Malik is Matrix CEO

New executive management

Matrix Laboratories Limited, the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical major, has made changes in the executive management structure to pursue global growth opportunities and to evolve as a growing force in the global generic pharmaceutical industry.

As part of these changes, N Prasad, hitherto chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), will assume the executive chairman position to focus more on strategic issues. He will be assisted by the newly-formed Corporate Advisory Board (CAB), and Rajiv Malik, who has been appointed as the CEO, the company stated in a press release here on Monday.

Malik, who will take charge as the CEO on July 18, was associated with Sandoz, the world's largest generics company and the generics arm of Novartis, as its head of Global Development & Registration, based at Vienna, Austria.

At Sandoz, Malik was responsible for its worldwide product flow, global project management and M&A strategy, besides overall planning, strategising, budgeting & resource allocation and necessary interaction with the customers.

He was also responsible for overseeing the network of eight development centres of Sandoz worldwide with around 1,000 scientists and an annual budget of $250 million.

Malik also had a 12-year stint with Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited during which he served as the head of pharma research, head of global regulatory affairs and assistant director for product development. Malik has about 60 formulation process patents and 10 publications in pharmaceutical journals to his credit.

As part of the latest changes, C Satyanarayana, hitherto the chief operating officer, and G Prabhu Kishore, hitherto the executive vice-president (human resources and management services), have decided to relinquish their executive positions to join the newly-formed CAB.

C Ramakrishna, who was earlier the executive vice-president (corporate finance and corporate services), and Sundara Rajan, who retired on June 30 as the executive vice-president (strategic business planning), have also joined the CAB.

The philosophy in forming the CAB is to utilise the expertise of the core team, who built Matrix, more at strategic and planning level than at the execution level. Satyanarayana and Ramakrishna will continue to be on the board of directors of the company.

"These latest initiatives are in line with the commitment to the shareholders to institutionalise the company. Now, with these changes, we have a strong corporate advisory team, management team and operating team in place. The appointment of Rajiv Malik as the CEO will add a lot of management depth to the company and will enable us to pursue the new growth strategies globally," N Prasad said.