Amid an organizational reset, Bayer’s SVP and Global Head of Biotech Jens Vogel, Ph.D., has hit the exits after four years with the German pharma.
“After more than four years of leading and transforming the global biotech organization at Bayer, it’s time for me to move on and pursue new opportunities!” Vogel wrote in a June 11 LinkedIn post announcing his departure. “For the first time in my career, I am now taking a bit of a break, spending quality time with my family starting with a long trip through southeast Asia, before pursuing a new role.”
Vogel joined Bayer in March 2020, leading the company’s integrated global biotech network, including biologics development, operations and product supply, tech development and strategy functions across sites in the U.S. and Europe. Before that, Vogel had clocked in nearly 11 years at Boehringer Ingelheim across various leadership roles.
While Vogel didn’t cite any broader organizational changes as the reason behind his resignation, his departure comes amid a heavy-handed restructuring at the German pharma. Back in January, Bayer unveiled plans that have ultimately led to the elimination of more than 1,500 roles in the first three months of 2024. About two-thirds of the terminated positions are management roles.
The company generally doesn’t comment on colleagues’ departure decisions, a Bayer spokesperson told Fierce Biotech this morning. However, Bayer’s new Global Head of Biologics Manufacturing Tina Self confirmed in an interview that the head biotech role no longer exists amid Bayer’s redesign.
Self, who stepped into her new role June 1, was most recently vice president and site manager of Bayer Berkeley, a 46-acre site in California. She is also stepping in as the Berkeley campus’ site head, the first female leader to ever take on that role at Bayer.
The organizational redesign includes regrouping teams into “clusters,” with Self helming the “biologics manufacturing capability cluster.”
“We’ve moved from really just a technology base, where everything was aligned around the technology, to a capability base,” Self explained.
The new design for product supply started back in December 2023, Self said. The clusters are meant to bring together people with similar professional backgrounds and reduce bureaucracy and hierarchy within the company. The move is also aimed at boosting agility for the overall organization.
“Overall, our mission is really to provide excellent, cost-effective, reliable and high-quality manufacturing of all the biopharmaceuticals for our patients,” Self summed up.