Sir Andrew Witty | |
---|---|
Born | 22 August 1964 |
Alma mater | University of Nottingham |
Occupation(s) | CEO, UnitedHealth Group |
Predecessor | David Wichmann |
Spouse | Caroline M. Hall |
Children | 2 [1] |
Sir Andrew Philip Witty (born 22 August 1964) [1] is a British business executive, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of UnitedHealth Group. He was the CEO of GlaxoSmithKline between 2008 and 2017. He formerly held the role of chancellor of the University of Nottingham. [2]
Witty attended Malbank School (originally the "Nantwich and Acton Grammar School") in Nantwich, and then gained a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Nottingham. [1] [3]
Witty joined Glaxo UK in 1985 as a management trainee. [4] He held various positions in the UK, including director of pharmacy & distribution in Glaxo Pharmaceuticals UK. [5]
He was a vice president and general manager of marketing of Glaxo Wellcome Inc., a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline with responsibility for strategy development, marketing execution and new product positioning. He was an economic adviser to the governor of Guangzhou, China, from 2000 to 2002. [6]
He was appointed president, Pharmaceuticals Europe of GlaxoSmithKline plc in January 2003 [6] and succeeded Jean-Pierre Garnier as CEO following his retirement in May 2008. He was paid an annual salary of £948,000 and received bonuses and other compensation amounting to £2,180,000 for this role. [7] [8]
In February 2009 he pledged to make a major change in the way GSK pharmaceuticals are priced, in an attempt to make vital drugs more affordable in countries with the lowest incomes. At the same time he announced that GSK would place certain patents in a pool so that they were freely available for others in the search for new drugs. [9]
From 2010 until 2015, Witty was on the business advisory board of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. [10]
In October 2012 it was announced that he had been appointed the chancellor of the University of Nottingham with effect from 1 January 2013, having maintained strong ties with the university since graduation. [11] Witty announced his retirement from the role of chancellor in November 2017. [12]
In July 2013, the People's Republic of China announced that they were investigating allegations of fraud perpetrated by GSK going back to 2007 and involving thousands of millions of renminbi. [13] Witty stated "It appears that certain senior executives in the China business have acted outside our processes and controls to both defraud the company and the Chinese health care system. To see these allegations about people working for GSK is shameful. For me personally they are deeply disappointing." [14]
From 2013 to 2015, Witty was on the UNAIDS–Lancet Commission for Defeating AIDS and Advancing Global Health, co-chaired by Joyce Banda, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma and Peter Piot. [15] [16] From 2015 until 2016, he was a member of the UN High-Level Panel on Access to Medicines, led by Ruth Dreifuss and Festus Mogae. [17]
In November 2015, Witty's leadership of GSK was criticised by Neil Woodford, who said that "he’s not doing a very good job". Woodford called for GSK to be split into four companies. [18] In March 2016, Witty announced that he was to step down as chief executive. [19]
From 2017 until 2018, Witty led the National Health Service’s Accelerated Access Collaborative. [20] [21]
In July 2018, Witty became CEO of Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group. [22] In November 2019, he was named president of UnitedHealth, in addition to his role as CEO of Optum. [23]
In April 2020, Witty took a one-year leave of absence from Optum to assist the World Health Organization in developing a vaccine for COVID-19. [24] In May 2020, he was appointed to the expert advisory group for the UK Government's Vaccine Task Force, chaired by Patrick Vallance. [25]
Witty became CEO of UnitedHealth Group in February 2021. [26]
In April 2021, he was also appointed to the Pandemic Preparedness Partnership (PPP), an expert group chaired by Vallance to advise the G7 presidency held by the government of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson. [27]
In 2023, Witty's total compensation from UnitedHealth Group was $23.5 million, representing a CEO-to-median worker pay ratio of 352-to-1. [28]
Witty was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the economy and the UK pharmaceutical industry. [34] He was also conferred the Honorary Citizen of Singapore in 2018. [35]
GSK plc is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London. It was established in 2000 by a merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, which was itself a merger of a number of pharmaceutical companies around the Smith, Kline & French firm.
Sir Richard Brook Sykes is a British microbiologist, the chair of the Royal Institution, the UK Stem Cell Foundation, and the trustees at King Edward VII's Hospital, and chancellor of Brunel University. As of June 2021, he is chair of the UK's Vaccine Taskforce, where he is responsible for overseeing the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme, including preparations for booster programmes and encouraging vaccine innovation in the UK.
Sir Christopher Charles Gent HonFREng is a British businessman, He is the former chief executive officer of Vodafone, a British multinational mobile phone company. Until 2015, he served as the non-exec chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, the world's fourth largest pharmaceutical company. According to the Financial Times 15th August 2022, he was fined £80,000 by the FCA for insider trading.
Cervarix is a vaccine against certain types of cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV).
Margaret Omolola Young, Baroness Young of Hornsey is a British actress, author, crossbench peer, and Chancellor of the University of Nottingham.
The Beecham Group plc was a British pharmaceutical company. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Founded by Thomas Beecham who opened the first factory in St Helens, Lancashire in 1859, Beecham focused on marketing the business by advertising in newspapers and using a network of wholesale agents in northern England and in London, rapidly building up the business. In August 1859 he created the slogan for Beecham's Pills: "Worth a guinea a box", considered to be the world's first advertising slogan, which helped the business become a global brand.
Pandemrix is an influenza vaccine for influenza pandemics, such as the 2009 flu pandemic. The vaccine was developed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and patented in September 2006.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Pakistan is a Pakistani pharmaceutical company which is a subsidiary of British company GSK. It is the largest pharmaceutical company in Pakistan.
GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd is an Indian research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare company, and a subsidiary of GSK. The company's product portfolio includes prescription medicines and vaccines. Its prescription medicines range across therapeutic areas such as anti-infectives, dermatology, gynaecology, diabetes, oncology, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory diseases. It also offers a range of vaccines, for the prevention of hepatitis A, hepatitis B, invasive disease caused by H, influenzae, chickenpox, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, rotavirus, cervical cancer, and others.
Study 329 was a clinical trial which was conducted in North America from 1994 to 1998 to study the efficacy of paroxetine, an SSRI anti-depressant, in treating 12- to 18-year-olds diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Led by Martin Keller, then professor of psychiatry at Brown University, and funded by the British pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham—known since 2000 as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)—the study compared paroxetine with imipramine, a tricyclic antidepressant, and placebo. SmithKline Beecham had released paroxetine in 1991, marketing it as Paxil in North America and Seroxat in the UK. The drug attracted sales of $11.7 billion in the United States alone from 1997 to 2006, including $2.12 billion in 2002, the year before it lost its patent.
Dame Emma Natasha Walmsley is the chief executive officer (CEO) of GlaxoSmithKline. She succeeded Sir Andrew Witty, who retired in March 2017. Before GSK, she worked for L'Oréal for 17 years, and was a non-executive director of Diageo until September 2016. She grew up in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England.
Patrick John Thompson Vallance, Baron Vallance of Balham,, is a British physician, scientist, Life Peer, and clinical pharmacologist who serves as Minister of State for Science in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology since July 2024. He previously served as HM Government chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023.
Optum, Inc. is an American healthcare company that provides technology services, pharmacy care services and various direct healthcare services.
The New Frontiers Science Park is a science park in Essex, on a redeveloped research site of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Simon Paul Dingemans is an English former banker and businessman. Until May 2019 he was chief financial officer at GlaxoSmithKline. In July 2019 he was appointed chair of the Financial Reporting Council, and was set to lead its transition into the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority, but left in May 2020.
Sir Jonathan Stafford Nguyen Van-Tam is a British physician specialising in influenza, including its epidemiology, transmission, vaccinology, antiviral drugs and pandemic preparedness.
Moncef Mohamed Slaoui is a Moroccan-born Belgian-American researcher who served as the head of Operation Warp Speed (OPWASP) under President Donald Trump from 2020 to 2021.
CoVLP was a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Medicago in Canada and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). The product and Medicago, Inc. were owned by Mitsubishi who terminated the company and program in February 2023 due to high international market competition for COVID-19 vaccines.
Githinji Gitahi is a Kenyan medical doctor who serves as the Global Chief Executive Officer of Amref Health Africa as well a former co-chair of the UHC2030 Steering Committee. In July 2021, he was appointed as a Commissioner in the Africa COVID-19 Commission.
The GlaxoSmithKline Carbon Neutral Laboratory for Sustainable Chemistry is a chemistry laboratory in Nottingham, England. It is located on the Jubilee Campus of the University of Nottingham, and is part of the university's School of Chemistry. The school carries out research at the carbon neutral laboratory, which is the first of its kind in the UK. The construction was majority funded by GlaxoSmithKline, as part of their commitment to green chemistry first announced in 2010, and saw a grant of £12 million provided to the project.