Sebastian Braun, CEO of the CHEPLAPHARM Group, will take over the position of CEO at Braun Beteiligungs GmbH (BBG), the sole shareholder of the CHEPLAPHARM Group, on 1 January 2024. At the same time, he will move to the Supervisory Board of CHEPLAPHARM SE. He is thus handing over the business as CEO to Edeltraud Lafer, who has already been managing the CHEPLAPHARM Group together with him as Co-CEO since March 2021.
After 20 years at the helm of the CHEPLAPHARM Group, Sebastian Braun is handing over the baton to his long-trusted co-CEO Edeltraud Lafer at the end of the year. Sebastian Braun took over CHEPLPAPHARM in 2003 together with his sister Dr Bianca Juha and joined the management team. At the time of the takeover, the company had an annual turnover of 600,000 euros. Under the aegis of Sebastian Braun, CHEPLAPHARM has developed into a leading international pharmaceutical platform for established branded medicines and niche products. The company now employs more than 650 people at locations in Greifswald, France, Japan, Russia and Switzerland and generated annual sales of around 1.3 billion euros in 2022. By taking over the CEO position at BBG, Sebastian Braun will focus on the management of the holding company and his duties as a shareholder of the CHEPLAPHARM Group in the future. In addition, Sebastian Braun will remain with CHEPLAPHARM in an important function as a member of the Supervisory Board.
"BBG is the sole shareholder of CHEPLAPHARM SE. I will therefore continue to actively represent the interests of the owners in my new role as CEO of BBG and as a member of the Supervisory Board of CHEPLAPHARM SE," says Sebastian Braun. "I still feel very connected to the company. Now we want to continue the successful path of the recent years together and further expand the leading market position of the CHEPLAPHARM Group. After many years of trusting cooperation, I am firmly convinced that with Edeltraud at the helm, we are ideally positioned to lead CHEPLAPHARM into the next phase of growth."
Edeltraud Lafer has been with the company since 2014, first as Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer and since March 2021 as Co-CEO and Chairwoman of the Executive Board. From 1 January 2024, the Austrian-born CEO will be the sole Chairwoman of the Executive Board.
"The collaboration with Sebastian on the Executive Board was always characterised by great mutual trust," says Edeltraud Lafer. "We always had the common goal of developing CHEPLAPHARM from a medium-sized company into a leading international group . Today's CHEPLAPHARM would not have been possible without Sebastian's visionary thinking and pragmatism. Together with our employees and partners, we will continue to act as sparring partners in the future and continue the success story of CHEPLAPHARM."
Sebastian Braun's work as a member of the Executive Board of the des Bundesverbandes der Pharmazeutischen Industrie e.V. and as a member of the Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank will remain unaffected by this change.
CHEPLAPHARM acquires established branded medicines from the research-based pharmaceutical industry, thereby ensuring a continuous supply of these products. The company acquires several medicine-portfolios every year. Most recently, in July, CHEPLAPHARM acquired the global marketing rights for Zyprexa® from Eli Lilly and Company for over USD 1.3 billion. This is the largest transaction in CHEPLAPHARM's history to date.