previous high profile appointments that comprise being chairman of Sainsbury’s; finance director at Lloyds TSB; BT; British Gas and British Steel; an executive director of Lazards and a non-executive director at RMC and Belgacom.
He is also a former chairman of UK Financial Investments, which manages the UK government’s shareholdings in banks.
Brett Wells
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