Sanofi's Executive Leadership Reshuffle: The Key Changes

Sanofi has announced a reshaped Executive Committee and key leadership changes as the pharmaceutical giant prepares for its next phase of growth, bringing together a streamlined executive team from across its commercial businesses, research organisations and global functions.

Belén Garijo, CEO at Sanofi, says the refreshed leadership team will help guide the company through its next stage of development while maintaining a strong focus on patients and innovation.

"This Executive Committee brings together experienced professionals who will work together to help shape our future direction, make disciplined choices, execute them with focus and ensure we continue to deliver for our patients, our people and all our stakeholders," she says.

A new chapter

As of 1 September 2026, Sanofi's Executive Committee will comprise:

• Paulo Fontoura, Executive Vice President, Head of Research & Development (Formerly Chief Medical Officer at Xaira Therapeutics)
• Thomas Grenier, Executive Vice President, General Medicines (Formerly Head of North America, Vaccines)
• François Roger, Executive Vice President, Finance (Formerly Chief Financial Officer)
• Jamie Haney, Executive Vice President, General Counsel (Formerly Senior Vice President - General Counsel North America & Global Specialty Care)
• Véronique Jaillet, Executive Vice President, Interim Chief People Officer (Formerly Head of Global Human Resources Manufacturing & Supply)
• Manuela Buxo, Executive Vice President, Specialty Care 
• Thomas Triomphe, Executive Vice President, Vaccines
• Brendan O’Callaghan, Executive Vice President, Manufacturing & Supply

Paulo Fontoura is a new hire who will join Sanofi on 1 September 2026 from AI-focused biotechnology company Xaira Therapeutics, where he served as Chief Medical Officer.

Discussing his new role on LinkedIn, Paulo writes, “I am incredibly excited to be joining Belén Garijo and everyone at team Sanofi in this new role, to work together to create an amazing pipeline of new medicines that will make a real difference in the lives of patients. 

“I am convinced that we stand at the threshold of a revolution in biopharma R&D, where we can combine our deepening understanding of disease biology with new computational tools in AI/ML to derive new insights that will solve the most complex biology problems and create cures for many more diseases around the world.”

New responsibilities for key executives 

In addition to the refreshed Executive Committee, Sanofi announced that several key figures in its leadership team have taken on new responsibilities as part of the reshuffle.

Thomas Triomphe will add responsibility for China alongside his existing role as Executive Vice President of Vaccines, while Olivier Charmeil will step down as Executive Vice President of General Medicines to become Strategic Projects Advisor to CEO Belén Garijo.

Madeleine Roach will become President and Country Lead for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, with her Business Operations responsibilities being absorbed into Sanofi's Finance division under François Roger.

The expanded finance function will also take responsibility for Global Partnering and Business Development, bringing business development and mergers and acquisitions activities under a single leadership structure.

The company says the move is intended to create a more integrated approach to identifying and executing strategic growth opportunities.

Maintaining 2026’s momentum

The leadership changes follow a busy first half of 2026 for Sanofi, marked by a series of regulatory milestones and pipeline advances. 

In June, the European Commission approved Sanofi’s Cenrifki medication as the first disability-targeting treatment for secondary progressive multiple sclerosis without relapses, while the company also secured US approval for Tzield as the first disease-modifying therapy for recently diagnosed stage 3 type 1 diabetes. 

Sanofi has also made strong progress in strengthening its rare disease portfolio in 2026 after receiving US approval for an on-body injector version of its multiple myeloma therapy Sarclisa Escena and reporting positive Phase III results for Nexviazyme in infantile-onset Pompe disease.