Pascal Soriot | |
|---|---|
 Soriot in 2019 | |
| Born | Pascal Claude Roland Soriot 23 May 1959 France |
| Citizenship |
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| Education | École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort HEC Paris |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Title | CEO, AstraZeneca |
| Term | 2012– |
| Children | 2 |
| Honours | Knight Bachelor |
Sir Pascal Claude Roland Soriot (born 23 May 1959) is a French-born Australian businessman and chief executive of the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca. [1]
Soriot was born in France on 23 May 1959. [2] His father died when he was 20. [3]
He studied veterinary medicine at the École nationale vétérinaire d'Alfort at Maisons-Alfort in Paris. [2] He later obtained an MBA at HEC Paris. [1]
In April 1986, he joined Roussel Uclaf (formerly France's second largest pharmaceutical company, until bought by Hoechst AG in 1997) as a salesman in Australia. [2] [4] In 1996, he became General Manager of Hoechst Marion Roussel in Australia, moving to Tokyo in April 1997. [5]
In 2000 he moved to Aventis in America, becoming chief operating officer of Aventis USA in 2002, which became Sanofi Aventis USA in 2004. [6] [7]
He joined Roche in 2006 as head of marketing. [5] From April 2009 to 2010, he was chief executive of the Roche subsidiary Genentech. He rejoined Roche Pharma AG in 2010 as chief operating officer. [8]
In August 2012 he was named as the new chief executive of AstraZeneca, [9] the world's fifth largest pharmaceutical company, when aged 53. He took up the post on 1 October 2012. [10] [11]
In July 2017, it was reported that Soriot would become the next CEO of Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, succeeding Erez Vigodman, though this was soon denied. [12] [13] [14]
In September 2018, he made headlines commenting on his pay of £9.4m in salary and bonuses. 'The truth is I’m the lowest-paid CEO in the whole industry', he said. 'It is annoying to some extent. But at the end of the day it is what it is.' [15]
In 2023, Soriot was the highest paid CEO of the major European pharmaceutical companies, as he earned $21.3 million. That was a nearly 12 per cent increase over 2022. [16]
In March 2024, Soriot was awarded the President's Medal by the Society of Chemical Industry for leading AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. [17]
He is married and has two children. [18] He has three brothers, all of whom are doctors. [3]
Soriot was knighted in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to UK life sciences and the response to COVID-19. [19] He qualifies for a substantive knighthood rather than an honorary one by virtue of being an Australian citizen. [20]
He counts cycling, horse riding and skiing as hobbies. [5]
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