Leadership

Bob Rhatigan is the CEO of Merz Aesthetics where he leads company strategy and operations to earn the confidence of our customers worldwide and to help facilitate their success. Bob most recently served as CEO of Merz Americas before leading the organizational transformation to create Merz Aesthetics, the largest dedicated medical aesthetics business globally. An industry veteran with more than 20 years of medical aesthetics experience, he has helped redefine the future of aesthetic medicine.

Bob has a proven track record of championing successful business leadership, building strong teams and developing leading brands in the medical aesthetics and consumer arena. Before joining Merz in 2017, he spent 17 years at Allergan where he completed his tenure as the General Manager and Chief Executive of SkinMedica®. He also served as Senior Vice President (SVP) of Allergan’s Facial Aesthetic business, where he led the launches and marketplace success of BOTOX® Cosmetic, JUVÉDERM® and LATISSE® in the United States.

In addition to his experience in medical aesthetics, Bob has extensive leadership and product launch experience across neurosciences, medical dermatology and eye care. Prior to Allergan, he spent nine years at Procter & Gamble in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility in sales and marketing.

In 2019, Bob was named a PharmaVOICE 100 award winner and the “Top Aesthetics CEO” by Aesthetic Everything for the third consecutive year. He is often selected to speak on top industry panels in addition to being featured on numerous podcasts and in business and trade publications as one of the luminaries of the aesthetics industry. Bob resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his wife, Judy, and their rescued Labrador retrievers.

Ms. Coelho joined Merz in November 2009 and currently serves as Chief Administrative Officer for Merz Aesthetics. As part of administration, Ms. Coelho leads the following departments: corporate communications, organizational development, learning and development, human resources and fleet and facilities operations.

She has more than 31 years of experience in the healthcare industry, with more than 22 of those years focused on sales leadership, commercial operations and human resources in specialty pharmaceuticals.
Prior to joining Merz, Ms. Coelho spent nine years at Johnson and Johnson in various sales leadership roles of increasing responsibility. Before her career in specialty pharmaceuticals, she held various management roles with Marriott Healthcare Services. Most recently, she served at Vice President of CORE Services for Merz North America.

Ms. Coelho holds a master’s degree in pharmaceutical marketing from St. Joseph’s University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Carolina.

Mr. Edwards is Chief Legal Counsel for Merz Aesthetics and provides legal counsel on global operations and business strategy.

Mr. Edwards is responsible for leading the ongoing operations of the global legal function and for advising management using a solution-oriented approach to address legal challenges and facilitate execution of the company’s business strategy. He collaborates with regional colleagues in providing legal counsel and support for global business development initiatives, including product development, acquisition and licensing arrangements, and ensures alignment of the legal function with global strategies.

Mr. Edwards’ life sciences experience spans over 20 years of serving as in-house counsel. He has extensive and diverse experience across the pharmaceutical and medical device industries, including biologics and cosmetic products.

Prior to this role, Mr. Edwards served as Assistant General Counsel at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where he provided legal counsel on numerous facets of GSK’s commercial business operations, including regulatory compliance, government financed and managed healthcare, FDA regulation of product promotion and development, business planning and risk management. He also served as Director of Public Policy in GSK’s corporate affairs department and was active in legislative advocacy and grass roots initiatives.

Prior to GSK, Mr. Edwards practiced for seven years at Smith Helms Mulliss & Moore, LLP, representing hospitals, healthcare systems and healthcare professionals on corporate, regulatory, reimbursement, financing and risk management. Most recently, he was Vice President and General Counsel for Merz North America.

Mr. Gumus is the Chief Marketing Officer for Merz Aesthetics. In this role, he leads the portfolio and brand marketing strategies to help Merz Aesthetics achieve its commercial targets and support the global vision.

Mr. Gumus has a strong track record in the aesthetics space and is one of the key employees Merz retained from the 2010 acquisition of BioForm Medical, Inc. to execute the company’s aesthetics strategy.

Prior to his role as head of global aesthetics marketing, Mr. Gumus led teams in Frankfurt, Germany; Geneva, Switzerland; and Mesa, Arizona, to successfully execute a number of campaigns and events, strengthen the pipeline, and reorganize the business to better collaborate with all four regional commercial functions at Merz. He has also served as the general manager for Merz in France, where he successfully grew revenues and transformed the business into sustained profitability.

Before joining Merz, Mr. Gumus was the Director of Business Development and Investor Relations at BioForm where he was responsible for investor relations, new business acquisitions and a variety of other sales and marketing initiatives. Mr. Gumus was a member of the initial public offering (IPO) team and played an active role in the ultimate sale of BioForm to Merz. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Marketing for Aesthetics for North America.

Mr. Gumus holds a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Kerr joined Merz in March 2020 as Chief Scientific Officer for Merz Aesthetics. In her role, Dr. Kerr is responsible for leading the R&D team, setting the scientific strategy and priorities, and overseeing and building the company’s research and development pipeline.

Dr. Kerr comes to Merz Aesthetics with nearly two decades of demonstrated success and leadership in medical aesthetics and healthcare across a variety of scientific and business leadership roles. She previously served as the Vice President, Global Area Head of Medical Aesthetics, Device at Allergan, where she oversaw the design, development and execution of global programs to gain product approvals, focusing on the US, EU, China and Japan. Previously at Allergan, Dr. Kerr was the Vice President Head of Development where she led the EMEA and Asia Pacific clinical operations team managing both pharma and device programs from early stage to launch readiness. Dr. Kerr joined Merz Aesthetics directly from TMC Pharma Services Ltd., where she served as Chief Operating Officer.

Mr. Kokrhoun joined Merz in May 2020 as Chief Financial Officer for Merz Aesthetics. In his role, he is responsible for financial reporting, governance and strategic planning as well as driving financial systems and process automation.

Mr. Kokrhoun comes to Merz Aesthetics from Novartis, where he served as the Global Head of Finance of the Biologics Technical Department. In this role, he oversaw the financial strategy for the Biologics Technical Department and played an active role as a core member of the Functional Leadership Team. Over the course of his nearly 28-year tenure at Novartis and Novartis-owned companies, Mr. Kokrhoun has acquired a broad range of experience and served in many financial roles of increasing responsibility, including as CFO of Vaccines and Diagnostics U.S. where he was essential in integrating Chiron into Novartis.

Mr. Kokrhoun earned his undergraduate degree in business administration from the Munich University of Applied Sciences.

Dr. Parrish leads the corporate development strategy and operations for Merz Aesthetics.

Since joining Merz in 2009, Dr. Parrish has worked in a variety of sales, marketing and business/corporate development roles, including an international assignment at Merz headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany.

Prior to joining Merz, Dr. Parrish was a consultant at Navigant Consulting (formerly Easton Associates) and a research scientist at Cephalon, Inc. (acquired by Teva Ltd.). Most recently, he led the skincare (Neocutis®), Asclera and inside sales teams, as well as the Merz customer service and project management functions for Merz North America.

Dr. Parrish holds a master’s degree from Cornell University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Phillips joined Merz in January 2018 and is the Chief Medical Affairs Officer for Merz Aesthetics. In this role, she leads the global medical affairs strategy, providing operational oversight to robust medical research, scientific engagement, publication and medical training and educational programs.

Dr. Phillips is widely recognized for her scientific, technical and business innovation expertise and has worked in and consulted for medical aesthetics organizations for more than 18 years. Prior to joining Merz, Dr. Phillips served as Vice President of Global Medical Affairs at Santen where she was responsible for the organizational design and build out of the company’s first Global Medical Affairs function. She previously held senior leadership roles at Allergan and most recently served as Vice President and Global Head of Medical Affairs (Therapeutic and Aesthetics) for Merz.

Dr. Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree from Bennett College and a Doctor of Medicine degree from Morehouse School of Medicine. She is dual board certified in Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine and General Pediatrics.

Dr. Wagner joined Merz Pharma in 2008 and since then has led the technical operations departments – first as Vice President on corporate level and since 2014 as Senior Vice President on global level.

In his role as Head of Global Technical Operations, his responsibility includes the overarching leadership of all production sites in Germany, Switzerland and the United States as well as central functions such as Global Supply Chain Management, Global Systems & Process Governance, Global Engineering, Global Contract Manufacturing, Global Quality and Global HSSE.

Prior to joining Merz, Dr. Wagner spent 20 years at Bayer Pharma AG (formerly Schering AG, Berlin). There he started as Lead of Scientific Working Group in the area of formulation development for oral dosage forms, then continuing as Head of Production Highly Potent Drugs. He progressed to Head of Department Oral Dosage Forms, before moving on to Head of Pharmaceutical Development.

Dr. Wagner holds a doctorate in Pharmacy Technology from the Freie Universität Berlin.

Mr. Brandt-Pollmann leads strategy and operations for the Merz Aesthetics business in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. Mr. Brandt-Pollmann joined Merz in September 2012 as Area Manager for Asia Pacific. A German national, he worked for Merz in both the headquarters in Frankfurt and Korea, then in Latin America in 2015 to lead the team in Brazil. Most recently, he served as the Area Vice President – Latin America for Merz from August 2018 to January 2020.

He brings over a decade of international pharmaceutical experience in both operations and commercial roles, along with a strong understanding of the Merz culture and employees. Prior to joining Merz, he spent nine years at Boehringer Ingelheim Mexico in sales, marketing and supply chain roles of increasing responsibility.

Mr. Brandt-Pollmann studied business administration (Diplom-Betriebswirt) at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz, Germany, and completed the Program of Leadership Development (PLD) at Harvard Business School in July 2018.

Mr. Mibelli leads strategy and operations for Merz Aesthetics in Latin America.

Mr. Mibelli joined Merz in August 2017 as General Manager for Colombia. With just over a year in the Colombian affiliate, his achievements include the successful build-up of a strong and diverse team, the positive repositioning of Merz in the Colombian market and a clear definition of key strategies and priorities, all of which resulted in sustained sales growth, exceeding expectations and market growth.

In March 2019 Mr. Mibelli was appointed General Manager of Merz Mexico where he was able to successfully turnaround the business, transforming its culture and delivering strong results through a people and client-oriented strategy. In January 2020, he was appointed President for Latin America.

Prior to joining Merz, Mr. Mibelli held different regional and local roles of increased responsibility in commercial (sales and marketing), supply chain and strategy in both Europe and Latin America with AstraZeneca. He brings more than 15 years of experience in a diverse range of businesses and functions in multiple international markets and a clear track record of developing successful teams.

Mr. Mibelli earned an MBA from The Wharton School – University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, USA) and holds a degree in economics from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (Caracas, Venezuela).

Mr. Siow leads strategy and operations for the Merz Aesthetics business in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Siow brings 20 years of experience in leadership, marketing, sales and market entry in Asia, as well as experience managing and growing prescription medication, medical device and self-treatment consumer brand businesses.

Mr. Siow’s professional experience includes serving as General Manager for Mundipharma, South East Asia, Vice President for Stiefel Laboratories Asia Pacific and work with Abbott Medical Optics and Abbot Laboratories. Before entering the pharmaceutical industry, Mr. Siow worked in advertising for DMB&B Vietnam and OXM. He joined Merz Asia Pacific in November 2013.

Mr. Siow earned his bachelor’s degree in administration marketing and his Master of Business Administration at California State University, San Francisco.

Mr. Urban leads the North America region in strategy and operations for Merz Aesthetics.

Mr. Urban is committed to driving commercial success by taking ownership of the customer experience and leading the aesthetics team to deliver trusted results. He is a visionary leader and with more than 20 years of experience in operations and sales planning strategic campaigns, closing major accounts, mentoring personnel to greater productivity, targeting market segments, and optimizing procedures.

Prior to joining Merz in July 2016, Mr. Urban spent seven years at Ulthera, where he held the roles as Eastern Regional Sales Director, Director of National Sales, and Vice President of U.S. Sales. As the Vice President of U.S. Sales for Ulthera, Mr. Urban managed six regional sales directors and a national practice manager, overseeing all aspects of the sales division of Ulthera.

Prior to his career with Ulthera, Mr. Urban served as a National Sales Manager for LifeSync Corporation. In this role, he helped build and launch a market for the LifeSync Wireless ECG System in the U.S. Most recently, he served Merz as Chief Commercial Officer for Merz North America.

Mr. Urban holds a bachelor’s degree from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Loyola University.