Severin Anton Schwan (born 17 November 1967) is an Austrian business executive. He is the current chairman of the board and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

(2008–2023) of the Roche Group. Schwan joined the Roche Group in 1993 as a trainee and has stayed with the company ever since.

Early life and education

Severin Schwan graduated from the Akademisches Gymnasium Innsbruck and then studied economics at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

University of York The University of York (abbreviated as or ''York'' for Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a public Collegiate university, collegiate research university in York, England. Established in 1963, the university has expanded to more than thir ...

, and

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

as well as law at the University of Innsbruck. He completed both subjects in 1991 with a master's degree and acquired the title Mag. iur. and Mag. rer. soc. oec. He then obtained his Doctorate in Law in 1993.

Career

Schwan started his career as a trainee at the Roche office in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

, Switzerland. He has worked in a number of positions across the globe for Roche. He was appointed CEO of the Roche Group at its Annual General Meeting on 4 March 2008, replacing Franz B. Humor. Previously, Schwan was managing director of Roche's Diagnostics Division. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of Roche Holding AG since 2013. At the Annual General Meeting on 14 March 2023, he was elected chairman of the Board of Directors, succeeding Christoph Franz. Thomas Schinecker became Schwan's successor as CEO. From 2014 to 2022, he was a member of the board of directors of

Credit Suisse Credit Suisse Group AG (, ) was a global Investment banking, investment bank and financial services firm founded and based in Switzerland. According to UBS, eventually Credit Suisse was to be fully integrated into UBS. While the integration ...

, and from 2017 its vice chairman. He stepped down from the position of vice-chair in March 2022.

Memberships

He was on the board at

Chugai Pharmaceutical Co is a drug manufacturer operating in Japan. It is a subsidiary controlled by Hoffmann-La Roche, which owns 62% of the company as of 30 June 2014. The company is headquartered in Tokyo. Osamu Nagayama is the current representative director and c ...

., Ltd. Schwan has been a member of the International Business Leaders Advisory Council for the Mayor of Shanghai (IBLAC) since 2009 and Vice President since 2022. From 2016 to 2020, he was Vice President of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA).

Personal life

Born to an Austrian-German family, Schwan is citizen of both countries. He was also granted Swiss citizenship in 2020. Schwan is married, has three children and lives in the

suburb of Riehen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwan, Severin 1967 births Living people University of Innsbruck alumni Alumni of the University of York Alumni of the University of Oxford Austrian chief executives German chief executives Swiss chief executives Chief executives in the pharmaceutical industry Hoffmann-La Roche people