This week Family Business Office, for its twentieth edition of Focus On World Family Business Leaders brings youAndre Hoffman, fourth generation heir of the drug company Roche Holding.

Andre Hoffman, is the great-grandson of Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche who founded the drug company Roche Holding in 1896, he is currently the vice-chairman of the company and as of November 2020, his estimated net worth is US$5.71 billion.

Born on 31 May 1958 in Basel, Switzerland. André Hoffmann is the son of Daria Hoffmann-Razumovsky and Luc Hoffmann, a conservationist and philanthropist.

He studied economics at the University of St. Gallen, and holds an MBA from INSEAD, completed in 1990.

1. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. was founded at a time when industrial revolution was changing the face of Europe. On October 1, 1896, at the age of 28, Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche launched his company as the successor company to Hoffmann, Traub & Co in Basel, Switzerland. He was among the first to recognise that the industrial manufacture of medicines would be a major advance in the fight against disease. Since then, Roche has grown into one of the world’s leading healthcare companies.

The family shareholder group that holds a 45.01% stake in Roche Ag in 2019 added seven members from the next generation to the group, saying the move underscored the family’s desire to preserve the pharmaceutical company’s independence long-term.

The shareholder pool, comprises of descendants of Roche founder Fritz Hoffman-La Roche, and now counts nine 5^thgeneration and six 4^th generation family members.

“We can thus provide the organization with the surety that our family, as in the past 120 years, will continue to commit to the stability of Roche’s shareholding in the coming decades,” Andre Hoffmann, speaker for the family shareholder pool and Roche vice-chairman, said in a statement.

André Hoffmann is an environmentalist, involved in a number of not-for-profit organizations and initiatives related to sustainability and nature conservation.

In 1998, he joined the WWF and served as vice-president of the organization from 2007 to 2017.

Since 2010, he has served as president of the MAVA Foundation, a major foundation in the field of nature preservation.

In 2016, he was appointed President of Fondation Tour du Valat, a French research institute dedicated to Mediterranean wetland conservation.

He has also served on the boards of Wetlands International, Global Footprint Network and FIBA.

In August 2018, Hoffmann and his wife Rosalie made a €40 million commitment to INSEAD, establishing the Hoffmann Global Institute for Business and Society. He is currently the chairman of its Advisory Board.

 

( All factual and statistical information presented in this blog has been obtained from an extract of an article Reuters.com, roche.com and Wikipedia.com ) Follow us on our Facebook page and Family Business Office website at www.familybusiness.org.mt

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