Belén Garijo has officially been appointed Chief Executive Officer of Sanofi, effective May 1, 2026, following formal shareholder approval at the company’s Annual General Meeting in Paris yesterday. The appointment marks one of the most significant leadership transitions in the global pharmaceutical industry this year.
Garijo brings a rare profile to the role, a physician by training who built her career at the crossroads of science, strategy, and large-scale business transformation. She most recently served as CEO and President of Merck for five years, where she led a sweeping repositioning of the healthcare business, establishing Merck as a recognised global player in oncology and immunology. Before that, she held senior roles at Sanofi-Aventis, including leading the integration of Genzyme following its landmark acquisition, a chapter that gives her an unusually deep familiarity with the organisation she now leads.
In welcoming the appointment, Sanofi’s Chairman of the Board Frédéric Oudéa described Garijo as possessing “a rare combination of scientific expertise and operational leadership,” adding that her approach, grounded in clarity of choices and consistency of implementation, would be critical to accelerating the company’s transformation.
Her mandate is clear: strengthen execution discipline, sharpen capital allocation, and more consistently translate Sanofi’s scientific pipeline into commercial performance. It is a challenge that combines the analytical rigour of a clinician with the strategic nerve of a seasoned executive, a combination Garijo has demonstrated across three decades at the top of the industry.
Sanofi, listed on both Euronext and Nasdaq, is one of the world’s largest biopharma companies, with a growing focus on AI-powered drug discovery and immunology. With Garijo at the helm, the company enters its next phase under leadership that is both deeply familiar with its DNA and externally tested at the highest level.
