Over the past 25 years, Róbert has built a global reputation as a leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars, creating and growing enterprises with a singular purpose: to make life-changing medicines more affordable and readily available to people and patients around the world. He has founded and led a number of 'unicorns' —- global enterprises worth more than $1bn — in this space. His companies include generics makers and distributors Actavis, Alvogen, Medis, Adalvo and Lotus, as well as Iceland-based biosimilars pioneer Alvotech. His achievements and business strategies have been the subject of three Harvard Busines School case studies.

Róbert was born and raised in Iceland. He attended public schools in the Reykjavik area and received his BA in business administration from the University of Iceland. In 1999, at the age of 29, Róbert left his position in the Hamburg office of an Icelandic shipping line and returned to Iceland to become CEO of a near bankrupt local drugmaker, Delta. Merged with another local pharmaceutical company, Actavis was born, and by the time Róbert stepped down as CEO in 2008 to found Alvogen, it had grown to be one of the world's largest generics companies. He has been leading force for growth and innovation in the sector ever since. 

He puts his mission in simple terms: "We live in an age of incredible medical progress, but a wonder drug is only worthy of the name if it's accessible to everyone that needs it. I work to make that happen." 

Róbert Wessman

With over 25 years of international experience in biotechnology, healthcare and financial services as an executive and corporate lawyer, Tanya Zharov brings a strong track record in business and innovation-driven global life science to Alvotech. A lawyer by training, as General Counsel Tanya is responsible for all legal affairs of the company, compliance and security and serves as Board Secretary.

Prior to joining Alvotech in 2020, from 2016 she was the Deputy CEO and Compliance Officer of deCODE genetics, a renowned Icelandic biotech and world leader in human genetics, that was acquired by Amgen in 2012. She was also deCODE’s Corporate Counsel from 1999 to 2007. In this capacity she led the securities regulation and compliance team behind deCODE’s US IPO in 2000, the first time that shares of an Icelandic company were admitted to trading on a US stock exchange.

In-between her stints at deCODE genetics, from 2008 to 2015 Tanya was a Founding Partner and Deputy CEO of Audur Capital, an Icelandic securities firm. Her responsibilities included legal affairs, wealth management, corporate finance, private equity, and capital markets. Tanya is a specialist in US and global public markets law, regulation, and best practices. Early in her career, she served as a Tax Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She holds a Cand. Juris law degree from the University of Iceland and is a European Patent Attorney.

Tanya Zharov

Linda held senior roles for 15 years at Marel, a global leader in food processing technology, including Director of Treasury and Investor Relations, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, until stepping down in 2024. She's also worked at Sidekick Health, Eimskip, Burdaras and Straumur investment bank. Linda has served on various boards, including in banking, private equity funds, and at the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce. 

Linda Jónsdóttir

As Chief Operating Officer, Joe McClellan leads the company’s Research & Development (R&D) and Technical Operations (TechOps) functions, with overarching responsibility for bringing Alvotech’s biosimilars to market. He is an insightful scientist and passionate leader, overseeing R&D and TechOps operations across our sites in Iceland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, India and the US. He brings with him an outstanding track record in medicine development and commercialization, with over 20 years of extensive industry experience driving forward R&D programs and bringing important medicines to patients, 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. 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

Anthony M. Maffia III joined Alvotech in 2024. He has over two decades of regulatory affairs experience and leadership in navigating the complex regulatory landscape for biosimilars.

Prior to joining Alvotech, Anthony served as Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, North America for Sandoz and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, North America for Glenmark. He started his regulatory career at Ranbaxy and then Actavis, as US Regulatory Affairs Manager. Actavis is now part of Teva Pharmaceuticals.  Prior to focusing on regulatory affairs, Anthony worked a research biologist at DuPont Merck Pharmaceuticals utilizing his love of science to identify new drug targets.

Anthony M. Maffia III

With over 30 years of experience in industry and investment banking, Jóhann G. Jóhannsson brings a wealth of experience and track record of successful mergers, acquisitions, corporate funding and business development to Alvotech. Jóhann was the Managing Director of Kaupthing Bank Stockholm and Head of Risk Management and Treasury at Icelandair. He joined Alvogen as Vice President of M&A and Corporate Funding and was a co-founder of Alvotech. He has served on the board of numerous companies in multiple markets.  Jóhann has a degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Lund, Sweden and did his postgraduate studies in International Economics at the University of Birmingham.

Jóhann G. Jóhannsson

A medical doctor by training, Dr. Prasad has 25 years' experience in the pharmaceutical industry, first as a consultant and subsequently as a financial and equities analyst focused on the specialty pharma and healthcare sectors. He was most recently a director and highly ranked equities analyst at Barclays, covering US specialty pharma and with Alvotech in his portfolio. He served previously as portfolio manager at a Swiss asset management firm focusing on global specialty pharma and generics and led Barclays' and Goldman Sachs' India healthcare coverage from Mumbai. He earned his MD from Bangalore Medical College and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. 

Dr. Balaji Prasad, MD

Kathryn Gunnarsson brings over 20 years of leadership experience in HR, talent, and organizational culture across diverse industries worldwide. Since relocating from London to Reykjavík in 2016, she has focused on building high-performing teams and fostering strong leadership capabilities. Before joining Alvotech, Kathryn founded and led consulting agencies that specialized in guiding companies in the tech, innovation, and service sectors through transformative leadership and people strategies.

A Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), Kathryn has a proven track record in strengthening organizational culture and enabling teams to thrive across multiple regions.

Kathryn Gunnarsson

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.