Belén Garijo shared a post on LinkedIn:

“We at Merck Group are a global company of 63,000 colleagues across 65 countries. Yet Darmstadt, Germany is our home. It´s not only our global headquarters but a vital engine for innovation and growth. Today, we further strengthened our foundations in Darmstadt.

Together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and many other honored guests, we laid the cornerstone for our new Advanced Research Center (ARC). This €300 million project is our largest-ever R and D investment in Life Science. It will bring together the very best in biotech and digital tech and extend our leadership in the growth areas that will redefine tomorrow.

The ARC is one of over a dozen major Merck projects underway in Darmstadt. Together, they represent a total investment of more than €1.5 Billion. We call it the Merck Innovation Mile. The discoveries that will happen across this mile full of talent and technology will resonate across Germany, Europe, and the world. I can’t wait to see the ARC become a reality.”

Source: Belén Garijo/LinkedIn

Belén Garijo is the Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. She joined the company in 2011 as Chief Operating Officer of the Biopharma business, becoming President and CEO of Healthcare in 2015. In July 2020, Belén Garijo was appointed Vice Chairman of the Executive Board and Deputy CEO in addition to her role as CEO of the Healthcare business. She moved from Deputy CEO to CEO in May 2021. Under her leadership, Healthcare at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, has become a key player in the area of oncology, immunology and immuno-oncology, after the profound repositioning of the portfolio, the reorganization of R&D and the transformation of the commercial model.

Before joining Merck, Belén Garijo served as the Senior Vice President of Global Operations Europe at Sanofi-Aventis and Global Integration Leader of Genzyme after its acquisition by Sanofi. She previously held several local and global executive positions, both in R&D and commercial, at various companies at the forefront of the Healthcare sector. She started her career as a practicing physician at La Paz hospital in Madrid before moving to the pharmaceutical industry. She is a medical doctor, specialized in clinical pharmacology.