Víctor Grífols to step down, leaving son and brother at helm of company
<p>The group has announced that the succession plan will be rolled out over the coming year</p>
Chairman and CEO of Grífols Víctor Grífols Roura will step down in January 2017, succeeded jointly and severally by his son Víctor Grifols Deu and his brother Raimon, as the Catalan hemoderivatives company notified the Commission Nacional del Mercado de Valores. Nevertheless, Víctor Grífols Roura will stay on as non-executive chairman of the board of directors.
The succession plan was approved unanimously by the Grífols Remunerations and Appointment Committee on 10 December, establishing 2016 as a transition period to ensure a smooth, orderly handover. The plan also establishes that Thomas Glanzmann, chairman of the company’s US board of directors and former chairman of rival company Baxter, will be named non-executive vice-secretary to the board of directors.
The decision to complete the succession process in 2017 is tied to the fact that the current chairman will turn 67 that year, which is the same age his father was when he stepped down in 1987. Since then, the Grífols group has gone from focusing on the Spanish market to having a global presence, in more than 100 countries, and being publicly traded in Spain and the United States. “It is now time to hand over the executive responsibility of Grifols to a new generation that is well prepared and ready to reach the same level of success we have achieved since 1987. I am not worried because I have placed my confidence in the best candidates,” explained the current chairman of the board.
To complete the handover, the plan establishes that Víctor Grífols Deu will be named executive director at the next general shareholders’ meeting in 2016. Raimon Grífols, a partner in the Osborne Clarke law firm, previously held the position of director of the company and secretary of the board of directors. “My successors will be able to accept and face future challenges with greater objectivity than I could,” said Grífols Roura.
This succession will keep company management in the Grífols family (the company was founded by the current chairman’s grandfather), although after successive capital increases the family currently only holds approximately 25% of the company. The Grífols group, with its central headquarters in Barcelona, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year and is currently the leading producer of plasma-based biological drugs and plasma collector in the world, with 150 donation centers in the United States.