Elcin Barker Ergun is a business leader in the pharmaceutical industry. [1] In September 2019 she was appointed chief executive officer and member of the board of directors of the Italian company Menarini Group. [2] [3] [4]
Ergun graduated from TED Ankara College (high school) in Turkey, where she also played basketball and handball and was a member of the team that won the national championship three times. Elcin has a Bachelor of Science degree in computer engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara and an MBA from INSEAD (Institut Europeen d’Administration Des Affaires). [5]
Ergun's career started as a software engineer, working for five years in IT management in Amsterdam for ITT Corporation. [6] After her MBA in France, Ergun moved to the UK, leading marketing and supply chain projects at the Northern European head office of Honeywell [6] and later continued as subsidiary chief financial officer. [6] Ergun entered the pharmaceutical industry as chief financial officer of the Turkish subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline. [7]
After joining Merck KGaA's Healthcare business, [2] [5] [7] Elcin took on roles of increasing seniority within the organisation becoming Executive Vice President and Head of Global Commercial for Merck Serono, [6] achieving significant leadership and business transformation across global commercial operations. [6] This followed her role as Senior Vice President and Head of Intercontinental Region, across the Middle East, Africa, and Russia/CIS countries.
Before she joined Menarini Group, Elcin was based in Boston [5] [8] for three years as Executive Vice President, [5] Head of New Businesses [5] [8] at Merck Healthcare. [9]
Under Ergun's leadership, Menarini has accomplished milestones such as the 2020 acquisition of Stemline Therapeutics, [10] a U.S. commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, [11] formerly a public listed organization quoted on NASDAQ, [10] focused on the development and commercialization of novel oncology therapeutics. [10] [11]