Bavarian Nordic Announces Appointment of Paul Chaplin, PhD as President & CEO

Bavarian Nordic A/S has announced that Paul Chaplin, PhD has been appointed new President and CEO of the company. He replaces Anders Hedegaard who has served in this position since 2007. Mr Hedegaard leaves the company to join GN ReSound A/S as CEO.

Prior to joining Bavarian Nordic in 1999, Dr Chaplin worked in vaccine research with the Institute for Animal Health in UK and CSIRO, the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology in Australia. In 2000, he was appointed head of research and in 2004 he was appointed Executive Vice President. Amongst others things, he has led the development programme for the Imvamue smallpox vaccine as well as been responsible for the successful collaboration on this and other vaccines with the US Government throughout the years. Since 2010 he has held the position as Division President, Infectious Diseases. Under his leadership, Bavarian Nordic received its first product approval in 2013. 

Gerard van Odijk, chairman of the board of Bavarian Nordic said: "Paul Chaplin is the ideal person to lead our company at this time. As a member of our executive management team for over a decade, Paul has demonstrated excellent results and leadership at Bavarian Nordic. From his work in early research and development, to building our large-scale manufacturing infrastructure, managing government contracts and optimizing operations in our infectious disease division, and turning it into a profitable business, we welcome the opportunity to have Paul as our CEO. On behalf of the board, I would also like to express our sincere appreciation to Anders Hedegaard for his leadership throughout the last seven years. Anders has succeeded in transitioning Bavarian Nordic from a research focused biotech to an integrated biopharmaceutical company with a solid focus on organizational development and optimization. This has created a strong commercial and scientific foundation for further growth. We would like to thank Anders for his significant contribution to the company's development and we wish him all the best in his new CEO position in one of the leading life science companies in Denmark."

Paul Chaplin, President and CEO of Bavarian Nordic said: "I am very excited about my new role and the opportunity to lead Bavarian Nordic further on the growth track of commercial and clinical success that we have seen to date. We have developed into a fully-fledged, integrated business, ready to maximize the potential of new vaccines and cancer immunotherapies in the pipeline, which hold great promise."

As part of the management changes, Executive Vice President and CFO Ole Larsen will become registered manager with the Danish Business Authority.

Paul Chaplin will assume the position as President and CEO with immediate effect. He will be assisted by Anders Hedegaard over the next few weeks to ensure a smooth transition.