Arm CEO Rene Haas named as a new NED at AstraZeneca

Haas' appointment was nodded through alongside that of Birgit Conix, who is to become a member of the Audit Committee on appointment to the Board. She is Chief Financial Officer of Sonova.

Also elected to the board was Karen Knudsen, Chief Executive Officer of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy. She was formerly Chief Executive Officer of American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. She is the first woman to hold that position in either organisation.

Michel Demaré, Chair of AstraZeneca, said “I am confident Rene and Birgit will be excellent additions to the AstraZeneca Board. We look forward to welcoming them as we continue the process of refreshing the Board in anticipation of four current Non-Executive Directors reaching nine years’ tenure in the coming years.

“Rene brings deep and broad knowledge of technology including data science, computing and AI from his numerous years’ experience in the microprocessor, semiconductor and software engineering industry, and experience of leading a large Cambridge, UK-based technology company.

“Birgit’s financial and executive experience through successive CFO roles over the last decade, together with her 15 years’ experience of the pharmaceutical industry prior to that, will enable her to contribute to the Audit Committee’s and Board’s work from the outset.

“Both Rene and Birgit bring to AstraZeneca’s Board significant international experience in senior executive roles at large global businesses.”

Rene joined Arm in October 2013 as Vice President of Strategic Alliances and two years later was appointed to the Executive Committee and named Arm’s Chief Commercial Officer in charge of global sales and marketing.

He was appointed Chief Executive Officer and to the Arm Board in February 2022. In September 2023, he led Arm’s return to the public markets with the most valuable IPO of the year.

Prior to becoming CEO, Rene was President of Arm’s IP Product Groups (IPG) from January 2017. Under his leadership, he transformed IPG to focus on key solutions for vertical markets with a more diversified product portfolio and increased investment in the Arm software ecosystem.

Before joining Arm, Rene held several applications management, applications engineering and product engineering roles, including seven years at NVIDIA as Vice President and General Manager of its computing products business. Prior to NVIDIA, Rene held executive roles at Scintera Networks and Tensilica.

In addition to his role as CEO of Arm, Rene also sits on the Boards of Arm China and SoftBank Group.

Rene is based in Silicon Valley, US and also spends significant time in the major technology centres of the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Clarkson University and is a graduate of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business Executive Education Program.

AstraZeneca, listed on both sides of the Atlantic, is a science-led biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the discovery, development and commercialisation of prescription medicines in Oncology, Rare Diseases, and BioPharmaceuticals, including Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism, and Respiratory & Immunology.

Headquartered at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, AstraZeneca medicines are sold in more than 125 countries and used by millions of patients worldwide.