BD Announces CEO Transition: Tom Polen to Succeed Vince Forlenze as Global Chief Executive

Global CEO Change.

New Global CEO to Take Office Soon

On September 27, BD officially announced that, following approval by the BD Global Board of Directors, Tom Polen, the current Global President and Chief Operating Officer, would succeed as CEO on January 28, 2020.

According to official information, the newly appointed CEO is 46 years old and has worked at BD for 18 years. He currently oversees BD's three major business segments: Medical, Interventional, and Life Sciences. Additionally, he is responsible for the company's global research and development and innovation efforts, as well as its operational management in North America.

Current Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vince Forlenze will retire on January 28, 2020. After retirement, Vince will continue to serve on the company's Board of Directors.

During his tenure as Global President of BD, Tom achieved remarkable performance; in 2017, he spearheaded the $24 billion acquisition of CR Bard.

Previously, Tom served as President of BD’s Medical Segment, completing the $12 billion acquisition of CareFusion in 2015.

Franz Lanze has worked at BD for over 38 years, holding multiple management positions globally, in the United States, and in Europe.

Change of President of the Life Sciences Segment

Leadership changes have recently been made in the Life Sciences segment, one of BD’s three major business units.

On June 19, 2019, in San Jose, California, BD announced the appointment of Puneet Sarin as Global President of its wholly owned subsidiary, BD Biosciences (Life Sciences), responsible for the global strategy, operations, and commercial performance of BD Biosciences.

Prior to joining BD, Puneet served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Chemistry and Immunoassay business unit at Beckman Coulter, a Danaher Corporation company.

Puneet has worked at Danaher for nearly six years. Prior to this, he held other positions at Beckman Coulter in the Chemistry & Immunoassay and Pathology Imaging (Leica Biosystems) business units.

Prior to joining Beckman Coulter, Puneet worked at General Electric, where he held leadership and executive roles across the Industrial, Energy, and Healthcare sectors.

According to the publicly disclosed financial report data of BD Group, the fiscal year 2018 achieved a revenue of $16 billion, a year-on-year increase of 32.2%. Of this, 24.5% of the growth came from the acquisition of Bard mentioned above.

In terms of business share, the Medical segment is the largest, accounting for 54%, followed by the Life Sciences segment at 27%, and the Interventional segment in third place with 19%.

Among these, the contribution from international markets played a crucial role, with China leading the way, BD achieved considerable revenue in emerging markets.

BD in China, Localization

BD has been in China for more than 20 years. Like many multinational corporations, it has been continuously advancing its localization strategy in areas such as research and development, manufacturing, and marketing.

In the medical device sector, in October 2018, BD and Sinopharm Holdings established a strategic partnership alliance, under which both parties will collaborate in the field of medical products and services in China.

Regarding the strategic cooperation with BD, the Chairman of Sinopharm Group stated that BD is one of the largest medical device companies globally, while Sinopharm Group’s distribution and delivery network covers all 31 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) across China. Leveraging their respective competitive advantages in product technology and market services, both parties foresee extensive prospects for future collaboration.

In the pharmaceutical sector, in 2018, BD China announced a strategic partnership with China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial (full name: China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial Group Co., Ltd.) to establish the “Innovative Commercial Channel Project,” officially authorizing China Resources Pharmaceutical Medical Devices Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial, as the national exclusive distributor for five basic consumable products—syringes (including single-use auto-disable vaccine syringes), anesthesia kits, three-way stopcocks, heparin caps, and two types of indwelling needle products.

It is reported that the collaboration was officially launched on February 1, 2018, for a duration of five years.

For BD, the two strategic collaborations leverage China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial’s robust market capabilities and nationwide sales network, with these dual advantages supporting BD in China’s consumables market.

Sinopharm Holding will support BD in terms of marketing networks and market services, promote channel penetration to expand BD’s market coverage, and provide distribution services for BD’s product lines at project hospitals where Sinopharm Holding implements centralized distribution and SPD (Supply, Processing, and Distribution) services.

For both China Resources Pharmaceutical Commercial and Sinopharm Holdings, they have obtained the BD product line through strategic cooperation to provide distribution services.