William Anderson (born August 23, 1966) is an American

business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations gr ...

who has been the

chief executive officer 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 ...

(CEO) of Bayer AG since June 2023. Prior to his current role, Anderson was CEO of

Genentech Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It operates as an independent subsidiary of holding company Roche. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent cent ...

from 2017 to 2018, and later CEO of the Roche's Pharmaceuticals Division from 2019 to 2022.

Early life and education

Anderson was born on August 23, 1966, in Ohio, Texas. He holds a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

from the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

management Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a Government agency, government bodies through business administration, Nonprofit studies, nonprofit management, or the political s ...

and chemical engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). Anderson is married and has three children.

Career

Anderson started his career in 1989 as a process engineer for

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

Ethyl Corporation Ethyl Corporation is a fuel additive company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, in the United States. The company is a distributor of fuel additives. Among other products, Ethyl Corporation distributes tetraethyl lead, an additive used to make ...

in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. From 1995 to 1997, he worked as a

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

manager for Raychem. From 1997 to 2006, Anderson worked at

Biogen Biogen Inc. is an American multinational biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States specializing in the discovery, development, and delivery of the treatment of neurological diseases to patients worldwide. Biogen ope ...

in multiple countries, including,

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, the U.S., and the U.K., holding positions such as

vice president A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

and

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

neurology Neurology (from , "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine) , medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the nervous syst ...

business at Biogen. In 2006, Anderson joined

, where he eventually became the senior vice president of the

immunology Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of Immune system, immune systems in all Organism, organisms. Immunology charts, measures, and contextualizes the Physiology, physiological functioning of the immune system in ...

ophthalmology Ophthalmology (, ) is the branch of medicine that deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and surgery of eye diseases and disorders. An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Following a ...

and bio-oncology divisions. In 2013, Anderson moved to Switzerland to be head of global product strategy and

chief marketing officer A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a chief brand officer (CBO), is a C-suite corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. The CMO leads brand management, marketing communications (including adver ...

of the pharmaceuticals division at the Roche Holding AG. In July 2016, Anderson returned to the U.S. to lead North American Operations at Roche's subsidiary, Genentech. From 2017 to 2018, he was the CEO of Genentech. While at Genentech, he developed its immunology and ophthalmology divisions, managed the sales of Rituxan, Raptiva, and Xolair, and directed Roche's late-stage portfolio committee for nearly four years, where he was responsible for determining late-stage

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

advancements. Bill Anderson 2024

From 2019 to 2022, Anderson was CEO of Roche's pharmaceuticals division. During Anderson's tenure at Roche, he facilitated the company's transition from a focus on

oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

. He headed the development and launch of new drugs to compensate for the decrease in revenues from oncology drugs whose

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

s had expired. On June 1, 2023, Anderson assumed the role of CEO of Bayer AG, succeeding Werner Baumann. The selection process had begun in mid-2022 and by April 2023, he became a member of the Board of Management of Bayer AG. He is the second foreigner to lead Bayer after Marijn Dekkers, and he is the second CEO in Bayer's history to be hired from outside the company after Dekkers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Bill Living people American business executives American chemical engineers Bayer people Genentech people Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni 1966 births