Peter Guenter
Chair, Executive Board and CEO, Merck KGaA
Chair, Executive Board and CEO, Merck KGaA
Peter Guenter is a member of the Executive Board and CEO of Healthcare at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. When he started in January 2021, he set a clear strategy with the ambition to outperform the pharmaceutical market. He is aiming for leadership where the business is strong and focusing on key innovations to address high unmet medical needs. Under his leadership more than 17,500 employees are driven by a common purpose to help create, improve, and prolong lives – as one for patients.
Before joining Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Peter served as CEO of the biopharmaceutical company Almirall, based in Barcelona, Spain, from 2017 to 2020. In this time, he led a strategic and cultural transformation to build a global skin-health focused company and brought the business back on track for growth. Prior to this, Peter worked at Sanofi for 22 years where he was a member of the Executive Committee since 2013. During his tenure there, Peter held a range of local, regional, and global leadership roles and was among other things responsible for Global Commercial Operations.
Peter is a Member of the Board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) where he also took over the Chair of the Innovation Board Sponsored Committee (BSC) in January 2023.
Peter Guenter was born in 1962 in Ghent, Belgium. He holds a master’s degree in Physical Education from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Ghent.
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Merck KGaA
Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, the vibrant science and technology company, operates across healthcare, life science and performance materials. Around 53,000 employees work to make a positive difference to millions of people’s lives every day by creating more joyful and sustainable ways to live. From advancing gene editing technologies and discovering unique ways to treat the most challenging diseases to enabling the intelligence of devices – the company is everywhere. In 2017, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, generated sales of € 15.3 billion in 66 countries.
The company holds the global rights to the name and trademark “Merck” internationally. The only exceptions are the United States and Canada, where the business sectors of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany operate as EMD Serono in healthcare, MilliporeSigma in life science, and EMD Performance Materials. Since its founding 1668, scientific exploration and responsible entrepreneurship have been key to the company’s technological and scientific advances. To this day, the founding family remains the majority owner of the publicly listed company. For more information about Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, visit www.emdgroup.com.