Angus Russell
Pro-Chancellor, your Excellency, distinguished friends, colleagues, graduands and guests.
As Chief Executive Officer of Shire plc, Angus Russell is leading one of the most successful and admired global biopharmaceutical companies in the world. Shire has emerged over the last decade as a company fully focused on its purpose of enabling people with life-altering conditions to lead better lives.
Born in Forres in Scotland in 1956, to parents who had met in the Navy during World War Two, Angus was christened in the ship’s bell of the base where his parents were located. When he was three years old, the family moved south to Coventry, where Angus attended Finham Infants and Junior Schools. He finished his schooling at Bablake School, during which time he was also a chorister at Holy Trinity Church, singing once or twice in this very cathedral.
His initial plan was to study architecture, but at that time the job market for architects was not promising and after taking advice and doing some research he opted instead for accountancy. He began his studies on a foundation course at what was then the Lanchester Polytechnic and gained his professional qualification as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Having worked for a few years with Price Waterhouse Coopers, he was eager to start his business career and took a job in Cheshire with ICI’s Pharmaceutical Division. After working in both the Pharmaceuticals Division and the Petrochemicals and Plastics Division, he was offered the chance to move out of finance and into a sales and marketing role. This led to a promotion to the head office in London to become a member of the company’s treasury team. In this role he was responsible for financing ICI's operations in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent as well as financing the company's long-term debt.
When ICI decided to split the company, Angus was asked to work on the project to create a new company, Zeneca PLC. On completion of this project, he went with the new company as Group Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations. The experience of creating this new company was to stand him in good stead when Zeneca began negotiations for a merger with the Swedish pharmaceutical company, Astra, to form AstraZeneca, the fourth biggest pharmaceutical company in the world at that time. Angus became Vice President of Corporate Finance for AstraZeneca, and negotiated a merger of their agrochemical business with the Swiss company Novartis' agrochemical business, to form a new public company, Syngenta, the largest agrochemical business in the world.
In 1999 he was headhunted to join Shire as Chief Financial Officer. Since then he has served as a key member of Shire’s leadership team and helped to transform this once small UK-based pharmaceuticals company through an exciting period of expansion and diversification. In 2008 Angus became the Chief Executive Officer of Shire. Having grown significantly over the past two decades through a series of strategic acquisitions, Shire today is a dynamic company that develops and commercializes medicines and treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, human genetic therapies, gastrointestinal diseases, and regenerative medicine among other emerging therapeutic areas. With more than five thousand employees in twenty-nine countries and revenues of over four billion dollars, it is now the thirty-fifth biggest company in the UK.
He is married to his wife Nadine, whom he met while she was also working at Shire in the Canadian subsidiary in Montreal. A cycling enthusiast, Angus has ridden in several charitable cycling events. A man with wide-ranging interests, he collects art, antiques and classic cars. His passion for architecture was finally fulfilled when he and his wife decided three years ago to demolish their house in Florida and rebuild it in the style of a modern day Frank Lloyd-Wright home.
He is actively engaged with several community causes, as well as serving on the board of the biotechnology company InterMune, Inc., and is a fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Angus will retire as Chief Executive Officer of Shire at the end of April next year after thirty two years in the pharmaceutical industry and thirteen years at Shire.
In recognition of his outstanding services to global commerce, Coventry University, by decision of the Academic Board, has the privilege of conferring the Degree of Doctor of Business Administration, honoris causa, on Angus Russell.