Astellas to Appoint New CEO and President

Astellas announced an overhaul of its corporate management structure on Feb. 6, 2023. Among changes throughout the entire management chain, Naoki Okamura, Astellas’ current chief strategy officer and corporate executive vice-president, will take over as company CEO and president from Kenji Yasukawa. Yasukawa will stay on with the company as representative director and chairman of the board.

According to a company press release, after bottoming out in 2020, revenue has been on an upward trend; this change is an aggressive move to further accelerate company growth. It follows a transition in a business model that created products with a focus on specific disease areas to one that determines R&D areas from a “multifaceted perspective.”

In addition to changes at the top, the company has also appointed Claus Zieler as chief commercial officer, Adam Pearson as chief strategy officer, and Minoru Kikuoka as corporate executive vice-president.