Markus is an international commercial leader with over 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. In his career, he had a broad spectrum of functional roles (Research & Development, Sales & Marketing, Business Development, M&A, Strategy and Consulting, General Management) and professional experience across geographies (US, Europe and Asia).
Markus joined Novartis in 2003 as Strategy Director for the Infectious Diseases unit at Novartis Headquarters in Switzerland. After starting the initial Strategic Marketing Group in Basel he held positions of increasing responsibility including Business Franchise Head CVM in Germany and Launch Leader in Global Marketing in Basel. Afterwards, Markus became Commercial Head in Region AMAC (Asia-Pacific, Middle East & African Countries) where he was responsible for Marketing, Sales and Market Access across 38 countries. Markus became CEO & President of Novartis Pharma in Taiwan in 2011 before starting as Global Business Franchise Head Ophthalmics in 2013.
Since October 2014, Markus is leading the Cardio-Metabolic Business for Novartis Pharma and responsible for the global franchise strategy, commercialization and development of the long-term business portfolio in the therapeutic areas Heart Failure, Atherosclerosis, and Metabolism.
Prior to Novartis, he was Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in Germany providing strategy consulting for the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industry sectors. Markus joined the pharmaceutical industry as scientist in the drug discovery unit at Hoechst in Germany.
Markus received his engineering degree in Biotechnology from Fachhochschule Weihenstephan in Germany. In 1998, he obtained his Ph.D. in Biological and Biomedical Sciences from Harvard Medical School, USA.
