Our Management Board currently consists of seven members. The international composition and the varied responsibilities reflect our global operations.
Rice Powell
Chairman
Rice Powell is Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Management Board effective January 1, 2013. Prior to that, he was Vice Chairman of the Management Board and Member of the Management Board responsible for the region North America from 2010 to 2012. He joined Fresenius Medical Care in 1997 and was appointed to the company's Management Board and Co-CEO of Fresenius Medical Care North America in January 2004. He has over 36 years of experience in the health care industry. From 1978 to 1996, he held various positions, among others at Baxter International Inc. and Biogen Inc. in the U.S.
Helen Giza was appointed Chief Financial Officer effective November 01, 2019. Prior to that she has been Chief Integration and Divestiture Management Officer at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Before joining the Takeda Corporate Executive Team, she served as Chief Financial Officer of Takeda’s U.S. business unit since 2008. Prior to that she held a number of key international finance and controlling positions, amongst others at TAP Pharmaceuticals and Abbott Laboratories. Helen Giza is a U.K. Chartered Certified Accountant and holds a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, U.S.
Dr. Katarzyna Mazur-Hofsäß was appointed Chief Executive Officer for EMEA effective September 1, 2018. Since 2013 she was president for EMEA at the med-tech company Zimmer Biomet. In her 25 years of professional career Katarzyna has gained extensive international experience in executive general management positions. She is a physician by educational background and holds a Ph.D. from Gdansk Medical University in Poland, as well as an MBA from the Warsaw School of Economics and the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Olaf Schermeier was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Global Research and Development on March 1, 2013. Previously, he served as president of global R&D for Draeger Medical, Lübeck, Germany. Dr. Schermeier has many years of experience in various areas of the health care industry, among others at Charité-clinic and Biotronik, Germany. He holds a doctorate degree (PhD) in Computer Science from the Technical University of Berlin, Germany and graduated from the University of Hannover, Germany in Electrical Engineering.
William Valle was appointed Chief Executive Officer for North America effective February 17, 2017. Prior to that, he was Executive Vice President responsible for the dialysis service business and vascular access business of Fresenius Medical Care North America from 2014 to 2017. Bill joined Fresenius Medical Care in 2009 and has nearly 30 years of experience in the dialysis industry, holding executive positions in sales, marketing and business development at several dialysis companies including Gambro Healthcare, Inc.
Kent Wanzek was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Global Manufacturing, Quality and Supply on January 1, 2010. From 2004 onwards, he was in charge of North American operations for the Renal Therapies Group at Fresenius Medical Care North America. Prior to joining the company in 2003, he held several senior executive positions at Philips Medical Systems, Perkin Elmer and Baxter Healthcare Corporation, among others.
Harry de Wit was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Asia-Pacific on April 1, 2016. He has worked in various areas in the medical device industry for over 25 years. Previously, he served as President Asia at Covidien (now Medtronic) in Singapore. He holds a Master’s degree in Medicine from the VU University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands and a Bachelor’s of Science in Physiotherapy from the School of Physiotherapy of Den Bosch, Netherlands.
