NETHERLANDS – Royal Philips, a global company in health technology, announced that Willem (Wim) Appelo will join Philips’ Executive Committee, effective July 18, 2022, and succeed Sophie Bechu as Chief Operations Officer effective October 1, 2022.
Appelo will report to Philips CEO Frans van Houten and work closely with Bechu to ensure a seamless transition.
Appelo is succeeding Sophie Bechu as COO and will be reporting to Philips CEO Frans van Houten. Bechu will step down from her role in October 2022 and will work on project-based initiatives at Philips until her retirement in January 2023.
Bechu, who joined Philips in 2016, will step down from her role on October 1, 2022, after which she will work on project-based initiatives until she retires at the end of January, 2023, a statement said.
Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips took the opportunity to thank Sophie Bechu for the contribution and dedication she made to the company.
“I want to thank Sophie for her highly valuable contribution to Philips and her relentless focus and deep commitment to establishing Philips’ Integrated Supply Chain organization since joining in 2016.
“During that time, she successfully optimized our supplier base and manufacturing footprint, continually driving operational excellence with a customer-first mindset.”
Appelo will join Philips after having worked as interim Supply Chain Officer, and with private equity firms in the medical technology industry for the last year.
Before that, he was Vice President Supply Chain Strategy, Innovation & Deployment at Johnson & Johnson, where he led the Enterprise Supply Chain Global Strategy and Innovation team across the company’s three operating segments: Pharma, Consumer Health, and Medical Devices.
Prior to that, Appelo was Johnson & Johnson’s Vice President Supply Chain Medical Devices.
Prior to joining Johnson & Johnson, he held various senior positions at Xerox Corporation, ultimately as President, Global Delivery and Technology Group, where he was responsible for Xerox’s then newly-created Global Supplies Business Group.
“I am very pleased that Wim Appelo will be joining Philips as our new Chief Operations Officer,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips.
He added that “Wim brings a wealth of relevant experience to Philips, adding in-depth knowledge and understanding of medical technology and informatics supply chain management, which will help Philips accelerate its journey to becoming a health technology solutions leader.”
Appelo’s appointment to Philips’ Executive Committee builds on last year’s appointment of Shez Partovi, MD, as Chief Medical, Innovation & Strategy Officer, and member of Philips’ Executive Committee.
Dr. Partovi brings highly relevant experience to Philips given his prior roles as neuroradiologist at the Barrow Neurological Institute, Chief Digital Officer at Dignity Health, and Worldwide Head of Healthcare, Life Sciences and Medical Devices at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the statement said.
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