Róbert Wessman is the visionary behind Alvotech, known for his passion for improving patient lives and the global healthcare ecosystem, his unwavering focus and his ability to successfully combine operational efficiency with growth through strategic acquisitions. He recognized the potential early on for locating a biotechnology company in Iceland and founded Alvotech in 2013, further contributing to the pharmaceutical industry growth there.

Prior to founding Alvotech, Róbert Wessman transformed Actavis, originally a small domestic pharmaceutical company, into the fourth largest generics company in the world within 7 years as CEO. He also founded Alvogen in 2009 as a US-based CMO prior to growing it into a top global generics company over the course of 6 years. In total over his more than 20-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, he has led over 50 strategic acquisitions and partnerships and established operations in over 60 countries around the world.

His leadership and achievements have made him the subject of three Harvard Business School Case Studies, “Róbert Wessman and the Actavis Winning Formula” (2008), “Alvogen” (2015) and “Alvogen: Scaling Entrepreneurship” (2018). Róbert is a business graduate and former lecturer at the University of Iceland.

Róbert Wessman

Hafrun Fridriksdottir served as the Executive Vice President and Head of Global R&D at Teva from 2017-2021. She also led Global Generic R&D for Allergan, previously Actavis, until the company merged with Teva in 2016. At Teva, Dr. Fridriksdottir was responsible for all global development activities, including innovative medicines, biosimilars and generics. 

Dr. Fridriksdottir holds a PhD in Physical Pharmacy from the University of Iceland. She has been a strong advocate for diversity and equal opportunity in pharma and was recognized in 2021 by the Association of Icelandic Women in Business (FKA) for her work on motivating and supporting women in business.

Hafrun Fridriksdottir

With over 20 years of international experience in biotechnology, healthcare, and financial services as an executive and corporate lawyer, Tanya Zharov brings with her a strong track record in business and innovation-driven global life science to Alvotech. Tanya is responsible for all legal affairs of the company, compliance, and security and serves as the Board Secretary. 

Prior to joining Alvotech, she was the deputy CEO and Compliance Officer at deCODE genetics, a renowned Icelandic world leader in human genetics acquired by Amgen in 2012. A lawyer by training, she also acted as Corporate Counsel, leading the securities regulation and compliance team behind deCODE’s US IPO, the first of its kind for an Icelandic company. 

In-between her stints at deCODE, Tanya was a Founding Partner and Deputy CEO of Audur Capital, an Icelandic securities firm, where her responsibilities spanned legal affairs, wealth management, corporate finance, private equity, and capital markets. She is a specialist in US and global public markets law, regulation, and best practices. Early in her career, Tanya served as a Tax Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and holds a Cand. Juris law degree from the University of Iceland. Tanya is a European Patent Attorney.

Tanya Zharov

Joe McClellan leads the company’s R&D functions, with overarching responsibility for bringing Alvotech’s biosimilar candidates to market. He is an insightful scientist and passionate leader, overseeing R&D operations across our sites in Iceland, Germany, Switzerland and the US. He brings with him an outstanding track record in drug development and 20 years of extensive industry experience driving forward R&D programs, while ensuring strategic and operational excellence. 

Prior to joining Alvotech, Joe worked at Wyeth and Pfizer for 17 years and developed broad experience in all areas of biologic medicine development including biosimilars, innovator biologics, pharmaceutical science, clinical development, regulatory strategy and discovery research. In his last role, he held the position of Global Head of Biosimilars Development and was the asset team lead for Pfizer’s biosimilar infliximab, IXIFI. During Joe’s tenure leading biosimilar development at Pfizer, the company secured major market approvals for 6 unique biosimilar molecules and submitted applications for 2 additional unique biosimilars that were subsequently approved. 

Joe earned a Ph.D. degree in Chemistry, with a focus in Analytical Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry, from the University of Florida. In addition, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in Mass Spectrometry and Analytical Biochemistry at the Boston University School of Medicine and received his MBA, with a focus on innovation and business growth in high-technology industries, from Northeastern University. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from the College of the Holy Cross.

Joseph E. McClellan

Joel Morales has served as Alvotech’s Chief Financial Officer since February 2020 after holding the same role for affiliated company Alvogen since 2017. Prior to joining Alvotech he held various positions of increasing responsibility with Endo International plc., with his last position as Senior Vice President of the Generics Business Segment and Global Finance Operations. Prior to that, Joel spent ten years working for large multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Merck and Schering Plough.

Joel is a licensed certified public accountant in the State of New Jersey and has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Rutgers University.

Joel Morales

Sarah Tanksley leads the quality function at Alvotech, bringing 20 years of experience from U.S. regulatory agencies and as an industry consultant to the company.

Prior to joining Alvotech Sarah worked at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) and at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and as an industry consultant. She also teaches graduate courses in GMP compliance and Regulatory Affairs as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Program at Georgetown University School of Medicine and with the Advanced Academic Program at Johns Hopkins University.

Sarah has an MS degree in Bioscience Regulatory Affairs from Johns Hopkins University, as well as an MS degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Sarah Tanksley

Anil Okay comes to Alvotech with an impressive track record as a general manager, P&L owner, commercial operations professional and expert negotiator, completing countless license, acquisition, supply, distribution, and sales and marketing agreements, worth >$25B. Over the course of his 15-year career in the pharmaceutical industry, Anil developed an extensive network and deep expertise in Commercial Operations, BD and M&A, which he oversees for Alvotech. Anil played an integral role in building and establishing Alvotech’s go-to-market strategy, securing partnerships in more than 100 countries worldwide. Concurrently, he started Adalvo in 2018 and built it up to becoming one of the leading B2B companies in Europe. 

Prior to his experience as CCO of Alvotech and GM and Board Member of Adalvo, Anil was Head of Global Licensing for HELM AG where he managed all partnerships for small molecules in addition to biosimilars through a joint venture with Gedeon Richter, resulting in the most successful commercial performance in the company’s 40-year history. He also held positions of increasing responsibility at Abdi Ibrahim, in various regions and functions, eventually heading all international market operations where he developed and led the successful execution of a global market entry strategy including more than 30 new markets. He began his career at Sanofi as a medical rep and transitioned to business development. 

Anil holds an MBA from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and a Master of Marketing Management from Galatasaray University. He completed a Bachelor of Engineering with a double major in Mathematics and Computer Engineering, graduating with honors. He has continued honing his skillset through various executive education programs at Harvard and INSEAD.

Anil was recognized “Leader of the Year” at the 2021 Global Generics and Biosimilars Awards.

Anil Okay

Giedrius Zunda served as the CEO of Northway Biotech, a biologics CDMO and as an Executive Consultant in Wellgem Biopharma, a consulting company for biopharma, prior to joining Alvotech. He also directed Teva Baltics’ biologics development and manufacturing site in Lithuania. Giedrius has been responsible for biologics/biosimilars molecule manufacturing and successful approval by European and US regulatory agencies, completing FDA PAI/GMP inspections and supporting product launches. He has also managed expanding operations internationally, product portfolio additions and diversification, as well as establishment of new facilities for biologics development and manufacturing.

Giedrius holds an MS degree in biotechnology from the Vilnius Gediminas Technical University and EMBA from the Baltic Management Institute, Lithuania.

Giedrius Zunda

Ella Sigga joins Alvotech with deep expertise in human resource management and administration. With over 20 years of experience in HR-related leadership roles, she is passionate about improving employee relations, streamlining processes and increasing operational efficiency. Most recently, Ella Sigga was head of Human Resources at the EFLA Consulting Engineers, a firm focused on high quality engineering and consulting services worldwide. 

Prior to that, she was head of the Human Resources and Quality division of Reykjavík University where she was also a lecturer. During this time, she also sat on the board and was Chairman for Mannauður, the Icelandic association for people management, where she supported knowledge sharing to advance professionalism in HR management in Iceland. Ella Sigga began her career in the healthcare industry at deCODE genetics, a renowned world leader in human genetics, where she spent 14 years in roles of increasing responsibility, including Head of HR.

She completed an Advanced Management Program at IESE Business School and holds a Master of Science in International HR Management and Globalization from the University of Leicester, along with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Industrial Relations from the University of Iceland.

Sigridur Elin Gudlaugsdottir

Ming Li leads key strategic initiatives, investor relations and communications as Alvotech’s Chief Strategy Officer. Over the past 20 plus years he has cultivated significant and broad experience in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries across a variety of roles in R&D, quality, operations, process improvement, finance and corporate development. 

Most recently, Ming was EVP of Corporate Development for Alvogen, a top, global generics player where he was instrumental in the company’s growth and development as one of its first employees. Prior to joining Alvogen, Ming held a leadership role at Actavis, focused on operations and process improvement.

Ming began his career as a Chemist and holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from North Carolina State University. He also holds a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.  

Ming Li

Rose-Marie brings a wealth of experience as a public CIO to her role at Alvotech. Rose-Marie joins us from Sobi; an international biopharmaceutical company focused on rare diseases, arising from the merger between Biovitrum AB and Swedish Orphan International in 2010. Since 2002, Rose-Marie has held roles of increasing responsibility in the IT organization at Biovitrum/Sobi, culminating in her appointment as Group CIO four years ago. Prior to joining Biovitrum, Rose-Marie spent 10 years working for SEB, a leading Nordic bank and financial services group, in various HQ and international roles.

Rose-Marie holds a finance degree in business administration and economics from the Mittuniversitetet, Sundsvall and Härnösand.

Rose-Marie Ohlsson

Alvotech is the product of decades of collective experience as accomplished industry leaders and a shared commitment to biosimilars. It is our leaders that inspire our teams to action.

One mission, decades of experience.