Merz Aesthetics, the world’s largest dedicated medical aesthetics business, today announced the appointment of Karl Kokrhoun as Chief Financial Officer, effective May 4, 2020. As part of the company’s recent reorganization, Mr. Kokrhoun will join the global leadership team and will be responsible for financial reporting, governance and strategic planning as well as driving systems and process automation.
“Karl brings nearly three decades of international experience as a strategic healthcare leader across a variety of financial and business roles and will be a great addition to our diverse and international executive leadership team,” said Bob Rhatigan, Global Chief Executive Officer of Merz Aesthetics. “Karl’s breadth of experience in financial planning and strategy will allow us to leverage our resources to provide even more of the innovative and customer-centric treatments Merz is known for.”
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 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.
“In the midst of my excitement to join Merz Aesthetics, I recognize our world, industry, employees and customers currently face many challenges associated with COVID-19,” said Mr. Kokrhoun. “Although initially virtual, I’m looking forward to joining a team of medical aesthetics industry veterans and for the opportunity to use my global finance experience to help strengthen the world’s largest dedicated medical aesthetics business during this difficult time and beyond.”
Mr. Kokrhoun is relocating from Switzerland to be based in Raleigh, N.C. and will report directly to the global chief executive officer of Merz Aesthetics, Bob Rhatigan.