Belen Garijo's immediate focus will be on Merck’s frontline role in the fight against Covid-19. — Reuters picFRANKFURT, May 3 — Belen Garijo has taken over as CEO at German pharmaceuticals giant Merck — the first woman to singlehandedly run a DAX 30-listed company — as Europe’s top economy debates quotas for greater boardroom equality.
Garijo previously served as the group’s deputy chief executive officer and head of its healthcare unit. German software group SAP made the first cracks in the glass ceiling in 2019 when it appointed Jennifer Morgan as co-CEO alongside a male executive. The German government introduced legislation in 2015 requiring women to make up 30 per cent of supervisory board seats in large companies, and Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet approved plans in January to introduce similar rules for executive boards.She has been credited with overhauling the department’s research and development and refocusing attention on fewer drugs with better prospects, boosting sales and profits, according to the Handelsblatt financial newspaper.
Under the draft law approved by Merkel’s government earlier this year, listed companies with four executives or more must appoint at least one woman to their executive boards. Seventy-three groups would be impacted by the new rules, among which 32 currently have no female representation in the executive suite, according to government data.