Elmar Schnee

Elmar Schnee, born in 1959 in Switzerland, received a degree in Marketing Management at the Zurich-based Schweizerisches Institut für Betriebsökonomie (Swiss Institute for Business Administration).

In 1980, he started his career at a Swiss advertising agency and then pursued a series of management positions in marketing and sales in the consumer goods industry. In 1988, he joined the Swiss subsidiary of UK-based Fisons Pharmaceutical as Marketing and Sales Director. He transferred to the company’s UK headquarters in 1992 and was appointed Head of CNS and CV Marketing worldwide. Schnee took a position as Vice President Consulting at U.S.-based Migliara/Kaplan Associates in 1996 before moving to Paris as the Director of the Business Unit Thrombosis for Sanofi-Synthélabo in 1997. In 1999, he joined UCB Pharma in Brussels, initially as Group Director Global Marketing, Licensing and Strategy and later as Managing Director of UCB Farchim S.A., a global pharmaceutical firm headquartered in Switzerland.

In May 2003, Schnee took a directorship position at the Merck subsidiary Merck Santé S.A.S. in Lyon, France. In addition to his duties at the French subsidiary, he assumed responsibility for the global operations of the Ethicals division in January 2004 and was named Head of the Ethicals division in 2005.

In November 2005, he was appointed Deputy Member of the Executive Board and Head of the Pharmaceuticals business sector. In 2006, he was appointed Member of the Executive Board of Merck KGaA and General Partner of Merck KGaA.

External supervisory board mandates
Board Member of ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Australia