Since March 2019, Pius leads the Sanofi China operation, the second largest market of Sanofi in the world with over 8`000 associates. Pius and his team are fully dedicated to introducing innovative medicines to China across a broad range of therapeutic areas including Immunology, Oncology, Cardiovascular, Diabetes and Vaccines. Aside of building an innovative portfolio, the entire organization works hard every day to better serve China’s fast-growing healthcare needs through driving a best-in-class digital innovation transformation. Pius and his management team are committed to developing people while fostering a company culture of diversity, respect and integrity, and making Sanofi China the real magnet for talents. He is also an active Board Member of the RDPAC (R&D-based Pharmaceutical Association Committee) of China, and among others, a speaker at the WEF Chapter China in 2019.
Before leading the China operation, Pius was the Country Chair of Sanofi Brazil. During his tenure in Brazil, he built with the Brazilian team a high-performance organization with great diversity and gender balance, and implemented the highest ethical and integrity standards. Sanofi Brazil was selected among the top 150 best companies to work and named as a Top Employer, both three times in a row.
Pius has extensive experience in the healthcare industry. He joined Sanofi in 1998 and held a variety of key positions, including marketing, sales management and other strategic global managerial positions. He has successfully launched several major medicines and led the global team for the anticoagulant that is part of the World Health Organization list of essential medicines. He was Global Marketing Head Cardiology, General Manager in Switzerland, Vice President of Operations Support & Strategic Initiatives for Emerging Markets, and Vice President for the Turkey and Middle East Zone encompassing direct P&L responsibility for 17 countries.
Pius started his career in the healthcare industry at the Cardiology Department of the University of Basel in a research collaboration with Novartis in Switzerland. He also worked at Servier, France.
Pius has a master`s degree in pharmacy and graduated magna cum laude from the University of Basel, Switzerland, with a PhD degree in medical research. He is also an alumnus of INSEAD and Singularity University. He speaks fluent German, English, French, and Portuguese. Pius is a Swiss national and is based in Shanghai.