About

Marieke Jansen is the general counsel of PHC Group for the EMEA and APAC region, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange since October 2021, and for Ascensia Diabetes Care globally. As general counsel, she heads the legal, compliance, and data protection functions for the EMEA and APAC regions (Ascensia Diabetes Care and Epredia), consisting of approximately 48 legal entities. PHC Group has around 9.500 employees globally, with products sold in 125 countries.

After joining PHC in this role in early 2022, Marieke has advised on multiple global M&A transactions, investments and other alliances for Ascensia and Epredia while supporting all aspects of the day-to-day running of the business and building a new team. She updated the data protection, legal and compliance processes for PHC together with her team. Furthermore, she reduced outside counsel spending significantly during her first year in this role by leveraging in-house expertise and negotiating fee arrangements with outside counsel.

Before joining PHC, Marieke worked at Novartis for the Cell and Gene Therapy business, where she was proud to support the launch of the first CART cell therapy in Europe. Before that, she worked in various global legal roles for Novartis and Sandoz —technical operations, global biosimilars, oncology injectables and anti-infectives — and Synthon, a biosimilar company in the Netherlands. She was always valued for her deep commercial understanding and clear, strategic advice. Marieke studied law at the University of Nijmegen and was admitted to the bar in the Netherlands.

Marieke is a proactive leader with a pragmatic approach. This is also the recommendation she would give anyone else in a legal function: Know the business you are in, be a true business partner and understand the impact of your advice. Only then will you be able to match the needs of the business with the appropriate risk level — something she would like to see more from legal professionals in general. Marieke always wanted to do something good, make a positive impact. Hence the healthcare industry was a logical choice. And to combine this with leading such a diverse and inclusive team is a great privilege.