Just a few months into Bill Anderson's tenure as Bayer's CEO, the helmsman is reportedly looking to trim the drugmaker's management ranks.
Anderson is looking to usher in big changes at Bayer, but first he wants to show investors he's ready to act quickly, Reuters reports, citing three people "familiar with the matter." To that end, he's plotting management job cuts as a first step, according to the news service.
The CEO will reportedly present the initial plans at an upcoming internal strategy meeting. A Bayer spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Two of Reuters' sources identified Bayer's strategy head Oliver Kohlahaas as one victim of the overhaul. Kohlahaas has been with Bayer since 2007 and became head of strategy in 2018.
On Friday, Kohlahaas announced his last day at Bayer in a LinkedIn post. He now lists his work title as “in transition. " He went on to thank former CEO Werner Baumann and said Anderson will lead the company to "success."
"The path you have ahead is totally worth taking,” Kohlahaas wrote in the post, addressing "#teambayer."
Bayer tapped Anderson, a Roche vet, as its CEO earlier this year. With the appointment, he was immediately placed at the center of a debate about whether the conglomerate should spin off its consumer health or crop science divisions.
Upon announcing his new gig at Bayer, Anderson said in a LinkedIn post that he couldn’t wait to “unleash the company’s full potential.”
Two months before his official start date in June, Anderson told reporters that he would spend the next two months “listening” and would have “an open mind” to the options.
The changes at Bayer come as the company is reporting declining sales and looking to new areas for growth. In the second quarter, Bayer reported a 14% sales slide from the same period last year. Crop science sales fell by 24%, while pharma revenues declined by 5%.
The company previously slashed its 2023 revenue forecast by 2.5 billion euros ($2.7 billion) and now expects annual sales to come in between 48.5 billion euros and 49.5 billion euros ($53 billion to $54.1 billion).