Sanofi named Houman Ashrafian head of R&D, Madeleine Roach head of business operations, and Emmanuel Frenehard chief digital officer. The company also announced that Brian Foard will lead the Specialty Care GBU on an interim basis. Bill Sibold, head of the specialty care GBU is leaving the company to pursue another opportunity.

Dietmar Berger who led Sanofi’s R&D team ad-interim over the last few months, will continue to serve as chief medical officer and global head of development.

Ashrafian, Roach, Frenehard, will be based in Paris, France, while Foard, will be based in Cambridge, MA. All four will report to Sanofi’s CEO, Paul Hudson.

As Sanofi’s new head of R&D, Ashrafian will be responsible for bolstering the company’s strategy to develop first or best-in-class medicines and growing the momentum of Sanofi’s pipeline in support of its emergence as a science-driven and innovation leader in the industry.

In a newly created role, Roach will establish and lead the business operations business unit bringing together existing business service activities and driving further expansion of centralized services into a global unit with a focus on driving efficiency and productivity to fuel business growth and investment in science. The new business unit will act as an enabler and operator of best-in-class business support capabilities across the company ensuring optimal cross-functional resource capacity and high-quality support across Sanofi´s full organization.

Frenehard will lead Sanofi’s company-wide digital transformation and continue to push forward the company’s digital, data and technology strategy. Frenehard and his teams will notably support Sanofi’s goal to become the first biopharma company powered by artificial intelligence at scale.

Ashrafian joins from SV Health Investors where he is managing partner of the global private equity and venture capital investment platform which has a special focus on biotechnology, healthcare growth equity, and medtech.

Roach joined Sanofi as head of internal audit and risk management in 2022 from AstraZeneca, where she was head of global finance services Asia Pacific and global business services site lead in Malaysia.

Frenehard joined Sanofi three years ago as global head of digital. He subsequently held the positions of global head – digital GBU teams, global head – digital products, and has also led Sanofi’s Digital Accelerator and digital commerce initiatives.

Paul Hudson, CEO said, “These new appointments, a healthy mix of internal promotions and a newcomer to Sanofi, bring three highly qualified global leaders with new insights and world-class expertise in their field. I am confident in their capacity to inspire our people, execute and deliver on our strategy and support our ambition to be an innovative, inclusive, and scientifically driven leader.