Dr Holdener has over 20 years of international pharmaceutical senior executive experience and was most recently Chief Medical Officer of F. Hoffman-La Roche's Pharma Division. He was also Global Head of Pharmaceutical Drug Development at Roche where he was instrumental in establishing and expanding Roche's therapeutic areas and in achieving several key international approvals for oncology, rheumatology, and virology drugs such as MabThera. He also led Roche's development operations in Japan for three years and was a member of the Chugai Co. acquisition and integration team during the Roche/Chugai merger in 2001. Dr Holdener holds a medical degree from the University of Zurich and completed a two year clinical and experimental fellowship in oncology at the University of Kansas Medical School, USA.