Kris Sterkens Company Group Chairman - EMEA Janssen

Since starting his career at Janssen in Belgium over 30 years ago, Kris Sterkens has worked within many teams across EMEA, Asia Pacific and the United States.

Kris is currently the Company Group Chairman of Janssen EMEA, a role that he was appointed in April 2017. Under his leadership the EMEA region has outperformed expectations year-on-year and achieved record growth despite the challenging market and geopolitical landscape. An advocate for embracing change, Kris has led the regions response to the increasing digitalisation of healthcare, while driving further collaboration both within and outside the Industry to find better solutions for our Patients, Customers and the Communities in which we work. Kris is also a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Association (EFPIA) Board.

With effect of 1st April 2020, alongside his role as CGC EMEA, Kris was named Managing Director of Janssen Pharmaceutica. Becoming part of the Belgium Campus Leadership Team has always been an ambition of Kris’ as it was there that he began his career with the company, and he is passionate about the significance the site holds to J&J as a company, and Belgium overall.

Kris is dedicated to honouring the wider societal responsibility Janssen and J&J have as an organisation, and to support this effort he took on the role of Chairman of the J&J Foundation for the EMEA region in December 2019. He is also a keen advocate of Inclusion and Diversity and the Executive Sponsor for the J&J Open & Out initiative in the region.

Prior to 2017, Kris spent over three years in Singapore as Company Group Chairman Janssen Asia Pacific. During his time there Janssen Asia Pacific achieved notable milestones, including a return to growth in China. Kris also led teams in Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India to industry-leading growth. Through-out his career, Kris has demonstrated exceptional leadership and an ability to identify talent and develop leaders. While in Asia Pacific, he introduced Company Group Chairman’s Dialogue, a talent development programme which has engaged more than 100 emerging leaders. This program continues to run in Asia today and has since been established in EMEA.

Before relocating to Asia, Kris was responsible for EMEA Market Access, alongside his role as Managing Director of the region’s Mid-Sized Markets. He has also previously held the Managing Director for Janssen in the Netherlands, the Benelux countries, and Germany.

Kris started his career at Janssen in the Finance team before switching to General Management. While in finance he held the position of Vice President, Finance and Chief Finance Officer (CFO) for Janssen EMEA.

Kris holds a degree in Applied Economics from the University of Antwerp, a Master’s degree in Financial Management, and an MBA from the Solvay Business School in Brussels. Kris is fluent in Dutch, English, German, and French and is a frequent speaker at business schools, medical and patient group events, and Industry meetings. He is also active on social media and you can follow his thoughts on LinkedIn / Kris Sterkens