Kunio takeda biography of christopher

Takeda, Asia’s largest pharmaceutical company, caused a sensation in November when it announced that it intended to appoint Christophe Weber, a French 47 year old outsider from GlaxoSmithKline, as its next CEO, subject to board approval.

Not only is he not Japanese, but he is much younger than the average Japanese President, and he is the 20 year old veteran of another rival company.

He was not unknown to Takeda however, as he was key member in the collaboration between Takeda and GSK on a vaccine joint venture.

However, when I discussed this appointment with the President of a Japanese start up company in the same healthcare sector he was not impressed – “a paucity of management” on the current CEO Yasukichi Hasegawa’s part, he harrumphed.

Hasegawa himself had been appointed by Kunio Takeda, scion of the founding family, in 2003, with Takeda stating “I’ve reached the limit of what I can do to globalize the company”.

Hasegawa took