Martin Barner is the Head Sandoz HR Operations & Digital Solutions at Novartis, as well as being the Sandoz Spin HR Lead. He joined Novartis in 2014 as part of the Corporate Strategy team in Basel, and moved into HR for the first time in 2016 as Sandoz Head HR Strategy & Program Management Office. Prior to Novartis, Martin started his career in McKinsey & Company and have since worked for several companies in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries in both global, regional and local roles across a variety of functions, including strategy, marketing, sales and finance. Martin holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Copenhagen, doing part of his studies at the California Institute of Technology.

I thrive in a dynamic fast paced environment where focus is on driving performance while delivering impact towards a meaning purpose. I get to live this every day by being at the intersection of people and technology, as well as being part of leading the setup of Sandoz as a standalone company. Sandoz is intended to spin off from the rest of Novartis during second half of 2023. While having the opportunity to do this I get to build up two amazing teams of more than 150 talented associates from scratch under my direct leadership. This allows me to deliver on my own leadership purpose which is to explore and uncover what leads to human peak performance. Through this life-long journey I aim to empower and inspire my surroundings to reach their human potential.

Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Our purpose is to pioneer access for patients by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical needs. Our ambition is to be the world’s leading and most valued generics company. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering major therapeutic areas, accounted for 2022 sales of USD 9.2 billion. Novartis is reimagining medicine to improve and extend people’s lives. We deliver high-value medicines that alleviate society’s greatest disease burdens through technology leadership in R&D and novel access approaches. In our quest to find new medicines, we consistently rank among the world’s top companies investing in research and development. About 103,000 people of more than 140 nationalities work together to bring Novartis products to nearly 800 million people around the world.