• Alessandro de Luca to become Group Chief Information Officer and Head of Information Technology
• Marc Horn will take on new role as Chief Transformation Officer Life Science
• Anke Schenkel appointed Head of Controlling Life Science
• Alexander Lind to head Group Controlling & Risk Management

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced important changes in its senior leadership team at Group level, effective December 1, to further expand its leading position in science and technology and to mobilize for accelerated growth in the coming years.

Alessandro de Luca, currently ad-interim Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) and Healthcare CIO, will take over the role as Group CIO and Head of Information Technology on a permanent basis, reporting to Marcus Kuhnert, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Financial Officer of Merck. Marc Horn, current Head of Controlling Life Science will become Chief Transformation Officer Life Science, reporting to Matthias Heinzel, Member of the Executive Board and CEO Life Science of Merck. Anke Schenkel, current Head of Group Controlling & Risk Management will follow Marc Horn as Head of Controlling Life Science, reporting to Marcus Kuhnert. Alexander Lind, who is currently Senior Director Group Controlling and Head of Business Planning & Analysis will succeed Anke Schenkel as Head of Group Controlling & Risk Management, also reporting to Marcus Kuhnert.

“Excellence in key enabling functions such as IT and Finance is absolutely mandatory to enable our growth ambition and successful path forward. Anke Schenkel, Alessandro de Luca and Alexander Lind will play key roles in this context. I am particularly pleased that all positions could be filled with colleagues from within our organization. This underlines the high quality of Merck’s top talent pipeline”, said Marcus Kuhnert.

“Under Marc Horn’s leadership the new Transformation Office will ensure flawless execution of many large and cross-functional programs and set up the appropriate support infrastructure and processes to help us achieve our long-term growth targets and business success. I am extremely happy that Marc Horn has accepted this new challenge at this crucial point in our journey and phase of unprecedented growth”, Matthias Heinzel added.

Alessandro de Luca joined Merck as Global Head of Supply Chain for the Healthcare business sector in Switzerland in 2011 and became Healthcare CIO in 2016. In his new role, de Luca will relocate to Darmstadt, Germany. Marc Horn has more than 20 years’ experience in different senior commercial and finance roles across the U.S., Germany, Singapore, and China. He will be based in Darmstadt, Germany. Anke Schenkel joined Merck from PricewaterhouseCoopers AG in 2010, as Head of M&A Controlling. Since then, she has held various leadership positions in Group Finance. Alexander Lind started at Merck as a Global Graduate Trainee in 2010, and since then has held various leadership positions in Group Finance and at Allergopharma, the former allergy business of Merck.