Former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis is set to become chair of GlaxoSmithKline’s new consumer health division, which is about to be spun-off from its parent company.
The division, which makes roughly £10bn of annual sales, will formally announce the pick of Lewis as the company’s non-executive chair on Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.
GSK announced in 2018 that it would spin off its toothpaste-to-vitamins unit to focus on “breakthrough medicine” and has come under pressure from activist investors such as US hedge fund Elliott Management to strengthen its pharma pipeline.
The UK drugmaker has built up its consumer division over the past six years, establishing joint ventures with Novartis and later Pfizer and adding brands such as Panadol painkillers and Caltrate supplements.
GSK did not respond to a request for comment about the appointment of Lewis, but one person familiar with the company said he would be a “world class hire” because of his experiences at Tesco and on other company boards.
When Lewis took over Tesco in 2014, he inherited a company that was reeling from an accounting scandal that resulted in fines and redress provisions running into the hundreds of millions of pounds. Lewis, who was previously at consumer goods group Unilever, was credited with rebuilding profitability at Tesco.
Since leaving Tesco, Lewis has joined the boards of US drinks company PepsiCo as well as energy start-up Xlinks. His appointment to GSK was first reported by Sky News.
His first job at GSK’s consumer health division will be to put together a board and prepare the company for its expected London listing, which would make it one of the 20 largest companies in the FTSE.
One priority for the newly-independent division will be the business of switching medicines from prescription-only to over-the-counter sale, where it owns brands such as Panadol painkillers, Theraflu cold and flu medicine and Otrivin decongestant.
Additional reporting by Hannah Kuchler
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