Genentech’s brief leadership interregnum is coming to an end as the company’s interim chief executive, Ashley Magargee, prepares to take a permanent place on the throne.
Magargee, who was tapped to temporarily steer the Roche subsidiary in November, will don the mantle of full-time CEO on Jan. 1, 2024, Genentech said Tuesday.
Magargee, who most recently headed up Genentech’s commercial portfolio in addition to her interim CEO duties, is taking the place of Alexander Hardy. Hardy hit the exit back in November and now serves as CEO of BioMarin.
Having served at Genentech since 2004, Magargee is no stranger to the South San Francisco-based drugmaker. In terms of her leadership pedigree, Magargee has operated in senior management positions at both Roche and Genentech across life cycle management, digital customer experience and market access, Genentech said in a release.
Genentech and its Swiss parent Roche have been locked in a complicated game of C-suite musical chairs since the summer of 2022.
Frequently, as with Magargee, Roche has looked inward for its executive replacements.
Take for example Roche’s CEO, Thomas Schinecker, who assumed the top spot in March after ascending from his role as chief of diagnostics. Schinecker earlier this year succeeded Roche’s longtime helmsman Severin Schwan, who himself graduated to the position of chairman of the company’s board.
Meanwhile, Genentech’s most recent CEO, Hardy, said he’d be leaving his post effective immediately last month. Hardy succeeded Jean-Jacques Bienaimé as CEO of BioMarin at the start of December.
Elsewhere at Roche, the Swiss life sciences giant last year lost pharma chief Bill Anderson, who later emerged as the new CEO of Bayer. In February, Roche enlisted insider Teresa Graham to fill Anderson’s shoes as pharma chief on a permanent basis